Toronto Otherwise Known As El Toro

March 4^th, 2011. Fourteen years ago I (we) landed in Toronto. I love this word – we landed. We didn’t arrive, we didn’t come, we landed. Like aliens or planes. Then the mother ship left and we were stranded in a strange city full of strange people. Toronto.

Thinking of planes.  Aircrafts.  I always wanted to be a pilot.  Instead I continue treading foreign lands.

I dedicate this hub to my 14^th anniversary of landing and to the strange city of Toronto that became my prison, my home, the place where I live. Don’t be offended by the word “prison”. My first year in Canada felt like being stranded on inhabitable island. I felt like Robinson Crusoe. The feeling of isolation and despair was tremendous. The cultural shock was unforgettable. I was going absolutely crazy.

Recently, Toronto was nicknamed “El Toro”. Never mind why. I am trying to wreck my brains trying to connect “El Toro” with my perception of Toronto.

I asked this question what associations people would have with Toronto being nicknamed “El Toro” a couple of times and there was only one answer, but what a delight! The lady said that the city El Toro for her was associated with an Air Military Base.

Here we go again. Planes, aircrafts, flying, wings.

There. El Toro is a Flying Bull.

El Toro

El Tor[re]nto

El Tor[me]nto

El Tor[o]nto

I am taking the middle parts out: [re] – [me] – [o]. With some allowance and a little bit of a stretch, I would transform Re-me-o into Romeo. Here, El Romeo.

El Toro

El Bull

El Romeo

By the way, if you did not know Tauruses/Bulls are very romantic and loving. I should know I was in love with five of them. I am slightly exaggerating.

Let’s leave for a second the obvious associations with a Bull. Toronto is a city of Moose installed here and there unless they all wandered off and I haven’t noticed. After all, I tend to travel the same routes. From home to work, from work home, from home to dancing and back. My moving patterns do not offer too many opportunities for sightseeing. But as you might agree, locals do the least of it anyways.

Beside the Bull associations what comes to mind? The nickname is Spanish. Porque?

Never mind porque. Pourqoui-pas? Why not?

I have to make a confession, “Carmen” is one of my favourite operas.

Love! Love! Love! Love!

Love is a gypsy's child,

it has never, ever, known a law;

love me not, then I love you;

if I love you, you'd best beware!

L’amour! L’amour! L’amour! L’amour!

L’amour est enfant de Bohême,

Il n’a jamais jamais connu de loi.

Si tou ne m’aimes pas, je t’aime.

Si je t’aime, prends garde à toi!

The arena is full, from top to bottom;

The spectators are losing their minds,

The spectators began a big fracas!

Apostrophes, cries, and uproar grow to a furor!

Because it is a celebration of courage!

It is the celebration of people with heart!

Let’s go, en guard! Let’s go! Let’s go! Ah!

Toreador, en guard! Toreador, Toreador!

And dream away, yes, dream in combat,

That a black eye is watching you,

And that love awaits you,

Toreador, love awaits you!

And dream away, yes dream in combat,

That a black eye is watching you

And may love await you,

Toreador, love await you!

If you are wondering why I am mixing all the languages I can, the answer is simple. Canada has two official languages, English and French, Toronto got a Spanish nickname and I speak Russian. I haven't dragged in my German yet, but the hub is still in the making, LOL. It is all about associations, however.

I am definitely overexposed to Spanish language. First of all, because I dance Salsa, Bachata and Merengue. Those are Latin club dances, not ballroom, club dances. Salsa is a relish, oh what a delight!

Salsa means sauce in the Spanish language, and carries connotations of the spiciness common in Latin and Caribbean cuisine.[13] More recently, salsa acquired a musical meaning in both English and Spanish. In this sense salsa has been described as a word with "vivid associations" but no absolute definitions, a tag that encompasses a rainbow assortment of Latin rhythms and styles, taking on a different hue wherever you stand in the Spanish-speaking world".[14] The precise scope of Salsa is highly debatable.[15] Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican immigrants in New York have used the term analogously to swing or soul, which refer to a quality of emotionally and culturally genuine music in the African American community. In this usage Salsa connotes a frenzied, "hot" and wild musical experience that draws upon or reflects elements of Latin culture, regardless of the specific style.[16] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salsa_music)

Of course, the proper term is Salseras & Salseros, Bachateras & Bachateros, Merengueras & Merengueros.  But you can see the parallel, can’t you?  If Toronto is El Toro, then we are danceras & danceros, Toronteras & Toronteros.

No, if Toronto is El Toro, then we are Toreras & Toreros.

Moving on.  Salsa is very popular in Toronto.  What is the most important point here?  Salsa is essentially a mix, Toronto is a mix – oh, very much so, in that sense Salsa and Toronto suit and define each other perfectly well.

It was somewhat a convoluted journey for me to find Salsa.  I always wanted to dance ballroom dances.  I have never heard of Salsa until my Russian friend mentioned that she was invited to a Salsa club.  “Svetlana, you should see what they are doing!”  “Ok, let’s go”.  But we never went.  I ventured a couple of times on my own until I reconnected with my friend again and this time she met another person who actually danced Salsa.  Not a Latin guy (Latino), El Russo.  He encouraged me to go out to clubs and eventually I drifted into dancing community.  Funny enough, the day when I “officially” started dancing was March 6^th 2010.  Another March anniversary.

Now it is almost a year and my life changed so much I could not even believe it.  I am sitting here and contemplating when I should start learning how to dance tango.  That will be another story.

The clip that I included is very special.  The couple on the right is Russian and that is my friend who brought me to salsa.  It is Toronto, it is Salsa, it is my friend.  Thank you, mi amigo.  Cuban style?  No, Russian style!!! (I am joking, there is no Russian style of dancing, maybe a Russian type of friendship, all-encompassing and heart-felt.  I am slightly impartial, but I hope it is not too much of a sin).

Toronto is a young bull, in its prime of physical health. Toronto is certainly not a nerd or a grandfather. No, we are in a completely different category. Toronto, El Toro, he is a young military pilot smiling from a photo and radiating infectious young male energy and sex appeal. In fact, that male energy reverberates throughout the city and makes it vibrant.

But I would like to leave flying Bulls and high pilotage for a while and tell you more about me and Spanish language.

Yes, I love and always loved “Carmen”. Another love of mine is flamenco. I love the passion. Why on earth I haven’t learned Spanish yet?

“You should learn Spanish, you should understand songs you listen to.” (Armando #1)

“You should learn Spanish, it is the second most popular language on earth. It will be easy for you.” (Armando #2)

I certainly need another reason. Maybe I don’t, I always wanted to learn Spanish, but it is all a question of time and motivation.

What I do is listen to songs, find and translate lyrics and if I like a song really much, then I memorize words. So, to a certain extent I can say a few things in Spanish. What, are you kidding me? For a dancera and a Torontera, not to speak Spanish? Sometimes a simple phrase said in Spanish sounds more romantico.

Poor Armando #1 could not (would not) remember and pronounce my name, so he called me “mami”, “Linda”, “bonita”, “calientita”. Now all of it became part of my vocabulary. Along with “el mentiroso” (a lier), malo, descarado, bandolero, brujo. No, he was not that bad, it is a line from a song.

The song “Buleria” is just me. I have it on my mobile phone. It is flamenco style.

Note: I know the lyrics of this song, I mean I understand them, but the clip always seemed somewhat a departure from the text.  I guess I had to write this hub and watch this video for a change just to realize, it resembles "Romeo & Juliette".  How ironic!  El Romeo!  Why did not I see it before?)

I was married to a Taurus. If only. My first friend, with whom I grew up, a boy, was a Taurus. My first love was a Taurus. My second love (it is still debatable if I loved him), the one I married, was a Taurus. My third love was a Taurus. My third love took place (what an idiotic expression “took place”!, well, happened) while I was married. It was purely platonic, but maybe more painful because the fantasy world had no limits. There was another Taurus I met right after my break-up with my ex. When he said he was a Taurus, I said I should immediately leave the scene. I did not. We spent a day together and chemistry was so high that I had no logical explanation for it. I ran away from him not leaving my phone number. I always felt it was wrong.

Until today, the Taurus # 5 was that brief encounter, but I always thought that I was stretching the truth. I cannot put a man I spent one day with in the same line as the boy I grew up with (twelve years), my first love (four years), my marriage (sixteen years officially, but twenty-three and counting in an unbreakable bond), and my third love (four years).

Now I have number five. El Toro. It is the city; I have lived here for fourteen years. Fourteen years and counting. It is long enough to qualify for a long-term relationship.

I never liked corrida (bullfight). I only went to see it once because my ex-husband wanted, but it was a horrible sight.

But when we began fighting in our marriage too much, I said that we are acting out the bullfight scenario. He was a Bull, I was … a dancer. Usually, bulls have no chance, but my ex disagreed, he thought he won. At that time I thought I was always winning, nowadays I don’t know. I don’t want to dance with bulls. Not anymore. I am not a matadora.

I am a Scorpio. You don’t have to believe in astrology. The reason I am wrapping the story of my immigration, life, city, names, allegories with love is because I am writing with love.

I just happened to find something. On the 14^th anniversary of my landing in Canada, I am taking off. I found my voice. Yes, that is how I write. In many languages, metaphorically, I play with words lovingly, I write something you will never read anywhere, because my writing is original. Nobody can tell my story but me. Nobody can see through my eyes. My style is inimitable (that phrase I just borrowed, LOL).

I connect the dots, I create, I fly on the wings of Craft, an aircraft, a word craft.

Maybe I am sitting on a flying bull’s back. I needed to land and live in Babylonto to find and create myself.

Babylonto (Babylon in Toronto. We do have a Tower after all, Moscow has it higher, but for the number of languages spoken we are ahead of everybody).

What a wonderful connection: Moscow – Toronto – Tower – Babylon!

I live on the intersection of Bird & Drug Store Streets (another story just begs to be written) and from my balcony I can see Seneca college.

My dearest friend (Mein Lieber A.) shared with me one of his favourite quotations:

The fates lead him who will; those who won't they drag.

Seneca

Sometimes I think, that everything that happens should happen. Do I follow my fate or am I being dragged? Maybe drugged and dragged? Drugged, for sure.

Since we identified the player, El Toro (the man) and a Scorpio (the woman), let’s check out compatibility.  At least this part is easy; I simply quote Linda Goodman’s “Love Signs”.

The woman in my scenario is not a mystery person and the man is someone I will fall in love with…  No, wait, it is about Tauruses only….  Let me think.  After combining parts of my four Tauruses’ names and the word Toronto, I came up with something slightly monstrous: Alexongtai.  Well, what do you want?  It is the Bull in the fifth degree.

So, are you ready?  Oh, don’t be scared, it is my relationship with Bulls, not yours, so unless you are one, just relax, if you can.

TAURUS Man ~~~SCORPIO Woman

“He was a brave man; but for a moment he had to stop there and wipe his brow, which was dripping like a candle. Then silently he let himself go into the unknown.

A Taurus man who feels himself sinking into the mysterious underworld of a Scorpio female’s magnetic attraction, is either headed for what may be the most traumatic experience of his life – or the most uplifting. The outcome will definitely not be neutral.

It might be the former, if there’s a negative effect between the Sun and Moon in their respective horoscopes. But if these two Luminaries are in a harmonious relationship, it could be very well the latter.

[…]

I don’t mean to imply that this woman’s nature is too hot for a Taurean man to handle, or her psyche too coolly mysterious for him to penetrate. After all, that silent film star Rudolph Valentino, the sheik to end all sheiks was a Taurus. So the Bull is quite capable of sneaking into a Scorpio girl’s tent, under the stars, with his nostrils dilating romantically. [Oh, El Romeo! El Romantico!] Since she’s chemically attracted to the opposite sex of her opposite Sun Sign (Taurus) she may even run out of the tent barefoot to meet him. If she does, she’ll resemble Queen Nefertiti herself, in the moonlight. That’s what makes it all so special. In the quiet moments of their aloneness together, a Scorpio woman can become to her Taurus man the image of every love goddess down through the ages.

[…]

Despite her apparent tranquility and surface sweetness, this is not a female who is easy to live with. She’s fascinating, feminine, intelligent, loyal and passionate. But she is not an innocent, wide-eyed maiden who is willing to become a love object. Scorpio lives in the emotions, but sometimes they’re bottled up inside for years. That’s why she seems so docile, then suddenly, with no warning, she erupts into boiling anger – or disappears into frozen silence, which is ever harder to cope with and certainly more difficult to understand.

[…]

Other facets of their love will need constant attention. It’s never easy for these two to reconcile after a serious quarrel. Their mutual Fixed vibration keeps them apart. Scorpio says “I will forgive. But I cannot overlook.” Taurus varies this only slightly, and says, “I will forgive. But I can never forget.” They’re both lying to themselves. What they really mean is, “I can’t forgive.” Because, true forgiveness does overlook, and true forgiveness does forget. The refusal to truly forgive is a dark and evil thing. The seeds thus planted in the heart will grow into cold and lonely isolation, premature aging, chronic disease and emotional neurosis, as surely as an acorn will grow into a giant oak tree.

[What a dark prognosis! Maybe it is time for me to relocate then? Am I talking about men or a city? Both. I find delight in mixing and cross-referencing. Take everything, chop, mix, what do you get? Salsa of men in the city.]

[…]

The love vibration between Taurus and Scorpio is perfectly symbolized by the strange pilgrimage of Taurean silent screen idol Rudolph Valentino’s much discussed “Mystery Woman”, who despite whispered rumors, has never been provably identified to this day. Whatever her name may have been, her Sun or Moon Sign was surely Scorpio […]. Yes, she could only have been a deeply bereaved Scorpio woman, conceiving Life, Love, sex and death to be inseparable, as she made her lonely visits to her Taurus lover’s grave, dressed completely in black, her face covered by a veil …. to offer the memory flowers of her intense passion, grief and loyalty….each year, with unwavering faithfulness, on the anniversary of his death.

[here I almost cried. Honestly. But it might have been music I was listening to.]

That’s the way it is with Taurus and Scorpio. No light flirtation, or casual affair. It will be frigid disinterest, total disaster – or a devotion which will last a lifetime, and beyond that, past forever. All or nothing at all. The Bible will come in handy, either way.

This song I know by heart and I sing it all the time. In Spanish.

Hasta la vista, mis amigos caros y las amigas

Adiós