Category Archives: Living la vida española

November 23, 2008 · 11:17 pm

FU, ZP

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With great horror I began Jim Hoagland’s article in the Washington Post where he initially compares Barack Obama to Spanish President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (aka, “ZP”).

Other than both politicians’ opposition to the Iraq War, the similarity stops there. Hoagland writes, “Zapatero can be brash and provocative, while Obama works at being cautious and reassuring.” The reality is that ZP is a featherweight buffoon whose all too often populist rhetoric has been counter-productive to Spain’s global interests. Continue reading →

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November 6, 2008 · 4:02 pm

Revisiting Spanish Perceptions on Race

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I recently wrote about European perceptions of race and the American elections. Yesterday while browsing through the election coverage on the major Spanish networks, I landed on a daytime talk show, La Mirada Crítica, right when one commentator (I don’t know her name) described Barack Obama as

Obama es que no es un negro negro, es un negro ilustrado, mira cómo anda, como se mueve, parece blanco. No es para nada la imagen que tenemos nosotros de un negro.

In other words, Obama was “not your typical black man”. He was an “enlightened black man” (“negro ilustrado“), “like Sidney Poitier,” and she mentioned his elegant and refined way of walking, talking, and dressing.

I would normally have disregarded this as an isolated incident, but none of the other commentators budged. This time I am not being just another American overly sensitive to political correctness due to his own country’s dreadful history. I am also not saying that this proves an epidemic of racism in Spain, for I do not believe Spaniards to be overtly racist. But while some apologists may argue (see comments) that the above remarks were not racist since the intention was to praise Mr. Obama, the remarks undoubtedly epitomize the racism inherent in the patronizing concept of the Noble Savage — the one who earns honorary white status by distinguishing himself from the pack through enlightened European modes of dress and speech (or through colonization and religious conversion).

As I pleaded in an earlier post on language and racism, Spain is due to have a serious conversation about how to talk about other races and cultures. Based on the American experience, better sooner than later.

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November 5, 2008 · 6:28 pm

My Election Night on Spanish Talk Radio

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Last night I had the unique opportunity to speak, unofficially, in support of Barack Obama’s candidacy on a popular Spanish talk radio show hosted by César Vidal. The program was La Linterna and the station was the very right wing COPE. As a matter of fact, while waiting in the booth minutes before going on, I was so surprised by some of the shocking claims coming from the next room —  for example that Obama would close the borders to all foreign trade or that FOX News was the only impartial news source in the U.S. — that I almost reconsidered going on.

But when I was finally up, Mr. Vidal and his regular troops (Florentino Portero, Javier Somalo, Gabriel Albiac, and the show’s production team) were extremely friendly and welcoming. I was also joined by two Republican women, one from Republicans Abroad and the other from Spain for McCain. At first, it was a little difficult to get my sea legs and feel totally comfortable expressing myself on the radio in Spanish, but eventually, I was ready for a good discussion. In listening to the above now, I must admit that I am incredibly embarrassed by my lack of eloquence (I don’t go on until around minute 30).

My goal from the beginning was to present an American voting public in support of Obama that was above the name calling and divisiness. While the woman from Republicans Abroad appeared to follow the same tone, the one from Spain for McCain was much more confrontational and accusatorial, also bringing up those absurd Obama shutting the U.S. borders claims and pushing McCain’s counter-intuitive fiscal stance. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to call her on the obvious facts: not only has Obama not proposed any such thing, but the Bush Administration with John McCain in the Senate has the worst record on trade protectionism and spending in recent history. But why bother; Americans have made up their minds, and today the McCain arguments are moot. Continue reading →

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November 3, 2008 · 11:18 am

Europeans, Race and the American Elections

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Throughout the European press, I constantly hear Europeans asking whether Americans would actually vote for an African American as president. This weekend when asked the same question by a close Spanish friend, I played devil’s advocate, pushed all the buttons and cited recent examples of Spanish racism (the Spanish national basketball team, the colloquial use of the diminutive when referring to foreigners, and even their irrational hatred and distrust of Lewis Hamilton’s win yesterday in Formula One), though I do not consider Spain to be an overtly racist country.

Nevertheless, in a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s 2008 Global Attitudes Project, Spaniards came off as amongst the most racist (in terms of being both anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic) in Europe. In Spain, unfavorable views towards Jews was up from 21% (2005) to 46% this year; and 52% had negative views of Muslims. At the same time, though, Europeans, especially Spaniards, overwhelmingly prefer Barack Obama.

So there is an irony to Europeans’ fascination with the racial aspect of the American presidential election and whether the “racist” Americans may actually vote for a black president. As I recently commented in a blog post on the subject, Obama has become by far the mainstream candidate with endorsements from all of the mainstream newspapers and with astonishingly record high donations from private citizens, mainly white. More importantly, the African American candidate and his family now look, act, and talk more like the average American than do his white counterparts.

So when you look closely at the facts, what is interesting from the European perspective isn’t whether Americans will vote for an African American but why there is almost no political representation by minority groups at all in European political life.

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October 11, 2008 · 10:17 pm

There Goes the Barrio

Obama Nutter Butters

John McCain has now told his supporters, and I commend him for doing so, that Barack Obama is a decent person, a respectful family man, and that America should not be worried if he is elected. If anyone should be worried right now, it’s not the Americans but my neighbors in Madrid. I just recently received two care packages from my mother. As mentioned before, the first one included a book and photos of Barack and Michelle Obama. The second was full of Nutter Butters, my personal favorite.

babouch

Between the artificially flavored peanut butter cookies, the recently enhanced Moroccan babouch collection, and the campaign paraphernalia, the neighbors must be very disconcerted by the strange yanqui in their midst.

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September 9, 2008 · 9:35 pm

Ramadan Mubarak in Madrid

Ramadan in Madrid

Ramadan began last week and coincided with my girlfriend (who is Moroccan) being in Madrid. Believe it or not, it was loads of fun. Continue reading →

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August 29, 2008 · 12:45 pm

Dear Spain, We are Not Caricatures

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After the infantile expression of how the Spanish define and theoretically honor Asians, and after receiving comment after comment by my Spanish friends blindly defending such characterizations, I come once again upon an example of how the Spanish media reduces all things foreign to childish diminutives.

In today’s El Mundo article by Luis María Anson entitled “Carta de la ministra al presidente del COI”, ironically in the name of equality and in defense of women’s rights, Jesse Owens is referred as that “negrito” (little black man) who confronted Hitler. Yes, I know that (1) bringing up Owens’ memory is supposed to honor him and (2) Spanish people mean no harm by using the diminutive suffix “ito” when describing other ethnicities. How the use of “ito” would promote equality is anyone’s guess.

Such patronizing is childish at a minimum, offensive in the extreme, and overall tiresome. We no longer live in a time when Cola Cao commercials mocking Africans as little savages all too happy to be exploited in the fields should be considered acceptable. We are more than Chinitos with slanted eyes, or negritos, or moritos or sudacas or gringuitos who need to be condescended to. We are not caricatures, but people — live, breathing, multi-faceted and unique individuals.

Would it honor Nadal were he to be called the “Españolito” or “Mallorquinito who finally won Wimbledon?” Or to call Indurain the “Navarrito who dominated the Tour de France”? How about calling Athletic Bilbao the “equipito vasco”?

Racist speech is not only about intentionally and wilfully insulting a person or group of people based on their race or ethnicity, rather it is also about how we further stereotypes, generalizations and otherwise discriminate against those different from us through language – language that ultimately limits us as individuals. It can be subtle and it can be subconscious. It is often, as in these instances, furthered simply and unintentionally by lessening the value assigned to a set of people through a diminutive suffix or by summarizing them based on a single physical characteristic.

I am not saying that Spaniards or El Mundo are racist. Rather that it is time to reevaluate the way in which Spaniards discuss, define, and view others.

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August 16, 2008 · 9:55 pm

Has European Basketball Really Improved since ’92?

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In my brother’s blog today, he asks whether, after beating top metal contender Spain by almost 40 points, the U.S. national basketball team, dubbed the Redeem Team, is better than its 1992 predecessor the Dream Team. I commented as follows:

I read an interesting statistic in the Spanish sport’s paper Marca today that during the ’92 Olympics, the Dream Team beat Spain by 41 points. Today the Redeem Team beat Spain by 37 points.

There is no doubt that today’s Spain team is far superior, as is the international competition overall, to its ’92 predecessor. That can only mean two things: first the U.S. team today is better than the ’92 dream team, or that the U.S.’s defeats during the last 16 years was due more to the U.S.’s fault than the rest of the world’s achievement.

So now my question is, is the 2008 Spanish team better than its 1992 predecessor? Or better yet, has European ball really improved or were recent U.S. teams simply too arrogant in not taking international play seriously? Continue reading →

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August 12, 2008 · 10:13 pm

Childish Spanish Racism

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Because of Spain’s contemporary history of being sheltered from the rest of the world during much of the 20th century, its people lack any sense of cross-cultural sensitivity in dealing with foreign cultures. Consequently, Spanish people will frequently make remarks or use gestures in reference to foreign cultures and races that would be considered offensive, inappropriate and outright racist in any other modern, dynamic and heterogeneous population. Nonetheless, the Spanish will laugh off these usages as being terms or signs of affection. The offended should learn not to take offense, and the proponent of political correctness should learn not to be so hypocritical.

The latest example of this is the Spanish men’s olympic basketball team’s photograph with all of its players making their eyes slanted. What is remarkable is how innocently naive and childish their gesture believes itself to be an act of “appreciation” towards the Chinese. While most Spanish newspapers are never color blind (they always refer to the race, religion, or nationality of their subject matter as long as it is not the majority in Spain), at least this time El Mundo asks whether the team pose was appropriate.

What is shocking is that in Spain, absolutely no one will find the photograph troublesome in the least.

Update: Just read the story covered in Yahoo!.

Update 2: Apparently, the Spanish national basketball team isn’t the only Spanish team to define Asians by eye shape.

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August 3, 2008 · 5:01 am

Que le pasa a Madrid?

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Something funky has been brewing in Madrid the past year or so. With the total crash of the Spanish economy — regardless of the denials of the government — I have noticed a remarkable increase in homelessness and vagrancy, especially where I live in Chamberi. Now the benches in the Plaza de Olavide and along the streets of Chamberi are frequently crowded with winos from Eastern Europe. With the fall of the construction industry which brought in hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, similar scenes will most likely increase.

My neighborhood has been safe and peaceful since I moved there eight years ago. But just a few months ago a man was shot a few blocks from my house, and then early this morning a stray bullet hit two pedestrians (in front of Iurgi, Juan Pablo and Jacobo’s place). Spain (like the rest of Europe) is not home to a firearms culture and simply does not have the huge gun violence that we get in the U.S., so these types of trends are definitely disturbing. The extemists will blame the insecurity on immigration, but have surely forgotten how the streets were more dangerous in the 80s and early 90s when there were no immigrants but plenty of Spanish petty thieves. Nevertheless, the destruction of employment we’re now witnessing, especially in the construction sector, will most likely continue to prove negative not just economically but also socially.

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