Alberto Barciela
Journalist and vice-president of EditoRed
Overacted and mystical, Spain, a joyful land, tends to be the worst of its mirrors and the most exaggerated of its wounds. Endogamic, pluricultural and Latin, the skin of the bull extends its differences, often humiliates itself and laments its own being, when the truth is that in its varied historical, cultural, geographical and economic wealth, it has one of its greatest treasures, which placed it among the great empires and today among the main nations of a Europe, also cloistered in its own complexes, complex in its continentality, but an essential world axis.
Beyond its clichés, royal Spain, also monarchic, can be glimpsed in its essence: freedom, frankness, iron character, expressiveness, all framed in a deep sense of belonging to a territory, to a History, to a peculiar and Latin way of being and understanding life, from respect for difference, indifference to petulance, and the desire to work to live with time to enjoy oneself. They say we are proud and envious, which is why they add distrustful, because in reality who is not suspicious of those who adjectivise them as clumsily as trivially or manically. We give explanations at siesta time. And we will have something very positive when millions of tourists try to imitate the Spanishness model of life while enjoying the coast and inland, the monuments, museums and also the terraces of the bars and taverns, the incomparable gastronomy, the good beer and the best wines, and all under the sun, at very competitive prices.
We are humble, but great, very great as a people. We are especially so when we have to unite in the face of adversity, or in the distance from our homeland. We may be exaggerated, visceral and very passionate, in discussion or debate, but deep down we are the fruit of a genetics full of mixtures, conviviality and affection. A good, shared and prolonged meal is the solution. As hosts no one beats us, we are the best.
Spain and its children are like that: exorbitant in celebration, in joy, in celebration. Bullfighters of cloak and sword, carnivalesque and spiritual, praying and singing, and very given to irony, sarcasm and compliments, that when we like someone we like them more than we like to get up late. In the bullfight or against bullfighting, we always know where the master is, even if we don’t know who the bullfighter is and, by unanimous decision, in this country of God, even for atheists, there is no poor person who doesn’t fit at the table.
Carlos Alcaraz and the Spanish national football team have given a good account of all that has been said, and even of what has been kept quiet, due to prudence or lack of space. Effort, preparation, concentration, perseverance, and fair play, immeasurable; pride yes, character everything, but of humility and knowing how to win, of respect for rivals, they have given the best example, and the latter is not trained, it is in the character of the pupils of Juan Carlos Ferrero and Luis de la Fuente.
I said that people say that we Spaniards are proud. We are not, but we feel so. We have good reasons to talk about integration, youth, unity and success, and all this presupposes a hope that the horizon is set and that we must know how to follow the path and lead the new and valuable generations along it. Now the others know whom they should envy. Let them learn from it.
For our part, it is the right time to establish an international country brand strategy, as a very Spanish, very Iberian, very European, very Latin American, very global nation. Plus ultra (‘Beyond’ in Latin) is Spain’s official motto. It is all said in our coat of arms.
This article is free to use. If you use it, please cite the author and EditoRed
