Spanish fans, or el abanico, remain important culturally in Spain. Locating them in America, however, is something I do more with my fingertips (typing into a search bar) than with my feet. Until this week.

My family enjoys thrifting and antiquing, so it's not uncommon for us to shop. It's just uncommon that I find miniature fans. When I popped in the shop this week, within moments I've found a Spanish tourist fan. Although I have several of these, I picked this one up for the sheer joy of finding it, and also because it featured multiple flamenco dancers. My Aunt Audrey lovingly sent to me a flamingo doll while she lived in Spain.

5 or 10 minutes later, I was surprised to find a Marin Chiclana. It wasn't that I had never seen one. But I had never seen one that tiny. And more importantly, I had never seen one with the cardboard fan. The ones I've seen have always had plastic fans. I didn't happen to buy that doll (I don't have room for storage of a large number of dolls), but I was grateful to photograph it and to now know that there are multiple types of fans for these dolls.

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