Dennis Hollingsworth

Marcelino Pan y Vino

Google is amazing. Simply amazing.

Our house is an old winery (cava, champagne) built in 1706. I see the stones in the walls and imagine what the people might have been like when they lifted them into place, what they were wearing, what the surroundings were like (a vinyard, I bet) so far out from the old walls of the fortified pueblo.

Various occupations included a butcher shop, then a tavern called "Can Marcelino" and then a restaurant called "Tito's, the people we bought it from five years ago. People in town routinely come up to us and tell us stories of their youth when this place was a living room for fishermen, sipping wine and roasting sardines in the fireplace with pan Catalan on the side. Firelight shining up on rustic faces and stories back and forth.

Usually, I would say "Tito's" and townsfolk would sing in response: "Marcelino Pan y Vino!".

As a lark, I typed "Marcelino Pan y Vino" into the search box and lo! This is what I found:

1. This movie poster.

Described as a masterpiece of classic Mexican cinema, this multi award winning film tells a deeply affecting story about the power of goodness. The use of strong symbolism and haunting imagery sets an undeniable mood: Marcelino, a boy who grows up in a monastery, prepares to eat his daily serving of bread. When he decides to give a statue of Jesus a piece of his small meal the statue accepts his offer and rewards him multifold.

3. It was a movie made in 1955:

This touching film tells the story of a lonely boy who finds solace and friendship in a picture of Christ.
As a baby, Marcelino was abandoned by his parents and placed on the steps of a Franciscan monastery. The friars find him there, and provide the child with food and shelter. Their kindness, however, does not prevent little Marcelino from desiring the friendship of other children. So when he finds an image of Jesus in the attic, his lively imagination transforms the inanimate object into a special friend.
Then Marcelino offers bread and wine to the icon... and suddenly Christ, stirred by the boy's gesture, comes to life...

UPDATE:
Someday, once information technology (computers) become ubiquitous (here, a post describing how it is already happening), a google type search will be at the within our reach/at the tip of our tongues -all the time.