We join Spanish-Iranian poet Patricia Rezai for a tour of Madrid’s famous Rastro street market, held every Sunday in the La Latina district of the capital. Patricia Rezai is to be found at the Rastro almost every Sunday looking for curiosities to add to her collection of religious iconography. She is the author of 3 works of poetry, Olympia, Dahlia the soon to be published Chloris. The Rastro traces its origins to the end of the 15th Century when vendors of second hand clothes sold their wares alongside the abattoirs or slaugherhouses and the leather tanners. In fact, the word “rastro” in all probability comes from “traces of blood” left behind after the slaughter of cattle in the abattoirs. Nowadays, the abattoirs and leather tanners have long since been replaced by artisans and sellers of just about anything from bric-a-brac to clothes and antiques (15/09/14).
