Raquel Revuelta: "Holy Week in Seville can and does produce Stendhal syndrome"

Raquel answers our call from Portugal, where she enjoys a few days of relaxation before returning to her native Seville to plunge into the most intense and exciting Holy Week in the world. Her paternal grandfather was none other than Esperanza de Triana’s older brother, so the whole family is still closely linked to this brotherhood. “In fact, my grandfather was the architect of the current chapel of this virgin,” says Raquel, whose father is today number 3 of Esperanza by seniority and several relatives are on her board of directors. “On Thursday the Revueltas meet because our big day is early morning. In the morning we go to the chapel to see Esperanza and the Christ of the Three Falls, then we all go to eat together and then we separate because several go out to procession as Nazarenes”.

Raquel confesses that it is common to cry with emotion before a step. “Every year, for some specific reason or circumstance, I get very emotional. Sometimes it has been just for the beauty of the moment, unrelated to my religious convictions, a Stendhal syndrome that can be applied very well in Holy Week in Seville: the precious carvings, those corners of the city, the silence of the people, the effort of the costaleros, the voice of the foreman who tells them… It is a compendium of many things, including a sensory experience that, depending on how it catches you, you get more excited. On other occasions, due to personal experiences, things that have happened to you, memories or promises as well”.

The businesswoman – her communication and events agency, Doble Erre, organizes the SIMOF catwalk and is number 1 in Seville – tells us how the saetas phenomenon occurs: “There are families who hire saeteros to sing from their balconies, always very specials. But the ones I liked the most have tended to be spontaneous; people who know how to sing and are on a balcony to watch the processions just like one more guest but who start singing. And that is, ugh, something precious. Holy Week is for sensitive people, who know how to appreciate beauty, because it can be quite uncomfortable to be on the street for so many hours, standing, going to the place is not easy due to the crowds. With age I have become a bit more comfortable and I look for the balconies (laughs)”.