Finishing 13th out of the 14 monuments competing in the Sección Especial of Fallas was obviously not the result the Plaza de la Merced was hoping for.
Merced is the smallest Fallas commission in the top flight, so last year’s 11th place finish was considered an exciting victory. They invited back the same artist, so the resulting monument in this little plaza neighboring the Mercado Central was similar to 2008’s, just a bit smaller. The theme translates approximately to “Fashion Show in the Merced”.
We weren’t blown away by Merced, mostly because it didn’t have a true spark of originality. But we did really enjoy some of the ninots, including Calatrava riding his latest bridge like a horse, and Obama-as-fairy.
La Mercé has been a “top falla” for many years, in the 90s they reached 2nd position some times, and they deserved 1st price in some years. Unfortunately, they are passing trough a hard days, a falla in special section with less than 50 members is miraculous.