Fran Tudela, 'Cabrafotuda': "The way of speaking is lost because our parents have been contaminated by globalization and the Hispanization"

Fran Tudela (la Vila Joiosa, 1996) became known on social networks by imitating English teachers and Valencian mothers. Today, with almost 200,000 followers on Instagram, Cabrafotuda –as he is known– has become one of the reference content creators in the Catalan language, and has made Valencian popular culture his territory: parties, traditions, grandma's cooking and, above all, the diversity of a language that changes its name for each thing from one town to another. Drinks are no exception.There is a very close relationship between Valencian popular culture and drink.

— Valencians really like alcoholic beverages, and in each place in a different way. It is a very interesting thing. Practically all towns have our own drinks. In my town, La Vila Joiosa, we have the nardo, which is a mixture between coffee granita and absinthe.

Absinthe!

— It's very strong, because absinthe makes you sleep a little and coffee wakes you up, and between one thing and another you end up rolling. For example, in Cocentaina they have the mentireta, in Alcoi they have the plis-plai…

Is there competition between peoples about who makes the best drink?

— With drinks, it's not like with paella. In general, each town is very proud of its drink, but there is some rivalry. I understand that between Alcoià and Cocentaina they argued about whether the mentireta was from Cocentaina. The mentireta is aguardiente and coffee liqueur. The trick is that in Cocentaina they use brown sugar and it's harder to tell if they've put coffee liqueur in it or not. But in other towns it's made with normal aguardiente…

So you like to try the variations of each town?

— Let's see, I don't usually try them all, because if I did, every day I worked I'd end up wasted. Yesterday, for example, we were in l'Alcora, in Castelló, and all the young people were drinking Agua de Valencia. I couldn't try it, because if I did, imagine. Every day I'd be drinking a different drink.

I would make another type of content…

— Although it would be content that we would like to explore in the future. It is super interesting. Cassalla is well known and so on, but there are so many drinks. It would be good to make a series of videos talking about this world, too. It is something very much our own... It is no longer just the drinks themselves, but the nomenclatures, the ways of saying the drinks, which are sometimes the same, but under a different name in each town. Now that I live in Valencia, I discovered that in L'Horta the farmers call cassalla the arrancaora, because they have it first thing in the morning to start the day, to start working. We made a video a couple of years ago about mixing horchata with lemon water.

What is said…?

— It is typical of many places in the Valencian Country, but it changes name in each town. How can the same drink evolve into such different names? For example, in my town it is called alcoiana. But also in the Horta de València they call it bicicleta. It has nothing to do with it.

There are also many sayings about wine. Today I discovered the “Two wines make forty”.

— In the end, language speaks of the reality of a people, and our people is very festive. We really like parties and, therefore, alcoholic beverages cannot be missing. Always with caution. I say it for the sake of saying it, because, well, people sometimes go off track.

What do you think is lost when these sayings are no longer used?

— When the way of speaking is lost, part of the identity is lost. I see it in my grandmother. Although she says she has no education and doesn't know, she really knows a lot of things about a reality that has not been transmitted. If the generation of parents could not receive it, because it has been very contaminated by globalization and the Hispanization, our generation even less so. And it's a shame, because the expressions that spoke of how we were, of how our grandparents were, are no longer said; they no longer speak of us, we are no longer like that.

Do you think food has taken a parallel path?

— Totally. We live in such a fast-paced world that it's very hard to stop to cook hot meals and make traditional recipes. My grandmother dedicated herself to the house, to cooking, and over the years she became an expert. My mother, the same, even though she also worked – that is, double exploitation: being at home and cooking and then working. But we are a generation that puts aside things like eating well. I don't know if it's a phase. Now that I'm close to thirty, I realize that I want to give more importance to cooking and food – to local food, km 0 food. There's a need for will from young people to want to learn to make all these dishes.

In some cases, when people start to feel this interest, the grandparents are no longer there…

— To many people, when they see my videos with my grandmother, it stirs something inside them, as if they regret not having been able to do it themselves. When I go to talks at high schools, I tell them: "If you have grandmothers and grandfathers, take advantage and cook with them." While cooking is a moment of connection; of disconnection and connection at the same time. They are not only showing you the dish, but you are talking, learning, listening to the elderly. If we did more of this, we wouldn't be where we are today.

In a video, she appears with her grandmother drinking wine from a glass.

— She doesn't drink wine as such, but what she does is a mix with soda. She also really likes vermouth. It's not that it's part of my daily routine, but I do really like it. I've discovered, as I've gotten older, that I really like drinking wine, especially red. I don't like white, but I do like red, and I enjoy it a lot. The people around me have also been getting into it. It's like I romanticize it, too.

What does romanticizing mean?

— People of our age, who couldn't become independent until very old... Suddenly, you live in the capital, you have a house, you arrive and pour yourself a glass of wine while you snack and say: “I'm in my house, I'm fine, I'm an adult”. Romanticizing a glass of wine is this. Even though it really has nothing to do with it, even though it's like a fantasy, you imagine it like this.

A character from his film.

— Exactly. The main character [main character]. It's also that we've always seen it like this in cartoons and series. The independent woman who lives in New York, who comes home after a day's work and has a glass of wine and is all relaxed. You see it and say: "Have I become this?" Well, a bit.

Do you remember any particular anecdote?

— Once I went to a birthday party at a restaurant and I felt like having some wine. I ordered a red one and the man served it to me and stayed there, waiting. I told him: "Leave some for the half!" And people started to laugh. He was waiting for me to taste it to give him the feedback, so I would tell him "Very good, continue", but I didn't know that.

The protocols…

— From how it is prepared until you taste it, to how they serve it to you… If you simply like it and are not an expert, like me, you end up looking a bit ridiculous. But well: it all ended up as an anecdote.

Do you have very specific tastes?

— I'm tasting. But I have a good friend who keeps recommending things to me and knows a lot about wines. There's one he always has in his cellar, which is Italian, the Mucchietto Primitivo. Then there's tempranillo and boval, which is Valencian. If you ask me, I have no idea, but I like them a lot. Little by little I'm becoming more of a fan not just of drinking, but of the world behind it, which is really very broad. I feel that our parents' generation is more into this, but young people have no idea.

What interests you about this world?

— I suddenly, right now, I feel like going to a winery for a tasting, where they serve us wines and we taste wines with cheese. It's something I never wanted to do, and now, as you delve deeper, you realize there's a universe behind it and that it needs to be spread a little to the younger generations. I think there's a misconception that wine is for gourmets and super-picky people. Young people find the scene from Aquí no hay quien viva very funny, where a character picks up the glass of red wine, sniffs it, as if wanting to be an expert, and says: "Mmmm, red wine".