The history of Spain is as long and complicated as its rivers. There’s no good way of telling where one part ends and the other begins, because everything is ultimately terribly connected, and not just in Spain, but to the rest of the world. It’s one of the dizzying pleasures of the place, actually, because setting foot here is entering into a complex maze of interlocking histories, and there’s no one story that makes sense. Neither is there a master narrative where all the stories come together, and there are moments when it seems as though there are so many details, it’s simply impossible to know anything for sure.
This is a rather perfect way to get to know Malaga, actually. You don’t need to know anything precisely, except for perhaps a list of hotels, and this one is excellent. The rest can be figured out once you get here. This is not the kind of city where you always have to be on guard, like Manhattan, or Mexico City, but is in fact a place where relaxing and daydreaming are possible and sometimes even necessary, every hour of the day. This is the place where Picasso began to find inspiration in the world, because this is where he took his first breath’s on the earth’s surface. It’s a place where there’s plenty of mystery, and plenty of sun, so that some of the best-hidden things are in plain sight.
It took awhile for Malaga to have any kind of museum to commemorate the birth of its most famous son, but now the Museo Picasso is one of the most renowned museums in the world. They also have a kind of secret weapon these days, their recent acquisition of their new curator, Jose Lebrero Stals. He’s still fairly new, but not to the field in general. He’s got excellent credentials, of course, with museum experience and some solid writing in art history, along with a reputation for being a cultural agitator. Picasso would be proud.