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A big moment for you. I can easily identify with some of your feelings.   My guess is that it will take you around two years to feel free of your duties as a teacher.  The walk to freedom is more complex. (D.W.)

  Congratulations on finally escaping the tyranny of the timetable (S.R) 

    Dear Jose,

Firstly, my apologies for having your email spending so long in my “in-tray”.  Partly due to not knowing quite where to begin with my reply.  It came as a great shock to me.  You, retiring …..  you couldn’t possibly be retiring, you couldn’t possibly be that old.  Maybe you are taking “early retirement”?  Shock, amazement , incredulity and curiosity.  Then sadness.  Sadness for all the future students that will not have the benefit of you.  I went around for days with a sense of loss.  And then hey-ho…………….it dawned on me.  What’s one person’s loss is another’s gain.  You, for sure, will not be doing nothing and so something else will gain.

I printed out your attachment and it too went around with me…

...  As I sat with my coffee in Nerja the last few weeks, thirty years of my life have passed in front of me.  How extraordinary!

I thank you for your attachment of beautiful writings.  What a wonderful way to announce your retirement!.

And lastly and most important of all, I wish you, all that you would wish for yourself, in the next phase of your living. (M.B.)

Thank you for attaching your retirement "manifesto". Recalling my own retirement speech over 25 years ago, it too was filled with hopes and plans for the future. You have the positive advantage of seeing directly the products of your career in the successful lives of the students you have taught…

With your wide-ranging world view and tolerance of the various viewpoints of others, I would see you as an excellent person to assume that role…

Of course, you probably have many ideas and plans of your own and I wish you well for you deserve every positive thing that life has to offer. But, knowing you, I know that sitting a rocking chair, watching television, is not a life you would relish. Your statement was concise but informative but the interview was even more revealing of your keen spirit and animation. Thank you for including Vivian and myself in your list of English-speaking friends.

(M.M.)

I applied my thinking to your stellar career.

I would divide it into parts. Your human talents in many areas, psychology, organizing groups, achieving long term goals of setting people up to be competent professionals and knowing your subjects well enough to transmit them usefully.

The other part is less sexy. Education has been replaced by obedience and job training. CORE mean anything to you. Result focus. You write clearly .Great come back. Good stuff (P.T.)

 Dear Jose Manuel

Many many thanks for your invitation. I am honoured to make a special visit to Nerja and take part in your celebration.

You are not just a teacher, you are a mentor for all the students who have come under your influence. Your sincerity, guidance and care for the growing-up problems of your students is a model for those who will follow you.

I was fortunate to have had 3/4 teachers like yourself in Ceylon and 3/4 during my late teenage years in London. I owe a lot to them and rejoice that I can thank them with as your students and colleagues  will do in October.

I also recall that there have been a few sad events in your life, but your moral courage has inspired you to manage them. As a person of Spain I place you in the class of Lorca, Antonio Machado, Friar Louis and Don Miguel de Unamuno of Salamanca.

My farewell along with all the ex-pats who have had the honour to know you. (A.P.)

would it be possible to send my wishes to José Manuel for a long and happy retirement?   He was the first person to teach me some Spanish, many years ago as we were neighbours.

Thank you

(J McC).

Congratulations!

Thank you for the files too. Those writings clearly tell me how much you love your job with pride both in yourself and your students. That's so beautiful…(A.I.)

 Dear Jose Manuel,

From a friend in Nerja I recently received a copy of the article in the Market Place on the occasion of your  retirement, and I have also heard from Tony that during his upcoming stay in Nerja he will be attending your farewell reception.

I am only sorry I cannot be there in person to wish you well, and to thank you most sincerely for our very positive and close cooperation, - through NADFAS (now The Arts Society), and the Capistrano Lectures, which fortunately are continuing in the capable hands of Sue Richards,

As inspirational teacher, and through your contacts with the ex-pat community, you have left an indelible mark on both the young people in your care and the many friends within international circles. I have always believed that we are put on this planet to make a difference - you certainly have and your legacy will live on for many years to come.

I seem to remember that one of your ambitions on retiring was to travel more - "to travel is to live" as Hans Christian Andersen once wrote in his book "Travels in Spain" (his statue is on the Alameda in Malaga across from Plaza Marina).

Enjoy your new life in the knowledge of a job very well done.(R.K.) 
David Goodland reviewing History comes alive for the NHG some time ago:
"First talk of the year was given by José Manuel Cabezas, author of over 30 books, winner of a Fulbright Scholarship, and head of English at The Instituto Sierra Almijara, Nerja.  Senor Cabezas also has a great sense of humour which makes listening to him pure delight.

 He began with a slide show of 20^th Century images of Spain, winding up with the specific subject of his talk, ‘Life under Franco’.  We saw fascist salutes given by children, Hitler and Franco arm in arm, the grey ranks of the imprisoned (all Spain was a prison) and revealing images of domestic poverty.

Having established the atmosphere of his childhood in the 50’s and 60’s, Senor Cabezas became quietly personal. He told us of his University days in Malaga and Granada; campus policing and threats to the fragile democracy established in 1977. He gave us a rare insight into a church/state conspiracy; of draconian divorce laws, rigid adherence to tradition, and most importantly, daily fear. Like the fear that held Manuel Cortez, ex-Mayor of Mijas, a prisoner in his own home for 30 years.

 He went on to praise the politicians who refused to cower under parliament benches in 1981. (Some are still alive, as is the figurehead of the uprising.) These were the days when the young King, Juan Carlos, walked a tight-rope between the old 19^th Century Militarists and the Technocrats’ hopes for Spain as part of a democratic Europe.

Senor Cabezas is a bridge builder with a stunning command of English. His love of humanity is obvious; his belief in his students, past and present, unshakeable.  He believes in education. He is an apologist for neither right nor left.  By listing facts and statistics he denies Fascism its comfort and Liberalism its complacency. He is outspoken. In fact, he is a whiff of fresh air.

Normally we enjoy talks at the Nerja History Group, but José Manuel, 26 years in the classroom, sparked a lively debate.  He also put the present in some perspective, offered us an unusually optimistic view of the future and brought history to life."(Thanks ever so much for your encouraging words)

 I´ve always harboured a visceral distrust, disdain and repulsion for unfounded authoritarian sheepdogs and those who live in thrall to them and their rules which benefit  them....