The Dystopian Times, 27. Don't Worship a Piece of Cloth

This morning, as I was returning home from visiting a couple of shops in our town, I saw a horse-drawn carriage backing up traffic on the incoming lane. It was a fine, light grey horse (I don't know the names of the different horse colors) trotting and pulling an open cart that would have looked at home doing the pilgrimage to the shrine of the Virgen del Rocío down in Huelva. It was open, with a pole at each corner, holding a tassled canopy over the cart. The horse was wearing blinders. Nevertheless, I slowed down as much as possible when I passed it, if only to look at its splendor. The car coming behind me at a length didn't do much of slowing in the way of courtesy, but the horse wasn't rattled; it was used to trotting along with motor traffic.

I have no idea where they were from, and what they were doing coming into town like that. In normal times, this Saturday would have been the first day of our festival of the Virxe de Guadalupe. Perhaps they came because they were going to go to Mass on Sunday? That's all there will be this year, in way of celebration. There will be Masses at the chapel, with limited attendance, and that's it, not even the boat procession. 

The only fly in the ointment of the grandeur of the cart and its horse was a small Spanish flag flying behind it. Years ago, I wouldn't have thought twice of it. But in the meantime, the far right and the extremist "patriots" have appropriated the Spanish flag for their own purposes. It is supposed to represent the unity of a variegated country. But now, to me, it represents the narrow-minded view of what that unity should be. In the eyes of the extreme "patriots" it means that Spain is a homogeneous country, with no differences, all of us Spaniards under that one flag. 

But the unity of Spain is based on the unity of the different parts that make up the country, and each part is uniquely different from the other parts. If one were to travel from one end to the other, they would see that Galicia is vastly different from Andalucía, which is different from Catalunya, which is different from Castilla-León, etc. Each area, each region, has its own landscape, its own customs, and, sometimes, its own language. There are minority languages that are, unfortunately, dying out, and that aren't being taught. Each region is rich in different legends, beliefs, and even music. 

Those far right extremists would do away with those differences, and have us all believe that, wherever we come from, we have the same background. They, like Franco did, would have flamenco made the national dance, and the bullfights the national pastime. (While bullfights were part of the local traditions from the Meseta southward, in the north it was never very popular.) They would exchange a country with a medley of diverse traditions into a monotonous repetition of mediocrity. 

That is why I steer clear of people who vaunt their Spanishness by showing the Spanish flag at every opportunity. I become suspicious of those who wear face masks with the flag embroidered in a corner, or bracelets with the flag colors. Or put the flag on their Facebook profile picture. This started with the extremists doing their cultural appropriation of a symbol that was supposed to represent us all, and turning it into a symbol of their making. They converted it into a symbol of a monotonous country with no diversity, no color. They would rather have a country where we all share the same culture, the same beliefs, the same background, where nothing would be out of the ordinary. That is not the Spain I know.

In the United States, the flag represents a country that, rightly or wrongly sometimes, is united. While people may feel loyalty to their localities and regions, above all, they feel American. The flag represents them in their diversity. But that's just it. There is diversity in the United States, but there is a commonality that is much more intense than the commonality we have here in Spain. The American flag represents all Americans, regardless of the state they live in. But the Spanish flag doesn't represent all Spaniards. In Spain, a sizeable portion prefer their regional flag to the national one, because they feel loyalty to their region, first, and the larger country, second. 

Another reason I am suspicious of such flaunting, is that the flag is merely a symbol. It is not sacred. It represents an idea of a nation, with which not everyone may agree. I prefer to avoid it because I don't worship a colored cloth, nor a political idea of national unity. I would prefer that fellow citizens support and help each other, and see that a nation is composed of people that shore each other up, instead of tear others down because of differences of opinion.

Life continues.