Spanish Culture

Britain’s financial press – with the FT and the Economist leading the way – has achieved something Spanish politicians haven’t managed since the start of the recession: to bring the Spanish media almost together in defence of Zapatero.

The socialist mayor in the northern Spanish town of Logroño has decided to publish the town’s official 2010 calendar and celebrate the birth of Mohammed and Pakistan’s Independence day, but not Christmas or Spain’s national holiday.

Tragedy has struck in a Madrid hospital but are systemic failures in Spanish nursing responsible? Baby Rayan – the two week-old premature son of Spain’s first swine flu victim has been killed by what Madrid health authorities are calling a ‘ghastly error’.

In The Times archive, there are a number of interesting articles about the Spanish Civil War, but I clicked through to an editorial article published four months before the start of the civil war, in February 1936, entitled ‘A Left Turn in Spain’.

After listing the most typical Spanish stereotypes held by foreigners and causing something of a debate, a reader asked me for my opinion on those stereotypes after living in Spain for 10 years. The answers might surprise you.

Donkeys, flamenco, sangría, big hats, lazy siestas and bullfighting? A client asked me to write down this list of the most typical Spanish stereotypes that exist in the minds of foreigners who have never visited Spain or who have never bothered to find out more.

When you first meet them up-close and speaking at a higher volume than you’re used to, you might think Spanish people were rude: you would be wrong. Spanish ‘loudness‘ or ‘rudeness‘ is one of the most remarked upon aspects of the Spanish character by foreigners.