Letter from Spain #62
The 'least American', Spanish-speaking Pope
So, we have an American Pope who can speak Spanish. Along with English, Pope Leo XIV also speaks Italian, French and Portuguese, and he can read Latin and German, too - but let’s just focus on the Spanish for now.
He speaks Spanish because of his dual citizenship - American and Peruvian - having been born in Chicago, and later serving as a bishop in Peru for nearly a decade, first in Trujillo and then in Chiclayo, where he embraced the local culture and language.
He loves deep-pan pizza and playing Wordle, considers himself modestly as ‘quite the amateur tennis player’, and he has a deep passion for football and baseball. In Peru, he supported Alianza Lima. In Italy, he supports Roma. But for baseball, he’s a Chicago White Sox fan (not a Cubs fan as first reported) - and he even watched them win the World Series in 2005.
Despite being an American, Robert Prevost had became known within the Vatican as the ‘least American’ of US cardinals before he became Pope Leo XIV last Thursday. The ‘least American’ Pope who then suddenly spoke some Spanish during his first address in St.Peter’s Square. I found that very interesting.
Before that address, US President Donald Trump had congratulated Leo on social media. ‘It is such an honour to realise that he is the first American Pope,’ he wrote. ‘What excitement, and what a Great Honour for our Country. I look forward to meeting Pope Leo XIV. It will be a very meaningful moment!’
And then Leo goes out onto the balcony, waves to the crowd, and speaks some Spanish …
Some commentators have said that the new pope’s dual nationality ‘shows a broader global perspective he brings to the papacy’, as well as his choice of the papal name ‘Leo XIV’. The last pope to carry the name, Pope Leo XIII, was well known for focusing on issues such as poverty, workers’ rights and social justice.
And so Leo, of course, was not Trump’s first choice for pope.
Other than suggesting that he (He?), Donald himself (me, me, me), might want to be pope with a photoshopped image of himself in papal vestments, the president had previously suggested another American: Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, a perceived ally who gave a reading at his second inauguration … and who presumably speaks no Spanish at all. Fortunately, however, Donald (me, me, me) isn’t the one who chooses the pope.
From what I’ve read and heard, the USA under Trump is not exactly in love with the Spanish language. And if you’re a Venezuelan with a Real Madrid tattoo - or rather, a tattoo featuring a crown over a football which, according to US authorities, also signifies an affiliation with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua - then you could end up in an orange boiler suit and chains for a decade at El Salvador’s maximum-security prison with your head shaved.
Don’t even say ‘Hola!’ to any US customs official if you’re heading over there, as you could be detained and deported under the Alien Enemies Act, ‘an 18th-century wartime law invoked by the Trump administration to expedite deportations of individuals deemed threats to national security’. You think I’m kidding? OK, maybe I’m exaggerating, but have you seen the Netflix movie, Upon Entry?
Since February 2025, the Spanish-language version of the White House website has been removed. Shortly after Trump’s second inauguration, the administration removed what was previously located at whitehouse.gov/es/. The Spanish-language social media accounts were also deactivated. All this despite the Latino community’s decisive support for his victory.
The White House stated that the removal was part of a ‘broader website redesign’ during the transition and expressed a commitment to restoring the Spanish-language section - but so far, it has not been reinstated (I just checked and I couldn’t find it).
Earlier this year, speaking at an event in Madrid organised by the Cervantes Institute, (a public institution created by Spain in 1991 to universally promote the teaching, study and use of Spanish and contribute to the dissemination of Hispanic cultures abroad), Spain’s King Felipe VI criticised the Trump administration for its decision to eliminate Spanish from their official communications, website and social networks, describing the move as ‘striking’.
Felipe also highlighted that the number of Spanish speakers in the US would reach 100 million by 2050.
Fortunately Trump has been unable to stop one of them becoming the new pope.
If you’re interested, I was back on Talk Radio Europe again on Wednesday, chatting about the news from Spain with Giles Brown. Here’s the clip from Weds 7 May:
Books, Reviews, Research, News & Events
The Madrid Connection … coming this autumn
‘The Madrid Connection’, the sequel to ‘The Barcelona Connection’, will be published this autumn, and I already have two dates in the calendar in Madrid and Barcelona to launch it. I will post further details about these events, the book - and how to pre-order it - over the summer months.
The Barcelona Connection - Research & development for the screen
Development for the screen: ‘The Barcelona Connection’ is currently in development as a film, and I hope I will be able to post further news about this here in due course.
Research: In my weekly ‘Letter from Spain’ from #7 right up to #42, I included notes about all the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection. Many of the posts include photos and descriptions of locations that appear in the book, from Nîmes, Figueres, Cadaqués, La Bisbal d’Empordà and, of course, many areas of Barcelona. There are also posts about Salvador Dalí’s Hallucinogenic Toreador and ‘The Face’, the Dalí Museum in Figueres, the Picasso Museum and MNAC in Barcelona, even Girona Airport and nearby motorway service station - as well as the G20 Spouse Party, museum visits and ‘art attacks’. I hope the notes about the research are of interest … and I hope you might buy, read and take The Barcelona Connection with you to some of the locations that appear in the book! If you do, please send me a photo and I’ll post it here …
The Barcelona Connection - Book & Reviews
A murder. A kidnapping. A lost Salvador Dalí painting. Just 36 hours to resolve all three. Every crime scene is a work of art …
Benjamin Blake is no ordinary detective. Specialising in the criminal underworld of stolen and forged art, things don’t always go the right way for Benjamin. But when they don’t, he has a stubborn determination to put them right.
Within hours of being sent to Barcelona to authenticate a possible Salvador Dalí painting, Benjamin is left stranded without his cell phone at a service station alongside a bloody corpse in the early hours of the morning, after being savagely attacked with his hire car stolen, together with the painting.
Helped and hindered by the fiery Elena Carmona, pursued by a psychopathic hitman, Benjamin becomes the prime suspect in a politically motivated kidnap and murder. All this on the eve of Barcelona hosting a G20 summit and UN climate change conference, with the police in hot pursuit fearing a wider terrorist threat.
From Nîmes in the South of France, across the border to the sweltering humidity of Girona, Barcelona, Figueres and Cadaqués, The Barcelona Connection is a fast-paced, gripping page-turner sprinkled with black comedy, blending the real with the surreal, art crime and mistaken identity … and where the clues at the crime scene might just be the mirror image of a long-lost work of art …
If you can’t locate a copy of The Barcelona Connection in your local store, it can be ordered from any bookshop simply by giving the ISBNnumber: 978-1-7393326-1-7.
It is also available in print or as an eBook via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or you can also click here to choose where else to order your copy from.
Click here for the latest reviews on Amazon and on Goodreads.
A review by Michael Eaude of The Barcelona Connection was published in the October 2023 edition of Catalonia Today.
‘Short, fast-moving scenes and the deft joining of two completely different plots … the novel is not just breathlessly rapid and action-packed, but overflows with humour and satire.’
‘The excellent plotting, the local knowledge, the surreal humour, the political satire and the speed of events … it’s an admirable and very readable crime novel.’
A review by Dominic Begg of The Barcelona Connection was published in La Revista, a publication of the British-Spanish Society.
‘The Barcelona Connection is a fast-moving page-turner with a helter-skelter plot.’
‘The background to this thriller is realistic and familiar to those who know Barcelona well. It’s a world of cynical, ambitious politicians; civil servants promoted via enchufe; friction between Spanish and Catalan investigators; disruptive anti-capitalist activists; bumbling US dignitaries and security guards; the continuing influence of old supporters of Franco; the soulless 21st century, exemplified by apartment hotels seemingly without human staff-members …’
Here’s a link to a review of the book by Eve Schnitzer published by the Spain in English online newspaper.
‘Tim Parfitt very cleverly weaves together two parallel though quite different stories, set against the background of a contemporary Barcelona that is even busier than usual with major international meetings.’
‘Two plot lines interweave, with some highly ironic as well as suspenseful results … this book has a lot to offer the reader, from pure entertainment to solid information and, possibly, a fuller understanding of the complexities of Spain and Catalonia in particular.’
Here’s the link to an article I was asked to write for The Art Newspaper about my research on Salvador Dalí.
A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid - Book & Reviews
Eighteen years since it was originally published, ‘A Load of Bull - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid’ has been re-issued with a new introduction, new cover and five extra chapters that were cut from the original book.
It is available in print and as an eBook worldwide, in both formats. You can also order the new paperback or digital edition via Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or the digital version on Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, or on many other platforms by clicking here.
If you’ve never read the book, I hope you will now acquire a copy and laugh out loud. If you did read and enjoy the original edition, I think you’ll love this new edition with additional chapters! More details about the book and links to many reviews are below.
As with previous posts showing images and locations that form part of the research I carried out for The Barcelona Connection novel (above), I am also planning to publish an archive of photos here of Madrid that relate to many chapters in ‘A Load of Bull’ - although it will take time! In Letter from Spain #52, I cover Chapter 1 - the Centro Colón aparthotel (entrance) Watch this space for further images …
A LOAD OF BULL - An Englishman’s Adventures in Madrid
The hilarious true story of an Englishman sent to Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue …
In the late eighties Tim Parfitt blagged his way into a job at Condé Nast in London and from there into a six week stint in Madrid to help launch Spanish Vogue. Six weeks turned into nine years, and helping out turned into running the company. Along the way, Tim Parfitt discovered the real 'real' Spain. He never saw a Costa and he certainly never bought an olive grove. Instead, he discovered a booming city in hedonistic reaction to years of fascism, where sleep was something you only did at work and where five hour lunches invariably involved a course of bull's testicles.
Tim Parfitt's rise from unwanted guest to paparazzi-pursued mover in Spain's glamorous social scene is a hilarious comedy of errors. Frothing with a language designed to make foreigners dribble, hospitalised by tapa-induced flatulence and constantly frustrated by the unapproachable beauty of the women parading through the Vogue offices, he nevertheless falls in love with a city, a country and its people - despite the fact he hasn't a clue what they're on about.
You can click here for all the reviews of A Load of Bull on Amazon, as well as on Goodreads.
Links to newspaper and magazine reviews:
‘A hugely entertaining memoir ... frequently laugh-out-loud funny.’ (The Daily Express)
‘Parfitt is no ordinary Englishman … his light touch and neat line in self-deprecating humour perfectly suits this entertaining urban spin on the old tale of Brits having fun under the Spanish sun.’ (The Sunday Times)
‘A love letter to Madrid ... brilliantly captures a truly eccentric and hedonistic place.’ (The Daily Mirror)
‘Often hilarious ... a side-splittingly funny travel memoir.’ (BBC Online)
‘Vivid yet affectionate … fascinating, escapist stuff.’ (OK! Magazine)
‘Magnificent ... brilliant and moving, hilarious and truthful.’ (La Vanguardia)
‘Don't miss it … Madrid through the eyes of an Englishman.’ (Vogue España)
Spanish edition
A Load of Bull was also published in Spanish under the title, Mucho Toro - las tribulaciones de un inglés en la movida. Click here or on image below for the current eBook version.
Contact Details
You can email me at: tim.parfitt@hotmail.co.uk