Americans Spain

Ever since Ernest Hemingway first wrote about angry bulls thundering through the streets of Pamplona more than half a century ago, Spain has enjoyed great cachet among American expatriates seeking romance and adventure. Bill Brownell, a would-be novelist at 73, is just such a character, having quit his desk job in Los Angeles 25 years ago to become a struggling writer in a sleepy Spanish fishing port. "I wanted to get out of the rat race," Brownell said.

Belen Mozo came from Cadiz, Spain, to USC because she liked to play golf but especially liked the USC sweatshirt she saw on some forgettable character in the teen-angst television series "The O.C. " Mozo was then a teen, after all. Drawn to Los Angeles because of a cool sweatshirt, Mozo, 22, left USC last summer as a four-time golf All-American, with a degree in international relations, a boyfriend from the tennis team and a plan for the next part...

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of an Orange County man in Spain 1 1/2 years ago has been solved. Forensic authorities identified a body recovered from a grave as that of Steve Juggert, 30. Two men had told police they had buried a robbery victim in the grave. Although the grave was unearthed in December, it took Spanish officials until last month to positively identify the remains as those of Juggert, an Orange resident who disappeared in December, 1988, while traveling in Europe.

A leisurely Iberian travelogue, "Americano" stars Joshua Jackson as a recent college grad reevaluating his options toward the end of a European sojourn with his friends Ryan (Timm Sharp) and Michelle (Ruthanna Hopper). Chris McKinley (Jackson) and pals are in Pamplona for the running of the bulls with three days remaining before they return to the U.S. and the impending responsibilities of adulthood begin to sink in.

A U.S. citizen convicted of selling nuclear arms parts to Israel has been arrested in Spain after 16 years on the run, police said Monday. Richard Kelly Smith, 71, escaped before being sentenced in the U.S. on 15 counts of exporting nuclear arms technology and 15 counts of falsification of documents. He was picked up two weeks ago in Malaga on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, where he had been living since 1985, police said. Spain's High Court will now consider whether to extradite him.

The president of the Church of Scientology and 10 other members arrested in an investigation of alleged fraud and tax evasion have been released on more than $1 million bail, their lawyer said Sunday. A judge's order releasing church President Heber Jentzsch, an American, and the others came Saturday after facts were presented that "corrected" some allegations against the group, said the lawyer, Jose Luis Chamorro. Jentzsch, 53, a native of Salt Lake City, lives in Los Angeles.

An American photographer who insisted that he was duped by a drug ring was convicted Tuesday of drug trafficking and sentenced to six years and one day in prison despite a personal plea on his behalf by U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III. A three-judge tribunal of the Barcelona Provincial Court said the prosecution proved that Conan Owen, 23, of Annandale, Va., knew there was cocaine in the suitcase he carried on a flight from Santiago, Chile, to Barcelona on March 13, 1987.

A 21-year-old American woman suffered a fractured skull in the running of the bulls Saturday, the final day of the weeklong San Fermin festival, a hospital spokesman said. Stephanie Kern was in serious condition after she was knocked down by a bull during the run at the festival made famous by author Ernest Hemingway, the spokesman said. Kern, who will be a college senior in Conway, S.C., and her mother arrived in Pamplona on Wednesday.

When Audie Norris, a former Portland Trail Blazer, left the Italian league to play in Spain in 1987, everyone told him he had made a foolish mistake. Spanish basketball was bush. Coaches, players, sportswriters warned him, "You are just going to fade away in Spain." But the 30-year-old, 6-foot-9 American from Mississippi has hardly faded away. His team, Barcelona, the Spanish champions, now ranks with the tops in Europe.

A young American on his first trip abroad joined the street frenzy of Pamplona's running of the bulls Thursday, only to fall onto the cobblestones and be fatally gored by a charging 1,100-pound bull. Matthew P. Tassio, 22, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., died at Navarra Hospital shortly after he was lacerated in the midsection by the long horns of one of six fighting bulls in the run made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."

A U.S. citizen convicted of selling nuclear arms parts to Israel has been arrested in Spain after 16 years on the run, police said Monday. Richard Kelly Smith, 71, escaped before being sentenced in the U.S. on 15 counts of exporting nuclear arms technology and 15 counts of falsification of documents. He was picked up two weeks ago in Malaga on the Costa del Sol in southern Spain, where he had been living since 1985, police said. Spain's High Court will now consider whether to extradite him.

Claremont McKenna College student Brad Kertson holds a pizza in his lap as he rides a bus from Madrid to Valencia. His maroon-and-white shirt accentuates Arnold Schwarzenegger-size arms. During the four-hour drive to the Mediterranean coast, the 21-year-old international studies major offers an interpretation of why surrealist art took hold in Spain when it did. "I think Franco's period of authoritarian rule generated an artistic response," he suggests.

A young American on his first trip abroad joined the street frenzy of Pamplona's running of the bulls Thursday, only to fall onto the cobblestones and be fatally gored by a charging 1,100-pound bull. Matthew P. Tassio, 22, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., died at Navarra Hospital shortly after he was lacerated in the midsection by the long horns of one of six fighting bulls in the run made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel "The Sun Also Rises."

Ever since Ernest Hemingway first wrote about angry bulls thundering through the streets of Pamplona more than half a century ago, Spain has enjoyed great cachet among American expatriates seeking romance and adventure. Bill Brownell, a would-be novelist at 73, is just such a character, having quit his desk job in Los Angeles 25 years ago to become a struggling writer in a sleepy Spanish fishing port. "I wanted to get out of the rat race," Brownell said.

Sandra Myers knew the song; they used to play it for her in the early 1980s, back when she was a top-notch American hurdler, back when she was a record-holder. She heard "The Star Spangled Banner" a lot in those days. But as Myers stood on the victory platform in Seville last March and listened to the U.S. anthem played for another runner, something caught in her throat. "Every now and then there's a little twinge," she said. It has been almost four years since Myers traded in her U.S.

When Audie Norris, a former Portland Trail Blazer, left the Italian league to play in Spain in 1987, everyone told him he had made a foolish mistake. Spanish basketball was bush. Coaches, players, sportswriters warned him, "You are just going to fade away in Spain." But the 30-year-old, 6-foot-9 American from Mississippi has hardly faded away. His team, Barcelona, the Spanish champions, now ranks with the tops in Europe.

Sandra Myers knew the song; they used to play it for her in the early 1980s, back when she was a top-notch American hurdler, back when she was a record-holder. She heard "The Star Spangled Banner" a lot in those days. But as Myers stood on the victory platform in Seville last March and listened to the U.S. anthem played for another runner, something caught in her throat. "Every now and then there's a little twinge," she said. It has been almost four years since Myers traded in her U.S.

Weary of the frenetic pace of his sales job, Steve Juggert set out a year ago today for the back roads of Western Europe and the Middle East on a journey of self-discovery. The 30-year-old Orange man began his trip in Spain, carrying with him only a backpack, a camera and a note pad in which to chronicle his adventures. In his only letter home, postmarked Dec.

A 21-year-old American woman suffered a fractured skull in the running of the bulls Saturday, the final day of the weeklong San Fermin festival, a hospital spokesman said. Stephanie Kern was in serious condition after she was knocked down by a bull during the run at the festival made famous by author Ernest Hemingway, the spokesman said. Kern, who will be a college senior in Conway, S.C., and her mother arrived in Pamplona on Wednesday.

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of an Orange County man in Spain 1 1/2 years ago has been solved. Forensic authorities identified a body recovered from a grave as that of Steve Juggert, 30. Two men had told police they had buried a robbery victim in the grave. Although the grave was unearthed in December, it took Spanish officials until last month to positively identify the remains as those of Juggert, an Orange resident who disappeared in December, 1988, while traveling in Europe.