Well, a few of you know for a fact that I am very proud of being Spanish. Some confuse it with Hispanic, which overall involves any Spanish-Speaking country such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia... etc. But no, I'm from Spain. In Europe. Here's a lovely picture of where my country is.
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There. It is situated beside Portugal and below France. It lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Now, let's talk about my history.
Spain! What comes to mind when you think of Spain? (If you immediately ought Sombreros or tacos, please, just... no. Nobody would associate tea with an American, would they? Or canguroos? Or fucking anything that's not American? Exactly). Well, some would think Sevillanas (the dance, guys, flamenco dancing), vestidos de gitanas (gypsy dresses, which is what girls dance flamenco in) and maybe paella (ah, seafood and nice, yellow rice with all these ingredients I don't know how they're called in English).
Well, surprise surprise! Most of it only happens in the south! In fact, in the capital, none of this shit actually is a thing!
Spain is divided in Autonomous Communities, which then are divided into Provinces. Madrid is a one-province Autonomous Community, and also the capital. Andalucía, the absolute south, is the Autonomous Community that I belong to. It is the equivalent of redneck territory. I'm talking the equivalent of everything - accent, closed minded, a lot of religion - but instead of cowboys or whatever you guys have, we have gypsies. LOTS of gypsies.
The south is... well, it's the beach. I live in the utter south, Province of Cádiz, and in Cádiz, my hometown is San Fernando. It's also called the Island, La Isla, because it is ALMOST a little teeny tiny island. I've lived there for eleven years.
It's practically beach everywhere. The humity is inhumane, the heatunbearable on summers and let's not talk about the lack of proper pronounciation of the cultured Spanish I love so much.
But it's home. And when I go every summer, the ocean calls out every sunset for me to see. It is relaxing as fuck, and I wouldn't change a single thing about it.
The streets are thin, the traffic is decent, the people are loud and friendly and football (oh, soccer, sorry) plays on every tv. Seafood is a must there, and thank God because in Madrid, it's awful.
I guess I should put something from my family now, don't I?
Now, it's funny, because unless you're from Spain, then you've never heard of my great-grandfather or my grandpa. My family is full of military people. I'm talking full-on marine boys. My dad. My grandpa. My greT-grandpa. And from my mother's side, too!
My uncle is also a catedrático on the University of Medicine in Sevilla, so that's pretty big. Uh, my dad is about to reach General, which is the highest position you can get as a Marine. And my mom did like, three careers back in her day.
My family has culture. Like, a lot of it, wars and medicine and laws and everything in between. Influential people are family friends. My dad isn't a fascist and wow, that is amazing because we are all from the South and that's a big thing.
Spain right now is in a bit of trouble. What you Americans (I am generalizing here, and I know it, because there are Mibbians who are, in fact, not Americans, but since most are...) call Republicans, we call Conservatives and the Liberalists are the Republicans. Now that's explained, let me just tell you what's going on.
As some of you may know, in Spain there is a Democratic Monarchy. We have a King and Queen (wasting money and making shit ton of social contradictions, but they're still there) and the only reason they're still King and Queen is because the government is mostly made of conservatives or Slight Liberalists. The thing is, our State is full of corruption to the point where that's what the News is all about.
Also, there's been passed a new law in which, if you talk negatively about the Monarchy, you can be accused of Treason.
People want the Republic. Desperately. The thing is, Spain has already had two Republics and... well, they ended up pretty badly.
Now, though, the Republican side is winning the elections. Funny thing is, the Republican side has won via communism. That's right, you stars and stripes loving freaks (I'm saying it jokingly, please, don't delete this blog), Spain may just turn into a Communist country!
I'm bashing on Spain now, aren't I?
We are almost an island, guys, we have pretty beaches. Coasts. We also have the biggest deficiency ever in education. And homophobia is not a big deal. Neither is racism. It's xenophobia and terrorism what we worry about. Wait, what...?
Oh, yeah! Spain has been a CENTURY under islamic influence! Especially on the south (Jesus CHRIST, it's pretty as hell, guys, you have no idea how amazing the arabic culture is, I SWEAR). The thing is, all these extremesist are using young people to turn to yihad groups because they're fooling them into thinking that's their culture and their past. So yeah, yihad? A big deal here.
This is so sad, it was supposed to be a nice blog.
Oh, well, from the 28th of June to the 5th of July, the very first LGBTQ+ flag will be held in Cibeles (Madrid! Right here!) and there will even be a drag show held at night! Guys! And a law has been passed by the government to protect Queer Youth!
Progress!
Also, here's a picture of the Cibeles. BOOM.
¡Muuuuchas gracias por leer! Thank you for reading! ¡ADIOS!