''Tal vez si Manolo no se hubiera presentado como policía, el bedel habría preguntado si él mismo no era el cabroncito'' (little twerp) aquel que se le escapaba todos los días a las doce y cuarto descolgándose por el patio de educación física'' (39)
- In this instant he looks like a small twerp presenting to the reader an image of a small skinny man.

   2.Conde insists Manolo is cross-eyed-
"Era el caso de bizquera intermitente más singular que el Conde hubiese visto" (54)
¿Por fin tu eres bizco, Manolo? (78)

     3. A womanizer who shows excessive interest in sexual matters.

Manolo se acercó
...pero muy lejos de 
la conversación....
estaría observando a 
las muchachas , respirando el aroma de tantas virginidades amenazadas... (46)

-Coño, Manolo, si no es Adriana es su hermana, tú siempre tienes el mismo lío."  (49)
-Has had many girlfriends, shows little regard for the women. (50)

Objectifies womn often, always referring to their bodies as a source of pleasure.
"una mulata con el culo mas duro"
"Mira como me tiene..."

 

          4.  One of Manolo's traits is that he likes speed, cars and adrenaline.







        We see this in his first appearance- when he     came to meet Conde in Lisette's apartment- "un auto enloquecido que doblaba en la esquina y frenaba con chillido de caucho calcinado frente al edificio de Lissette..." (37)

  He later crosses a train line without slowing down giving the reader the impression he enjoys the adrenaline rush.

"Ve suave Manolo, por una vez en tu vida" (98)

"—¿De verdad 

—Me gusta la locura —admitió Manolo, que atravesó la línea del tren sin alterar la velocidad" (49)

He is a dedicated police officer.

Tough Cop- very firm in his interviews (Caridad Delgado y Pupy) , a toughness Conde admires and tries to emulate in his absence "en su honor". (74)

"No vuelva a hablar si no le pregunto...se calla!" (161-1)

Despite all this, funnily enough, Manolo is actually afraid of dogs! He avoids questioning Dagmar because of his "fobia perruna". (71)

But Manolo knows not to push his limits with Conde or question him- "Manolo no se atrevió a preguntar" (113)

"Casi dos años de trabajo y convivencia con el Conde le habían enseñado al sargento Manuel Palacios a no hacer preguntas cuando su jefe le pedía algo que pudiera parecer insólito. La fama del Conde como el loco de la Central no eran simples habladurías y Manolo lo había comprobado más de una vez" (83)

They really enjoyed working with and had mutual admiration for one another, despite their differences, which is what makes them a good team. They complement one another.

"Aunque eran dos personalidades tan opuestas los meses que llevaban trabajando juntos les había creado una dependencia mutua que ambos disfrutaban..." (213)


Not enough trust?
Despite how close they are and how well they work as a team, Conde doesn't include Manolo in his unlawful ventures, such as visiting Candito in order to obtain information. He goes alone. (80)

 "Mientras Manolo apuntaba algunos datos del expediente laboral de la joven asesinada.... el Conde salió al patio con la intención de fumarse un cigarro" -Manolo does the work El Conde doesn't want to do.


Manolo casts Conde in a better light, and one of his functions in the novel is to speak to Conde's character.
           "Pero el sargento lo admiraba, como no había admirado a casi nadie en su vida, pues sabía que trabajar con el Conde era una fiesta y un privilegio." (83-84)

 

           

"According to Dove (1982), whereas the Classical amateur detectives rely on ratiocination and scientific explanation and the “hard-boiled” private investigators on canniness and agility, the police detectives follow certain police routines, such as using informants, stalking suspects, and making use of crime laboratory and forensics in their investigation activities." (Primasita, Ahimsa-Putra, 35)

When it comes to the investigation method, Conde and Manolo go about it in opposite ways. Conde always follows his intuition and does whatever it takes to get the job done, anything but the paperwork, while Manolo is more by the books, does the necessary police work, listens to orders and follows the protocol almost to a tee.

There are times when Manolo's hard work is undermined by Conde's impulsiveness.

 

            Danyte, Milda. Introduction to the Analysis of Crime Fiction. Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas, 2011, vb.vdu.lt/object/elaba:4626326/4626326.pdf.

             

            Dove, N. George. The Police Procedural. Popular Press,1981.

           
            "La Habana no agunta mas” YouTube, uploaded by Gerardo Garcia, 24 April 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mwEUie1-uc

             Padura, Leonardo. Vientos de cuaresma. Maxi Tusquetes, Barcelona, 2016.

 

             Primasita, Fitria Akhmerti, Ahimsa-Putra, Heddy Shri. “An Introduction to the Police Procedural: A Subgenre of the Detective Genre”. Humaniora, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2019, pp. 33-40,  jurnal.ugm.ac.id/jurnal-humaniora/article/view/15309
 

             Vientos de la Habana. Directed by  Félix Viscarret and written by Lucia Lopez Coll and Leonardo Padura,  Hernández y Fernández Producciones Cinematográficas, 2016, Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/80149088. 

 

When doing this project, we originally divided the content into four sections- the four columns of the padlet, and focused on those. However, when we each had outlined our section, everyone added and edited all posts and sections. Personally, I was focused on the genre conventions, but also had a general overview and worked on design.

 

This project has been challenging yet engaging in my opinion. I enjoyed being able to express my knowledge in a creative forum, where design was central. The challenge presented itself in the choice of what to include on the paddled. In terms of the creative aspect of this project, I wanted to include more interactive media, and therefore added a music video to inform the setting of the story. As a group we also included plenty of pictures, to break up the arguments, and secondary sources so that readers could expand their understanding of the topic should they wish.

 

Working in this way has been beneficial to me, as the continuous work on the padlet has allowed me to immerse myself in the topic, to a larger degree than a power point would. I am proud of what we have produced. 

Everyone in my group did their part and we all even helped each other, so it really was a group effort. Often in group projects the members find it difficult to plan a time where everyone can meet and discuss the assignment objectives that suits everyone’s timetables, but we did manage to meet up twice. One thing we could have done better was practicing the presentation itself or create notecards for the presentation so we wouldn’t be reading off the Padlet. Doing this would have helped us keep the presentation at ten minutes and present our points and research more clearly and concisely. 

 

I felt that having girls who were confident in their Spanish really encouraged me to strive to show my own knowledge within the group. Each person was extremely diligent with their own role yet allowed their knowledge to be shared among the group if they felt it could be of benefit to another member. I really appreciated everyone’s opinions, decisions and choices were made as a collective rather than individually.

 

I found this project a great way to be creative with the knowledge we learnt. Writing essays can often be monotonous yet the padlet presentation brought a new and engaging way to express your knowledge.  I personally would like to see more of this method being used as it shows a much wider range of investigation rather than an essay style format. Overall, I really enjoyed this group presentation and had a lot of fun creating it!