Francheska
Melendez
The Archive
Travel
Crest of a wave
Konfekt (Summer 2023)
Surfing instructor Serena Vaquerizo is the picture of joyful self-assurance as she manoeuvres swells under the early morning sun on Praia do Castelejo, one of 31 beaches that line the Costa Vicentina, which stretches along Portugal’s Atlantic coast.
Small town, big city
Monocle (May 2022)
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.
Artists' muse
Konfekt (Spring 2022)
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.
Regional ally
Monocle (September 2021)
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.
Tenerife turnaround
Konfekt (Autumn 2021)
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…
Where the coast is clear
Konfekt (Summer 2021)
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…
Essay
Do people make places or places make people?
Sablos (Summer 2023)
“I want my ashes sprinkled here. Bring them here, when I die,” says my father, gesturing with open arms towards the turquoise shore as I juggle two overflowing beach bags. I deliver a quick sideways glance to my husband as my six-year-old son zips away on his scooter.
Turning the tide
Swim & Sun: A Monocle Guide (August 2023)
Jumping off a seven-metre-high cliff into the sea is not the best idea if you have any doubts about your swimming abilities. When I emerged on the rocky cove, soaking wet, hair matted with seaweed and gasping for air, my then-boyfriend said to me with a frantic smile, “But don’t you feel alive?”
Fire Starter
Konfekt (Winter 2022/23)
Four winters ago, I viewed an apartment a few steps from the forest on the slopes of Spain’s central mountain range. I gazed out of the windows onto the valley below, snowflakes gently lacing the boughs of the pines – this was it. When I learnt that the place had a wood stove as its primary heat source, I was undeterred. My heart was set.
Culture
Bread winners
Monocle (June 2022)
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.
Design
Pedro García
Konfekt (Spring 2022)
“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.
News
A break in the chain (Co-byline)
Delayed Gratification (January 2023)
As you drive south from Valencia towards the Andalusian province of Almería the landscape transforms from verdant citrus groves to a scrubland of muted yellows. After a few hours a desert-like environment takes over and the first plastic-covered greenhouses begin to appear. This is the start of the mar de plastico or ‘plastic sea’, the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world. In 2022, the UK imported €618 million of fruit and vegetables from Almería: British consumption of Almería’s produce is second only to that of Germany, which imports over a billion euros worth of it a year.
After a Pandemic Hiatus, the Bulls Are Running Again in Pamplona (Co-byline)
The New York Times (July 2022)
For more than a week in the peak of summer, a sea of people dressed in red and white routinely cram the narrow, cobblestone streets of the northern Spanish city of Pamplona for the ceremonial running of the bulls, a heart-pounding, chaotic race that sometimes ends in severe injury or even death.