¡Viva España!: An insight on Spanish culture and history, as well as society [PART 1]
¡Hola amigos!
Don't get the pun ?
Tabi said 'Hola amigo' during BIGBANG's concert in Peru in 2012. Yaaayyy.
In my noble hopes of trying to culturize this website - insert meme of your preference here -, I decided to write this blogpost with my own insights Spain and answering your questions of the country.
FIRST OF ALL, I'M NOT SPANISH !! Okay.
I DO LIVE IN SPAIN FOR A LOOOONG TIME.
I DO HAVE 90% OF MY FRIENDS HERE.
I DID STUDY 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th GRADES HERE.
BUT.I'M.NOT.FRIGGIN.SPANISH.ever heard of a country named portugal ? no ? dammit.
So, this blog post is quite special... It's made from the point of view from a foreigner who's almost a native. I know it sounds beautiful.
Apparently, life had decided that I should live abroad ! With an angolan war refugee mother - yes my mother is african got a problem bro -, almost angolan grandparents (also war refugees) and family i-don't-know-where it was obvious that my life wasn't going to be spent in my birth country ! At least it has been pacific.
Enough with the blabbering and let's straight to the main point peaches.
1. Geography and climate.
Spain is a country in southern Europe that borders with the following countries: Portugal, Andorra, France and, even though it's not a country, Gibraltar (property of the UK); and is located in a peninsula called the Iberian Peninsula.
I live in the Pyrenees, a mountainous range that naturally divides the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe. The Pyrenees are also considered the natural border between Spain and France. And here in the middle, 50km away from my house, there's this little, tiny country named Andorra which you could call a 'mini-Switzerland'.
Reasons why Andorra might be a mini-Switzerland: Tax haven, Ski resorts, country with no sea boards, loads of portuguese people, super high minimum salaries, for not mentioning others.
Opposite to what you might think: Spain actually is a pretty mountainous country ! Officially, even if it sounds unbelievable, the SECOND MOST MOuNTAINOUS COUNTRY OF EUROPE (Only beat by Switzerland, ehh).
Spain, in most of its territory, has mediterranean climate. Super dry and hot during summer - which I presumably assume that's why everyone thinks here's a good weather paradise - BUT FRIGGIN COLD DURING WINTER.
Atlantic climate - the same as Portugal has - exists in the northern part of Spain, including Galícia. Atlantic climate is harsher because it's not dry.
Biggest mountainous ranges of Spain are (those are the IMPORTANT ones I studied in 9th grade so it's REALLY accurate - I'm going to put the spanish names, if you don't mind ):
Sistema Cantábrico (Picos de Europa, Montes Vascos, Montes de León, Macizo Galaico).
Sistema Pirenaico (Prepirineos).
Sistema Costero Catalán (Cordillera Litoral, Cordillera Prelitoral).
Sistema Ibérico (Picos de Urbión).
Sistema Central (Sierra de Guadarrama).
Sierra de Guadalupe.
Sierra Morena.
Sistema Bético.
Sistema Subbético (Sierra de Cazorla).
Sistema Prebético.
Sistema Penibético (Sierra Nevada).
As for beaches:
Mediterranian Sea (South of Spain): Costa Brava, Costa del Maresme, Costa Dorada, Costa de Azahar, Costa de Valencia, Costa Blanca, Costa Cálida, Costa de Almería, Costa Tropical, Costa del Sol and Costa de La Luz.
Atlantic Sea (North of Spain except for Costa de La Luz): Part of Costa de la Luz, Costa de Galícia, Costa Verde, Costa de Cantabria and Costa Vasca.
2. Political division.
Spain is divided in 17 'Comunidades Autónomas' and 2 'Ciudades Autónomas'... Spain has a descentralized government.
Don't understand ?
Spain is just like the United States: The territory is divided in different regions/states, each one with its own government; but they all obey to the central government - in the US, Washington; in Spain, Madrid.
Ceuta and Melilla are two cities located in Africa, but they still are a part of Spain. Since they can't be Comunidades Autónomas, they are Ciudades Autónomas.
This list of Comunidades Autónomas isn't made by me (Taken from El Abuelo Educa) but it's a good list, where you have the name of the Comunidad Autónoma, a list of the important cities and the bolded city is the capital.
GALICIA: La Coruña, Lugo, Orense and Pontevedra. Capital: Santiago de Compostela
PRINCIPADO DE ASTURIAS: Asturias. Capital: Oviedo
CANTABRIA: Santander. Capital: Santander
PAÍS VASCO: Álava (capital Vitoria), Guipúzcoa (capital San Sebastián) and Vizcaya (capital Bilbao). Vitoria is the capital of the Government, but there's no official capital.
COMUNIDAD FORAL DE NAVARRA: Navarra. Capital: Pamplona
LA RIOJA: La Rioja. Capital: Logroño
ARAGÓN: Huesca, Zaragoza i Teruel. Capital: Zaragoza
CATALUÑA: Barcelona, Tarragona, Lérida i Gerona. Capital: Barcelona
ISLAS BALEARES: Archipelago formed by 5 islands:
Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza, Formentera and Cabrera, in one province: Baleares. Capital: Palma de Mallorca
ISLAS CANARIAS: Archipelago formed by 7 islands:
Provincia de Santa Cruz de Tenerife with Tenerife, La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro. Capital: Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Provincia de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria con Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Capital: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Canaria's Islands capitality was decided in 1927 to be shared between Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
COMUNIDAD VALENCIANA: Castellón, Valencia and Alicante. Capital: Valencia
REGIÓN DE MURCIA: Murcia. Capital: Murcia
ANDALUCIA: Almería, Granada, Córdoba, Jaén, Sevilla, Málaga, Cádiz and Huelva. Capital: Sevilla
CASTILLA Y LEÓN: León, Palencia, Salamanca, Burgos, Zamora, Valladolid, Soria, Segovia and Ávila. There's no official capital but government is installed in Valladolid.
COMUNIDAD DE MADRID: Madrid. Capital: Madrid
CASTILLA LA MANCHA: Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Albacete. Capital: Toledo
EXTREMADURA: Cáceres and Badajoz. Capital: Mérida
Map of Comunidades Autónomas:
2.1 Indepentist movements in Cataluña, País Vasco and Comunitat Valenciana.
Since I live in one of these regions (Cataluña in spanish, Catalunya in catalan, Catalonia in english), I wanted to share this. Catalonia has a strong desire of becoming independent. If you ever come here to Catalonia, you'll barely see any Spanish flags.
Instead, you'll see one of these flags:
The first two are INDEPENTIST flags, not accepted by the Spanish Government. Their name is Estelada (From the star, 'estel' in Catalan). The third flag is the 'official' and the only one accepted by the Spanish Government. Its name is Senyera.
This desire of independence goes as far as:
-Hating on 'spanish people' (People from other Comunidades Autónomas)
-Hate towards 'Spain', especially Madrid (Great part of the hate between Real Madrid and Barça actually comes from here)
-Refusal of using spanish language. During the Post-Guerra period (Between 1939 and 1974, after the civil war), catalan was a forbidden language. With this imposition of spanish language, things ended up like:
You speak to people in spanish and they only reply to you in catalan, they don't even care if you understand them or not. This happens to my mother at the place she works - nursing home -, where a couple of grandfathers and grandmothers ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to say something in Spanish.
-I've seen vans and trucks with the message of 'CATALONIA IS NOT SPAIN' more than 20 times in the last year.
-Infinite hate towards Real Madrid, Madrid and anything related to it.
-Xenophobia (Not everyone, but many people)
I personally I'm in favor of their independence, but I don't tolerate such attitudes... Sometimes even my classmates are like that and -______-.
As for País Vasco, they also want to be independent, as well in the Comunitat Valenciana. What happens is that they're not as 'important' or have such media impact as Catalan movements for independence. Well, País Vasco had this terrorist organization, ETA; which, in part, wanted the independence of País Vasco, but that organization disappeared in 2009 or 2010 if I do remember well.
Well, this is soooo long. I'll continue this post, keep on the loop guys :)
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