I am taking Spanish lessons. It is part of an initiative that will lead to an active Latin America practice for the firm, but that practice has not yet materialized. This week, I want to share some reflections on my favorite Spanish word. It is a word that comes from Spain and its literal meaning may become archaic if current trends persist, but the word will endure. That word is querencia. Its literal meaning is the area of the bullfighting arena where the bull feels most comfortable in its struggle against the matador.

Ernest Hemingway did a better job than any dictionary in explaining a querencia:

“A querencia is a place the bull naturally wants to go in the ring, a preferred locality. That is a natural querencia and such are well known and fixed, but an accidental querencia is more than that. It is a place which develops in the course of the fight where the bull makes his home. It does not usually show at once, but develops in his brain as the fight goes on. In this place he feels that he has his back against the wall and in his querencia he is inestimably more dangerous and almost impossible to kill.” Death in the Afternoon

Having witnessed a bullfight whilst I spent part of a summer in Madrid, I have an experiential connection with querencia and that experience is probably what drew me to the word when I later encountered it. Even without understanding the nuances of the matador’s artistry and despite how most of the crowd waived bandanas shouting Cambie! Cambie! for most of the fight (for they were unimpressed with the bull and wanted it replaced), the whole thing was intoxicating.

Yet it is not querencia’s association with Spain that makes me appreciate the word; in many ways that link is a negative as I enjoyed too few aspects of that summer. It is instead how the word transcends its literal meaning to describe a powerful metaphysical concept. I have been in a liminal living situation for the past six months, my things in storage and no physical space I could claim as my querencia. I will be moving into my new apartment next week and am looking forward to making that space (and its dedicated home office) my querencia. That is why I have been thinking about the word so much recently. In the metaphorical sense, I have found a querencia in those moments of flow state, jazz or piano instrumentals playing on Spotify, as I have worked on a project in these early weeks of our new firm. My goal is to find that place more often and more readily in my new physical space.

Maybe spend a few minutes to reflect on your own querencia. Where are you most at ease? Where would you be most ready to make your final stand? If you want to go deeper, spend a few more minutes reflecting on how you reach your querencia state. If you find a pattern that gets to that magical place, then you can repeat it.

P.S. The bull only finds its accidental querencia during the bullfight. Maybe we too need to be in a struggle to find the place where we are most dangerous, most at ease, most ready to win.