The Department of Time: Separadas en el tiempo (Separated by Time)   First Watch 
June 6, 2018 10:06 AM - Season 2, Episode 10 - Subscribe

In the present, Irene looks into a mystery involving "Las Sinsombrero," a group of avant-garde women artists and activitsts who have been forgotten. In the course of her investigation, it is discovered that the Vampire of Raval was not arrested when she should have been. She is free, and may be traveling through time.

Notes (contain spoilers)

* Amelia's family maid Enriqueta turns out to be Barcelona's most notorious serial killer (30 years later) in this episode.

* Spanish Wikipedia on Las Sinsombrero. More here. (Also in Spanish). Google translate links: Wikipedia and Las Sinsombrero. They were 'a generation of women painters, poets, novelists, illustrators, sculptors and thinkers of immense talent who not only enjoyed national and international success but also through their art and activism challenged and changed the social and cultural norms of Spain in the 20s and 30s.'

* Enriqueta Marti Ripollés did exist. She was a notorious serial killer who kidnapped, killed, prostituted and sold children into slavery. She is nicknamed The Vampire of Raval after the neighborhood she kidnapped them from in Barcelona: El Raval. She was also known as The Vampire of Ponent Street and The Vampire of Barcelona.

* Back in the early 1920's, El Raval was a red-light district and Barcelona was "the center of pornography in Europe, exporting pornographic films and postcards to all around Europe and the Americas. Pornography and sex work were especially common in the Fifth District, and children were quite often forced to prostitution and sex trafficking. Children of the Fifth District in Barcelona were not only the victims of sex work but were often kidnapped and enslaved in sweatshops and ramshackle factories. It was common for children to disappear."

* 'Ripollés herself was a country girl who moved to Barcelona and worked for wealthy families. She eventually became the madam of her own brothel serving wealthy patrons. Apparently she also peddled 'miracle skin creams' to the rich ladies of Barcelona. Unbeknownst to them, the creams contained a very special ingredient: the body fat and blood of young children.'

* In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, a woman dressed as Ana de Mendoza, Princess of Eboli is walking in the Ministry, dressed in 16th century clothing and wearing an eyepatch.

* We learn that Salvador was a child of San Ildefonso. Salvador says that he was adopted at the age of 9 by diplomats -- an age when he though his adoption unlikely.

* The School of San Ildefonso is the oldest primary school in Madrid, attended by orphans of civil servants, children of immigrants and other children whose families can’t afford to pay for their education. The school's students are known for a tradition that has lasted more than two centuries and is now broadcast on television: they draw Spanish National Lottery numbers from a drum and sing them to the audience. The Christmas lottery drawing is quite popular in Spain; the children are interviewed in magazines and newspapers.

* The Time Door through which the young girl was abducted leads to 1986. There was an extensive child trafficking ring in Spain between the 1950's and 1980's. It's estimated that over 300,000 children were abducted (often from their family homes) and illegally put up for adoption.

* Ernesto's son's user name on YouTube is Nexus 6, a Blade Runner reference. We know that he's also the half brother of Tomás de Torquemada, but that isn't mentioned in the episode.

Correction
Amelia discovers her headstone has disappeared in this episode, not the previous one. My apologies for that error and spoiler.
posted by zarq (6 comments total)
 
That link about the modern child abduction is completely horrifying. Too many awful things in this episode for me.

Though I give it props for being explicit about middle class complicity in the desperate situation of the poor.
posted by glasseyes at 3:43 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


It took me three tries to get through this episode. I did not like watching it at all.

Creating this post gave me new appreciation for its layers, though. I did not know anything about the real-life histories depicted before. I'd never heard of the Vampire of Raval.

As i watch, and then work on each post, I keep learning. Discovering aspects of history I wasn't familiar with. For example, I learned more about El Cid researching that episode's post than I ever did in school. And I knew next to nothing about Velazquez' art work (or his status!) prior to this series.

I am enjoying the series for many reasons. It's well-acted, takes time to build and tell its stories. The characters are rich, diverse personalities and they work well with each other. It is funny and filled with knowledge. But i must admit, I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity it's given me to explore Spanish history and culture. It's much more educational than some other shows with time travel themes like Doctor Who. DW is great, and this show is too, but in different ways.
posted by zarq at 4:18 PM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm rewatching because of your posts (not this episode though) and the thing about the layers is striking. It's like each story weaves in several approaches to the main theme. I suppose if you grow up in Spain the culture and history stuff is all background knowledge; I'm finding it completely fascinating too! Apart from the football references.

Well, goodnight, it's just past midnight here. Thanks again for Fanfaring this.
posted by glasseyes at 4:29 PM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


It took me three tries to get through this episode. I did not like watching it at all.

I had just started a bowl of ice cream when the opening nightmare sequence started, which was... an unfortunate decision.

That elpais article linked above about the child-trafficking in Spain in the 1950s-1980s was so sad - and what a non-surprise that the Catholic Church was neck deep in it; Spain's equivalent of the Irish Catholic Church's Magdalene Laundry atrocities.

At least there were still a few comedic moments - the Back to the Future reference for one, but, my favorite bit was:
Alonso: Wait - she is here. If we kill her now, she will commit none of her crimes in the future.
Salvador: Alonso, my dear. What part of the sentence "You cannot change History" do you still not understand?!


It was the "my dear" that cracked me up the most, I think - though Salvador actually called him "hijo" (son), but I guess the intent is more as a generic term of endearment when used by a non-parent.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:13 PM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


This was in The Guardian just today
Franco's cruel legacy: the film that wants to stop Spain forgetting
The Silence of Others, backed by Pedro Almodóvar, seeks to end amnesia over dictator’s victims

an award-winning documentary due to be shown at Sheffield Doc/Fest on Saturday that examines the enduring consequences of the amnesty law and the “pact of forgetting” that facilitated Spain’s return to democracy after Franco’s death in 1975.

The Silence of Others, directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, chronicles the fight for justice as well as the search for the stolen children and the 100,000 bodies still thought to lie in unmarked civil war graves. Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar are the film’s executive producers.

“How is it possible today that there are people who are dying before they’re able to exhume their loved ones and bury them in a cemetery in a country with such Christian values? How is it possible that there are thousands of children who don’t know who their parents are?”

The idea for the film came to Carracedo and Bahar eight years ago as details of Spain’s “stolen babies” began to emerge – including the revelation that the practice had not died with the dictator but continued into the 1980s.


The second link above leads to some background on the so-called pact of forgetting and how things are being uncovered.
posted by glasseyes at 6:39 AM on June 8, 2018 [1 favorite]


Politically separating children from their parents for political reasons... This world hurts too much.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:01 PM on June 20, 2018


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