Francheska Melendez

Writer

Born and raised in Manhattan. Based in Madrid.

I write travel and culture stories throughout the Iberian peninsula.

Monocle Magazine, June 2022
Bread Winners

In Spain, vestiges of the country’s civil war and subsequent dictatorship crop up in odd places, even bread-making. Loaves were rationed in Spain from 1939 to 1952, with wheat production remaining under state control until 1984. As a result, bread became contraband. In Madrid, the barra de pan, the equivalent of the French baguette, is still known colloquially as a pistola, or gun.

Monocle Magazine, May 2022
Small town, big city

Spain’s third-largest city seems like an unlikely place to connect with the spirit of Iberian rural life but Valencia is bursting with surprises. About two million people live in and around this coastal city of orange-tree-lined streets and, though it handles 20 per cent of Spain’s exports as one of Europe’s busiest ports, it maintains a warm connection with the Mediterranean.

Konfekt, Spring 2022
Artists’ Muse

Waking up is easy in Cadaqués. A morning’s swim next to a shoal of sea bream as they glint silver, blue and green in the sun has an effervescence that makes a café con leche seem like a needlessly blunt instrument. We sip one all the same on the shores of Platja del Ros, one of the many cove beaches in the traditional fishing village, where white sailing boats bob on the blue water.

Konfekt, Spring 2022
Fashion Profiles - Pedro García

“It is a huge advantage to have the factory downstairs and to access it directly,” says Pedro García, as he opens his studio door to let in the din of the factory floor below. Steam hisses, hammers bang and sewing machines whirr. This proximity enables García’s team to fit shoes in-house instead of having to wait for prototypes to come back from external manufacturers.

Monocle Magazine, Sept. 2021
Regional ally

In Galicia, a regular visitor to the small fishing village of Corrubedo has sown the seeds of a quiet revolution. Not only has fêted British architect David Chipperfield reopened and reimagined a neighbourhood bar that had been closed for 20 years, he has also launched a foundation that supports sustainable development in the area.

Konfekt, Autumn 2021
Tenerife turnaround

Notes of salsa and merengue music spill from speakers in passing cars and onto the pavements from the open doorways of shops and cafes on the streets of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. This Spanish-Atlantic outpost, 300km off the coast of West Africa, was first populated by the ancient Guanche people, thought to have arrived from North Africa two millennia ago…

Konfekt, Summer 2021
Where the coast is clear

It’s no mistake that one of Andalusia’s most common phrases is “Que arte tienes!” (You have such art!”). Much like a sporting “Bravo”, the exaltation is praise for a job well done and implies that no matter how quotidian the act, you can do it artfully. It’s a civic mantra in evidence on a Friday morning at Cadiz’ Mercado Central…

Amuleto

Here Press, 2020