IN THE SPRING OF LAST YEAR, we hosted three lovely girls from Madrid, who were visiting Barcelona to see the architecture. Angélica and Mónica were flatmates and Architecture students. Giulia, who also took up Architecture, wasn't a flatmate but was nonetheless indispensable to the sisterhood.
From Madrid, the girls came bearing rosquillos, home-baked and hand-carried across the peninsula. It turns out that the three are avid cooks and bakers, preparing treats for tea and dinner parties they would hold back in their flat. Number 16, Calle Montserrat provided the setting for such get-togethers; a tradition begun by Mónica, who was not only the first to live there, but also lived there the longest.
Four years saw the tradition grow in attendance, as well as grow beloved by the girls and their guests. But as student life came to an end, so did its traditions. With Giulia having graduated, Angélica on Erasmus and Mónica now finishing her studies, the girls no longer occupy the unit at Montserrat, each finding themselves in a new flat, new city or country. Before parting and departing however, they made sure to keep the memory of Montserrat alive with a tribute video depicting one last merienda there.
The Spanish equivalent of an afternoon snack, a merienda is typically had late in the day, in between the country's infamously long, late lunches, and even later dinners. Las meriendas de Montserrat documents a charming slice of student life, of lovely characters making delightful use of scarce free time, and of meriendas prepared and shared in good company.
Sweet. Sublime.
Las meriendas de Montserrat by Andrea Dorantes Otero, Fran Avilés and Mónica García Koewandhono, vimeo.com
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