"Viva La Tuna!" a Salamanca Travel Page by fairy_dust

Walking through the Plaza Mayor, I heard music near some of the cafes. Then, I saw some tuna groups. One group wore burgundy (the Tuna Universitaria), and the other wore yellow (the Tuna de Medicina - the medicine faculty tuna). Tunas are groups of university students who dress in 17th Century minstrel costumes, and sing songs and play instruments in public places. Each university faculty has its own tuna, and each faculty has a colour.

As the boys from the yellow tuna were younger, cuter, and more energetic than the burgundy tuna, I ended up watching their little show. The sounds of their guitars, lutes, tambourines, bongo drums, and accordion lured me in like the pied piper, and their beautiful voices made me feel like swooning. Their good looks didn't hurt either... The Tuna de Medicina de Salamanca became my nightly entertainment for the next 3 weeks.

I never got sick of that tuna or of the songs they sang, even if it was the same every single night. Their talent, charm, and the fact that they were gorgeous, was enough to make me come back for more night after night. My weekdays were never complete without a stroll in the Plaza Mayor to see my tuna.

They sang songs of bullfights, romance, and Spanish culture in general. Not just Spanish songs, but also songs from Latin America, such as a Peruvian waltz (one of the members of the tuna was from Peru). The lead singer had a gorgeous voice, as well as lots of charisma. He was quite the flirt too. He would often pull girls up to dance (including me!), and make flirty comments.

An older man I met once said to me in Spanish "Every night I see you here, every night!" And he was right, I did go watch their little show every night. I never got tired of seeing them, and watching their show night after night ranks among the best moments of my second trip to Salamanca.

I wasn't the only person who was addicted to that tuna. I met another person who was just as obsessed as I was...

I met Alex (Alejandra) during my weekend trip to Portugal, after I had become famous among the tour group for having gotten lost in Lisbon (long story, check my Lisbon page for more details). She's Mexican, and teaches Spanish in the States, and she was there for a teacher's course with other Spanish teachers. A while after Portugal, I ran into her on the street in Salamanca, and we started chatting. Soon after, I found out that she too, was in love with the tuna.

She liked the lead singer, while I liked the accordion player and one of the lute players. We swooned over the boys every night, and one time after the little show, a few of the tunos came to our table and sang us some songs. We were in Heaven! They knew she was Mexican, so they sang a ranchera. Josh was there too, and he was impressed by their talent. After the songs, I thanked the tunos for singing to us, and they kissed my hand.

Alix and I were huge fans of the tuna, and only we could understand each other when we'd start giggling, swooning, and yapping endlessly about those tunos. Nobody else understood our groupie-like devotion, but we didn't care.

When the tunos were singing to us, Alix told the lead singer that my birthday was coming up, and told them to sing to me on the big day. She also told them that I liked the accordion player. When she told me I said "You told them I like him!?" and she said "he's going to sing to you!" I said "he's going to sing to me? Personally?!" and then I squealed in happiness. I was acting like a teenybopper at a boy band concert...

On the day they would sing to me, I was stressed out. My host family had decided to kick me out of the house and I was frantically looking for my professor to talk to her about it. But having the tuna sing to me made me happy again.

I saw Josh sitting at a table, studying and drinking a glass of sangria, and I frantically asked him if he had seen our professor. He said no, and asked why so I said "My host family decided to kick me out of the house!" He was shocked, and said "WHAT?! Sit down, relax, finish this drink, tell me what happened." So I took a sip of sangria and explained what happened (this was before I found out about the lie that the house mother had told the university about me). After talking to Josh, I finally felt a little better.

Then the lead singer of the tuna came up to me and pulled me from my chair and announced in Spanish "We have a birthday!" I was caught off-guard, and my hand pushed the empty sangria glass, which fell off the table and smashed on the ground! The tuno then had me stand up on a chair, and the tunos got ready to sing to me. One of them started playing a little tune on his lute and singing in Spanish "You're gorgeous you're gorgeous you're gorgeous!" And then the tuna sang me Happy Birthday in Spanish. It made me so happy!

After I got down from the chair, the cute accordion player came up to me, said happy birthday, and kissed me on the cheek. Then the lead singer made me kiss each and every tuno on the cheek! One of them (a lute player, but not the one who called me gorgeous) got up on his chair, and got all excited about me kissing him. He opened his arms and started dancing as if saying "Come to papa!" I kissed him first, and then the others. Later, while they were taking a break from singing, I went up to the lead singer, who was talking to that same tuno, and thanked them for singing to me. The other tuno said "you're welcome!" in Spanish and kissed my hand. We chatted a bit, and he noticed that I had some Canada flag pins on my tank top, so he asked for one. I gave him one, and he pinned it on his sash.

On my last night in Salamanca, my professor, a few others in the group, and I, were standing in the crowd watching the tuna, and I told my professor that I wanted them to sing to me but I was too shy to ask. So after they finished their song, my prof went right up to the lead singer and told him that a girl wanted a serenade! He said "bring her over" and my prof brought me to them. They had me stand on a chair, and I said it's my last night in Salamanca. The lead singer saw what I was wearing (or not... heehee!) and said "You're appropriately dressed for your last night, in that short skirt!" He asked me what my name was, and after this I knew what song would come. I had seen them sing it to other girls they had pulled from the crowd, and I had been hoping it would be that song that they would sing to me...

They proceeded to sing me a beautiful romantic song, call out romantic words at me, and even got down on one knee for me! The original song is called "Elsa", but that night, it was called "Amelie". I was in heaven! I made a swooning motion, and enjoyed my moment. Getting serenaded by the tuna was the perfect grand finale for an amazing trip. My month in Salamanca ended on such a high note, and I was so happy! My favorite tuna sang me the song I wanted, and I never wanted it to end!

After the song, I was so excited that I kissed every tuno on the cheek, and the lead singer kept on making flirty comments on my skirt. When looking at my face while talking to me, he would talk to me normally, but when he looked down at my legs he said "Ay, que vestido!" (ay, what a dress!). When I asked for a picture, he kneeled down and wrapped his arms around my legs!

Hours later, soon after the sun rose, I boarded the train out of Salamanca to return home. During the whole ride, I had their song to me stuck in my head. As I looked out the train window at the beautiful fields under the morning sun, I could hear their guitars, lutes, tambourines, and beautiful voices singing me their love song. The memories of my nights in the Plaza Mayor listening to them sing, and especially the nights they serenaded me, will never fade away from my memory...

That night was the last time I saw my tuna. Even now I still long to be in the Plaza Mayor listening to them sing. I'll return to Salamanca someday, and hopefully they'll still be there, singing their way into the hearts of all who hear them, and I'll enjoy their songs and charms again.