Excerpts from selected Alice Gordon Gulick texts

By Raúl Travé Molero

Santander is situated on the northern coast of Spain, on the Bay of Biscay. Which running inland forms another bay which is called the Bay of Santander, and along this, the old city with its narrow street and clearly populated homes is built.

Our home is upon the sea-wall or «muelle» [...] On the other side of the bay, are mountains, hills and valleys with little villages which form a beautiful view, especially at the time of sunset.

Source: Letter from Alice Gordon to Emily (Santander, October 3, 1872). In Mount Holyoke Archives and Special Collections.

The word Spain brings before our minds a land of romance, of architecture and of art. No country has ever been peopled by more distinct nations. Its history carries us into the remote past. Standing beside the Cyclopean rocks which underlie the wall of Tarragona we may look upon the graves of the Scipios below the plain. Roman roads and Roman bridges, a Roman amphitheatre and a recently-discovered Roman necropolis, transport us in imagination to the brilliant days of the Caesars. From the myriad-columned mosque of Cordova, once illuminated with the light from innumerable silver lamps, we learn the force and the wealth of the Moor. Not less instructive is the fact that the vega of Granada, over which the conquering Christian army rode to take possession of the city, is still watered by the irrigating system established by that remarkable people. The same bell rings from the Torre de la vela on the heights of the Alhambra for the Andalusian paisano that centuries ago told the Moor that it was time for him to turn the water into the garden of his neighbor.

Source: Putnam Gordon, E., 1917, Alice Gordon Gulick. Her life and work in Spain, Fleming H. Revell Company, pp. 82-83.

The life of the Institute in Madrid will be much easier and more agreeable than elsewhere, in its material conditions, because all the best of the provinces come to Madrid; in its moral aspect, because if in Madrid there is evil, there are also many more elements of good, in respect to the number of students, because Madrid is geographically the center of Spain and easy of access –there are also hundreds of families with independent views; and, finally, the students will have greater facility for passing the examinations in the courses of study which they may choose to take, and they will be near the National Museum and Conservatory of Music.

Source: Putnam Gordon, E., 1917, Alice Gordon Gulick. Her life and work in Spain, Fleming H. Revell Company, pp. 221-222.

When we reached Panes, we found quite a delegation, and our welcome was most cordial. The escort insisted that we should come right up to their village where they could give us, they said, the best of bad accommodations, but the will to do better would atone for all the inconveniences. Toward evening we set out on our walk. One of the women insisted on carrying our child and the others distributed our shawls and bag among them. We had an hour or more climbing the stony mountain road, and were very tired when we reached the village. The people were all out to see us enter. Rows of heads, old and young, peering at us over stone walls, indicated that the interest ran in the family. Others managed to get a look at us from the cross streets, while more timid ones, peeping from behind doors and trees, suddenly disappeared when noticed. After we reached the house in which we were entertained, men, women and children gathered and sat down in the road in front of it, watching every motion of those who came and went. Barnum and all his animals could hardly have excited the curiosity and interest which was attached to a Protestant priest with a wife and child!

Source: Putnam Gordon, E., 1917, Alice Gordon Gulick. Her life and work in Spain, Fleming H. Revell Company, p. 57.