Something on Calagary

My aunt Cecilia, one of my mom's four sisters, lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, since 2006.Today she wanted to share her favorite landmarks of the city: Calgary's Plus 15 System and Calgary Tower.

Calgary Plus 15 is a system of bridges and walkways located 15 feet above the ground that communicate the most important buildings in downtown Calgary. This public skywalk was designed to protect pedestrians from inclement weather during the long Canadian winter and to help reduce street’s crowding.  Plus 15 has 57 bridges and extends for 16 km, the equivalent in length to more than 159 football fields placed end-to-end. Plus 15 System was designed and built in the late 60's.

The Calgary Tower, originally Husky Tower, is an observatory located in Downtown Calgary, which rises 191 meters (626 feet) above street level.  It was built as a tribute to Canada's centennial.  Officially opened in 1968, it is a contemporary construction - and also is connected - with Plus 15 System. In 1988 a large natural gas-fired cauldron was constructed on its top, in which the Olympic flame shined during Calgary's Winter Olympics. This torch is nowadays lit only on special occasions, including Canada Day; recently was ignited during the Vancouver’s Olympic Games in 2010, celebrated again in Canada.

In the top's lower level it’s found the observation deck, which has a glass rotunda added in 1999, and a glass floor extension added on 2005. (When standing on the glass, one can look straight down on 9th Avenue South and Centre Street). On the upper level it counts with a souvenir shop and a revolving restaurant that could complete a 360 degree turn in 45 minutes, having the better views of Downtown Calgary.

Paris, je t’aime

My favorite place in Paris is Montmartre. Each time I go there I feel that I’m living in a movie, in a dream. There’s always a guy playing the guitar, singing songs that make me smile and remember beautiful moments.

Usually I like to go there before the sunset; I can assure one can see the most beautiful view of the city at this time. 

I love walking through Montmartre’s little streets as I appreciate the gifted painters, their ability to create art. I never forget to eat (the best onion soup I have ever tasted in my life), in typical little cafe. And off course, my day is not finished till I eat a ‘crepe nutella-banane’… then I can definitely say: ‘Paris, je t’aime”.

By: Isabella Vogeler

Isabella is my first cousin on my mother’s side; her mom is my mom’s sister. She also happens to be, curiously enough, my fifth cousin on my father’s side; her dad’s great-great-great grandfather is also my dad’s.

The Eldest

Aunt Pura is my great-aunt on my father’s side. She has 99 years of age. This automatically makes her the oldest relative I have alive.  

Tia Pura is the youngest of five sisters born in Valladolid, Spain, daughters of Fabiana Ascencio and Andres Valero. In 1935 the Valero family decided to immigrate to America, seeking a better future. They choose Havana, Cuba, as their new home, where they got installed and start working and producing. Nevertheless they didn’t get intergraded with the Cuban mainstream society, socializing mostly with Spanish immigrants, and marrying three of their daughters to the sons of these Spanish, except Carmina who married a doctor politically attached to the Cuban revolution.  Maruja married Luis Vallalta, born in Sitges, and had a son (who is my grandfather Luis); Pilar married Jose Ramon Mendez Fort and had two children, Edelma, and Jose Ramon, who married Anita, a beautiful mulatto woman. Tia Pura married Jesus Perez.

 Life was good in Cuba, but this quiet life, of peace and honest work, was interrupted by the Cuban revolution. Fidel Castro and his gang of Communists came to power in a coup d’état. The new government expropriated - without paying - the family property, land and full-productive factories.  Except Carmina, the Valero Ascencio sisters and their families were then forced to flee the island to Miami in a Red Cross ship, carrying as allowed baggage only what they were wearing. There is an anecdote about my Great-great-mother Fabiana, who was a slim and petite lady - and at the time was expecting his first great-grandson (my father); since they were not allowed to take luggage out of Cuba, she tried to hide four dresses, wearing them in one on top of the other. But the military government agents “caught her” and made her remove three ... Outrageous, isn’t it?  From Miami the family is dispersed throughout the world.

After this sad episode, aunt Pura returns to Madrid with her husband's family, and there they started over again. They didn’t have direct descendants.

Today she is 99 years-old and is already senile; she neither remembers nor recognizes us when we call her to say hello. Aunt Pura currently lives in a nursing home in Madrid, visited only by her husband's nephews who live nearby.

The youngest

The youngest of my family is my baby-girl cousin, born this year on January 23rd, in Caracas, Venezuela. Is the first-born daughter of my mom's younger sister, Ana Teresa Gomez Luciani, and her husband, José Francisco Rodriguez - "Uncle Paco" – Venezuelan (but his roots are Gallegos, from Galicia, Spain).  Despite being the smallest, she has a respectably big name: Ameliana Isabel de La Virgen del Valle.

Having this name has more than one reason: To begin the first name comes from the combination of the name of my aunt with the name of uncle Paco’s mom, Amelia. The second name comes from being a very expected and highly elusive baby; after many attempts, years and treatments, my uncles finally got pregnant, dedicating her daughter to Santa Isabel, biblical character whose pregnancy was also miraculous. But when she was less than 24 hours old, the baby began to suffer internal bleeding and therefore had to be translated to the intensive care unit in a much compromised state of health. My family is Catholic, devoted to the Virgin Mary in her title of Our Lady of the Valley, and our prayers for the recovery of Ameliana were heard. The girl is a constant overflow of joy, as if she understood the gift of life, and the love and tenderness that she awakens all around her.

 

The Luciani Eduardo

Luciani is a surname originally from Rome, Italy, while the surname Eduardo (Edwards) goes back to Dublin, Ireland. My great-grandfather on my mother’s mother side, Enrique Luciani Eduardo had six siblings. Today I want to introduce you three of these siblings because of their important role in Venezuelan society and life of last century.

(1881 - 1971) Lucila Luciani Eduardo was an extraordinary character, a woman with great civil values within an excessively militarized country. She was an intellectual lady inside a society of men, possessing a cosmopolitan culture and a feminist vein really ahead of her time. Lucila was the first woman who enters as an Individual Number in the Venezuelan Academy of History.

(1886 - 1979) Domingo Luciani Eduardo was a surgeon and teacher in Venezuela. After he graduated as a Doctor, he worked at the Civil Hospital of Caracas side by side with Dr. José Gregorio Hernandez.  Later he traveled to Europe where he specialized in Advanced General Surgery, Gynecology, Urology and Operative Medicine. After he returned to Venezuela and for over 40 years, Domingo was one of the most outstanding teachers of the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Central de Venezuela; his student often vied for top positions in the classroom to monitor his teaching methods.  For his legacy of education and health, he received numerous honors throughout his career.  Also the Eastern General Hospital of Caracas proudly bears his name.

(1894-1956) Jorge Luciani Eduardo was an outstanding essayist, historian, politician and diplomat.  As a student he strongly opposed the government of Juan Vicente Gomez for which he was imprisoned and tortured in "The Rotunda". After Gomez’s government falls, Jorge Luciani begins his diplomatic career, serving a democratic Venezuela as Council at Barcelona, Guayaquil, Amsterdam and Southampton.

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous

"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a single step”, uncertain phrase by Napoleon Bonaparte, used by my cousin Ana Cecilia every time she sees photos of her childhood and youth, spent by the beaches of her native Puerto La Cruz.
Ana Cecilia was born and raised in a little oil camp where her father worked, located in the Bay of Guanta, Venezuela.  Guanta is embedded in one of the most beautiful tropical areas of the world, Mochima National Park, which contains a number of Caribbean islands and beaches that are now only in her dreams. "When Friday arrived it was: shoes and clothes off, swimsuits on and go barefooted!" says Ana remembering her school days, rewarded by weekends full of rides with neighbors and friends in the family boat, heading to Chimana, Isla Grande, Playa El Saco, Puinare, Conoma, Isla El Faro among other beaches located in her backyard.
Due to political persecution by the current government of Venezuela upon her father and most of the workers of the national oil company of Venezuela PDVSA (with a single stroke of the pen, 21,000 of the most skilled oil workers of the world were fired) Ana Cecilia and her family had to emigrate to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  There her father can work in peace, and her family has been established. Ana is a student at the University of Calgary and they have a little house with an overlooking view of the Rocky Mountains. But when the temperature intensifies and reaches 40 °F below, and she is with a red nose, wrapped in coats, scarves and snow boots inside the house, she always looks with nostalgia her childhood photos in a bikini, and sighs: "from the sublime to the ridiculous "

My cousin Ana Cecilia Gomez Blesa lives, laughs and suffers in the city of Calgary, Canada; she is the daughter of my aunt Cecilia Gomez, sister of my mother.

The best dessert, they are from my grandmother

My grandmother, she bakes the best cakes, and sweets, and cookies…

I know, I know, this is the expected, the major cliché; exceedingly common for a person to say this.  Regardless, I believe this fact (that my grandma’s cakes are the most delicious) to be a valid subject to communicate in this post.

It’s not only me, but many other Venezuelan’s seem to think so as well, as she is a considerably popular pastry chef in the region. Besides to rub shoulders with the best chef in Caracas gourmet world, she had being special guest –numerous times - at renowned food TV programs, and her recipes had been published in more than one Magazine.  Her “dulcitos criollos” had won prizes in Paris’ Food Festivals and her Chocolate Cake had delighted tables from Germany to remote places as Australia.

As if not enough my “Abuela Gata”, as we grandchildren call her, has a very large philanthropic work, dedicating a big part of her life to charities, covering from being a volunteer nurse at the burned section of J.M. de los Rios, Caracas’ Children Hospital, to donate to “Fundacion Nuevo D.I.A.” – dedicated to assist low-income autistic children - all the profit of her book entitled “El divino placer de comer sabroso” (The divine pleasure of delicious eating).

My “Abuela Gata” is Carmen Elena Luciani Uribe, better known as "La Gata Luciani", born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, were she still works and resides. She is the mother of my mother.

By the way, her book is rightfully titled and it’s filled with truly the most delicious recipes. My Personal favorite is “Galletas con chocolate” (Cookies with chocolate), a wonderful and extremely easy to prepare dessert that I have enjoyed making – and eating - since I was very young. Today I’d like to share it with you.       

 

Galletas con Chocolate (10 a 12 portions)

Ingredients:

150 grams (5.5 oz.) of baking semisweet chocolate

A bit of milk

¼ Kg (9 oz.) of unsalted butter

200 g (7 oz.) of powdered sugar

4 eggs yolks

1 packet of “Galletas Maria”, traditional Spanish biscuits (it can be substituted with graham crackers).

 

Preparation:

1)      Simmer the chocolate with the milk, until it dissolves. Put it away to cool down.

2)      Using a mixer, cream the butter very well. Then add the powdered sugar and the egg yolks.

3)      Add the melted chocolate and mix well, to obtain a homogeneous cream.

4)      Break the “Galletas Maria” with your hands into big pieces and then incorporate them with the butter cream created previously, using a wooden spoon.

5)      Pour the mixture in a glass piece, previously greased. Places it in the freezer until is ready to eat (is better to leave it overnight).

6)      Divide it using a knife. Serve and enjoy!