El Río y la Gran Vía — Episodio 2: Bar Casilda

The Story So Far

Julia Etcheverry has flown from a Buenos Aires winter into a Madrid heatwave to claim Bar Casilda, the bar her unnamed, unmentionable uncle Aurelio left her — and found the lights on. In Episode 1, a letter broke forty years of family silence; her mother refused to explain it, and a tall stranger opened the door with the keys in his hand.

Language Highlights

• reported requests and commands — “el notario me pidió que mantuviera”, “le había dicho que probara”: requests reported in the past shift their verb into the imperfect subjunctive.
• hasta que / cuando / sin que + subjuntivo — “hasta que aparecieras”, “cuando estés lista”, “sin que me arrancara un dedo”: time and manner clauses pointing at the not-yet-real take the subjunctive, in past and present alike.
• the second conditional at the bar — “si vendieras el traspaso, saldarías las deudas y aún te quedaría algo”: imperfect subjunctive in the if-clause, conditional in the result.
• nonexistent antecedents — “no existe frase que despierte más curiosidad”: when the thing described doesn’t exist, its relative clause runs on subjunctive.
• set phrases worth stealing — “no ser quién para decírtelo”, “tener dos dedos de frente”, “dar a entender”, “un tal señor Robles”, “fiar” and the little green notebook of neighborhood credit.
• the dialect duet continues — gafas/anteojos, pasta/plata, echar de menos/extrañar, cancha, bronca — and Aurelio’s note, written in voseo after forty years in Madrid.

This is Episode 2 of El Río y la Gran Vía, our serialized novel for advanced learners — episodes 1 and 2 are free.