Travel is good mental exercise. It forces you to re-evaluate your assumptions about people and places. It also helps refine the way you look at home when you return.
One of the reasons why Paula and I picked Spain was that we each had a passing familiarity with the language. Of course, when I say "passing familiarity" I mean that we've driven past the endless billboards on Interstate 95. We've also consumed our fair share of tequila and nachos. We figured that we'd at least recognize enough words to get us fed, drunk, and to the nearest washroom.
We knew, of course, that Spain is not Mexico. But as much as we prepared ourselves for that, our brains were still buzzing from cognitive dissonance throughout the trip. Paula has relatives in San Diego and had visited Tijuana. I spent many holidays and an entire summer once with my relatives in Las Cruces, and have vivid impressions of Juarez.
It was worse for me than for Paula, I think. The part of Andalusia we visited reminded me very much of the American Southwest. It was, after all, where they filmed the Spaghetti Westerns. So while the language was similar, and the countryside and climate were familiar, everything else was dramatically different.
We were somewhat prepared for the food. We love tapas. It was one of the main reasons we chose to visit Spain. But it was strange to sit in restaurants, listening to the language and reading the menu, and knowing that there won't be a tortilla in sight. I don't believe we saw a single item containing corn on any menu, anywhere. Corn is native to the Americas, as was the potato, but while the potato was in evidence, corn was shockingly absent.
We were not prepared for the wealth of Spain. Our experience of Mexico is sadly limited to marginal border towns. It's hard to break the link between that and Spain, onetime ruler of the largest empire on earth, gateway to the wealth of the New World, and master of the seas through the Spanish Armada. One look at any of Spain's magnificent Cathedrals shows you that this was once the mightiest nation on earth.
Of course, we're comparing Madrid and Seville, present and former Spanish capitals, to shaky border towns in the hinterlands of Mexico. A comparison between Mexico City and Madrid might be more fair. But that was our experience, and probably one shared by quite a few Americans that visit.
2 comments:
Im from Spain and I have a feeling there, in USA,a lot of people think Spain is just like the whole South America(which itself has lots of cultures)
So, I think you were a bit confused about the links between Spain and Mexico.I can hardly say the only cultural sharings are the language,(despite Mexican dialect is so different that sometimes we spanish people cant undestand them) and the Catholic Religion, maybe any other comparation is useless.
Spain is a Mediterranean Country and our culture is much closer to others like Italian,Portugal, France or even Greece.The weather: Its very hot in summer of course, but not so the rest of the year just warm and cold in winter!specially in the inner territories.
And food you are right corn is not common(only popcorn,:p)
But I want to make clear that we dont eat Tacos or Burritos or those things and we dont look like mexicans at all. Im telling this because im a bit tired of watching American programs,films,etc.. containing those bluffs.
Perfect example of Non-Spain: the film "Vantage Point".
Bye and sorry for my English
I am from Spain as-well and believe that all of Latin-America is completely different from Spain:
-the food is not spicy in Spain
-Spain is a European-first-world country
-The Spanish people are the same ethnic group as the French and the British, the Latin-Americans are from Native American decent.
-Spain is very hot in the summer in the center and the south, but chilly in the north cost in the summer, and in the winter Spain is very, very cold, it even snows in the center about 3-5 times a year.
-Spain is not a religious country, it WAS, 60 years ago.
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