What Spain Are You From?
People think of Spain and flamenco dancers pop into their head. So do bull fights, or the running of the bulls in Pamplona. Maybe beaches. Youngsters in the north of Europe will think of Mallorca and the drunken revelries. But not one of these things is relevant to all of Spain. There is no one tradition that defines Spanish culture. Most likely that is true of just about every country in Europe. Southern France will have different customs from northern France. In fact, there are ethnic minorities in France few are aware of. There are German speakers in Alsace-Lorraine, Catalans and Basques near the Pyrenees, and Celtic Bretons in Brittany. Yet one could say France has been pretty much one country since Louis the Pious in the 800's. Not Spain. Even after the Reconquest and the capitulation of Granada in 1492, the kingdom of Spain was shaky. The Catholic Monarchs were monarchs of their own kingdoms within Spain over which the other had limited rights. Even after the consolidation of the Spanish state under their son, Charles V, people from Extremadura were leery of people from Aragón, for example. So, of course there is no one Spain. There are many Spains.
True flamenco belongs to Andalucía. That is the region that was longest under Moorish rule and flamenco is an amalgam of Christian, Arabic, and Jewish cultures. Bull fights probably originated around Valencia or Murcia, areas invaded and settled by Greeks. After all, bull fighting originated in Minoan Crete. In the northwest we have bagpipes, but they were really introduced in the eighteenth century when nationalisms began to arise and we declared ourselves descendants of the Celts. Cataluña seems to have melded selections from different cultures with which they were in contact across the Mediterranean. And they were probably influenced by their Carthaginian and Phoenician origin. The Basques have totally different points of view and remained separate from the Spanish mainstream until well into the nineteenth century and the development of industry. There were areas in the mountainous Basque country where no Spanish was spoken for hundreds of years.
The difference in languages are another sign of the different Spains. You can trace the history of the peninsula in them. Catalan is spoken in both the Spanish and French Catalunya. It comes from the Latin (like every language in western Europe except Basque) and sounds like a cross between Italian, French, and Castilian. Some words can be traced to Italian or French, such as vull (want). In Italian it's volere and in French vouloir, whereas in Spanish it's querer. In it is the history of Mediterranean traders and a broader outlook than most other Spanish regions. In Galicia Gallego sounds like a cross between Castilian and Portuguese, and has evolved separately from Portuguese since the independence of Portugal. Bable in Asturias is in a delicate situation but still hanging in there. It has elements from Gallego and Castilian and pre-Roman languages. In Aragón the original language is Aragonés and shares traits with Catalán and Castilian. Of course, in the Basque provinces Euskera takes the cake. Nobody knows yet the origin of Euskera. It has even been proposed that it is the remnant of languages spoken in the region before Indo-European languages ever arrived in western Europe. Castilian, which originated in the Cantabrian mountains from Latin, became dominant as it was the language of the fighters who began the Reconquest. They took their language southwards, towards the Castiles, Andalucía, Extremadura, and Murcia. It thus ended up becoming the dominant political language of the peninsula.
Spain began as many Spains and has been gradually welded into one unit. If the history of the Reconquest had been different, it is conceivable that Spain would resemble the Scandinavian peninsula. Countries with shared customs and similar languages, but different points of view that keep them separate. Each region has a different outlook on life and on its neighbors. Our different languages have helped us maintain different customs. It could account for our individualism and how we tend to go different ways to try to get to the same point. We get together for major disasters and threats, such as the terrorist attack in Madrid in 2004. But quibbles and regional distrust prevent us from forming a strong front on daily problems.
Spain is different.
True flamenco belongs to Andalucía. That is the region that was longest under Moorish rule and flamenco is an amalgam of Christian, Arabic, and Jewish cultures. Bull fights probably originated around Valencia or Murcia, areas invaded and settled by Greeks. After all, bull fighting originated in Minoan Crete. In the northwest we have bagpipes, but they were really introduced in the eighteenth century when nationalisms began to arise and we declared ourselves descendants of the Celts. Cataluña seems to have melded selections from different cultures with which they were in contact across the Mediterranean. And they were probably influenced by their Carthaginian and Phoenician origin. The Basques have totally different points of view and remained separate from the Spanish mainstream until well into the nineteenth century and the development of industry. There were areas in the mountainous Basque country where no Spanish was spoken for hundreds of years.
The difference in languages are another sign of the different Spains. You can trace the history of the peninsula in them. Catalan is spoken in both the Spanish and French Catalunya. It comes from the Latin (like every language in western Europe except Basque) and sounds like a cross between Italian, French, and Castilian. Some words can be traced to Italian or French, such as vull (want). In Italian it's volere and in French vouloir, whereas in Spanish it's querer. In it is the history of Mediterranean traders and a broader outlook than most other Spanish regions. In Galicia Gallego sounds like a cross between Castilian and Portuguese, and has evolved separately from Portuguese since the independence of Portugal. Bable in Asturias is in a delicate situation but still hanging in there. It has elements from Gallego and Castilian and pre-Roman languages. In Aragón the original language is Aragonés and shares traits with Catalán and Castilian. Of course, in the Basque provinces Euskera takes the cake. Nobody knows yet the origin of Euskera. It has even been proposed that it is the remnant of languages spoken in the region before Indo-European languages ever arrived in western Europe. Castilian, which originated in the Cantabrian mountains from Latin, became dominant as it was the language of the fighters who began the Reconquest. They took their language southwards, towards the Castiles, Andalucía, Extremadura, and Murcia. It thus ended up becoming the dominant political language of the peninsula.
Spain began as many Spains and has been gradually welded into one unit. If the history of the Reconquest had been different, it is conceivable that Spain would resemble the Scandinavian peninsula. Countries with shared customs and similar languages, but different points of view that keep them separate. Each region has a different outlook on life and on its neighbors. Our different languages have helped us maintain different customs. It could account for our individualism and how we tend to go different ways to try to get to the same point. We get together for major disasters and threats, such as the terrorist attack in Madrid in 2004. But quibbles and regional distrust prevent us from forming a strong front on daily problems.
Spain is different.
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