Considering Yourself Spanish Can Cause Problems

I was initially quite surprised at this news.  After reading a few more articles and getting some background on Ballesta, I think I see why it happened...

Salva Ballesta, a former footballer, never made any secret of the fact that he felt very Spanish.
400km into his journey to take up his new co-coach position with Celta de Vigo, a Galician football team, he received a call to say that he was no longer welcome to the position.
He had been told that he had the job, but had not signed a contract.
The club claimed the decision was made for "political reasons."

On a tv programme called Punta Pelota, Ballesta said "If there's a Basque or Catalan who doesn't feel Spanish, he has to put up with it because he was born in Spain."
Admittedly, it's not the only time he's made unfavourable comments about the Basques or Catalans, or made strong pro-Spanish comments that have riled feathers.
Spanish readers can check out an article on Salva Ballesta's Most Controversial Statements.

Others, like Catalan journalist Lluís Mascaró, have the opposite view.  On the same programme, Mascaró stated "Iniesta's goal in the final of the [Football] World Cup left me completely indifferent.  If they had lost against Holland, I would have felt exactly the same."

ARTICLES


Celta decides against signing Salva Ballesta due to his political ideology
Marca.com


Salva Ballesta, demasiado español para el Celta
ABC.es, Mariano Pozo

Salva Ballesta: "Si hay algún vasco o catalán que no se siente español, se tiene que joder porque ha nacido en España"
24POR7.com, José Pablo González


Lluís Mascaró: "No me siento español. Cuando España ganó el Mundial me dio exactamente igual"
24POR7.com, Boris Latermann


Veto ideológico a Salva Ballesta
El País,Juan L. Cudeiro

Joke About Spanish Politicians, As Told By A Spaniard

The mayor of Miami asks for tenders for painting the façade of the Town Hall, and he receives 3: one from an Englishman, one from a German, and one from a Spaniard.

The Englishman's is for 3 million dollars, the German's for 6 million, and the Spaniards for 9 million.  Because there's such a difference between the prices, he interviews each of the candidates separately, so they can justify this quote.

The Englishman says that he uses 2 layers of acrylic paint, designed especially for exteriors, and that costs 1 million.  Another million is spent on scaffolding, brushes, equipment, and security, and the rest is for paying the workers.

The German justifies his price by saying he's the best painter, using 3 layers of polyurethane, the cost of which is 3 million.  Scaffolding, other materials, equipment, and security would come to 2 million, and the rest would be for paying the workers.

The last, and the one who won the contract because the mayor considered his budget the best, turned out to be the Spaniard.  He said "Look, mayor.  3 million are for you, another 3 million for me, and we can give the 3 million that are left to the Englishman so he can paint the façade for us."

PS Any resemblance to the politics in your area is pure coincidence...

How To Appear Andaluz: When You Talk

* DISCLAIMER: I really do love you, Andaluces.  That is why I took the time to write this: so everyone knows how to talk like you!*


Most important phrase: 

The louder, the better.  ;p

'S' at the end of words?  Who needs that?  Drop it.

'do'/'da' at the end of words?  Think of all the time and effort that you are expending just to say those extra syllables.  Drop 'em.

Let's practise:  ̶d̶e̶ ̶n̶a̶d̶a̶  ... de ná

Learn the Andalusian anthem.  At least, if you can sing that, people will like you.

Watch this 'Curso Dandalú' and MEMORISE EVERY PHRASE.

If all else fails, just learn how to sing a flamenco song, or one talking about Andalucía.

Interesting Times For The Royal Family In Spain

Honestly, the Spanish Royal Family just keeps getting more scandalous.

Photo by GonchoA

The first big black mark during my time here was due to the King's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin (the Duke of Palma).  He was forced to leave the country after being accused of corruption.  It came to light that a network company of which he was co-director, had charged outrageously for their event-promotion services.  And his wife, the Infanta Cristina, was supposedly involved in the running of some of those businesses, too.
Apparently, it was the Duke who used his contacts and influence to get these public-sector contracts with "astronomical budgets."  They then charged amounts which didn't correspond with the services they provided.  It's a little bit hard for me to decipher, especially in Spanish, but it seems they over-charged and then contracted out fake/imaginary services to other businesses in their network, thus making off with the taxpayer money.  You can see why the Spaniards wanted him out...
More info (in Spanish) here.

Photo from capl@washjeff.edu

Then, the King's grandson (Felipe Juan Froilán de Marichalar y Borbón) was doing some shooting practice on the family farm, and shot himself in the foot (literally)... with a gun he was technically too young to be using.  Although, to be fair, he's only a few months off the 14 years that are legally required.
As well as the fact that he required surgery on his right foot, the poor kid was apparently worried about his grandad being angry, and all of this putting extra strain on the already-tense relationship between his own parents.

Photo by Sheree.

And why, asked the Spanish people, wasn't the King visiting young Felipe?  When the answer came to light, it was more bad publicity: he was in Botswana, hunting elephants.  Many people weren't happy about the King's love of hunting, but it wasn't just this which caused dissent.

Photo by Arno & Louise Wildlife

Manuel Ajenjo explains it well in 'El Rey, el elefante y su nieto' (The King, the Elephant, and His Grandson):

"This royal hunting trip took place in a time of great uncertainty in Spain.  The country is going through the worst economic crisis since the transition to democracy, with 5.5 million unemployed.  The photo of the King hunting elephants was the straw which broke the camel's back- which was already under strain after his son-in-law, Iñaki, and his daughter, the Infant Cristina, were implicated in a corruption case."

The King clearly saw that some damage control was required, and his response made history.  He became the first Spanish King to publicly say sorry to his people, apologising for his trip just after being discharged from the clinic where he was treated for his own hunting accident.

"I'm very sorry.  I made a mistake, and it won't happen again."

Reaction of some Spaniards: El Rey as JAWS

Villancicos... or not

After the success of the ballet, I thought that going to a Christmas carol concert could be a good idea.  Only another 3€ or so, and all going to charity.  Besides, after singing carols at school every Christmas, and being in a band that went carolling every Christmas, without carols (for me) it doesn't feel like Christmas.  And it seemed like a good chance to experience carols in a Spanish style.

Well.  It certainly was a new experience, I must say.

It was a little bit like those sets of images doing the rounds on facebook at the moment.

What we thought we were getting.

What we actually got.

I conned my flatmates into going, and one commented as we went in that she felt like we had walked into a school concert.  It was almost all family groups, so we felt a bit out of place.

And then it began.  It certainly was a mixed bag.

There were plenty of groups of little ones, who were adorable in their ruffly, spotted, mini flamenco dresses, stomping about to those aggressive flamenco-style carols that only Spain could produce!

What initally looked like a rather sheepish bunch of 8 to 10-year-old kids gave an impressive performance for their age.  A girl of about 8 years took the lead, and what a voice!  Plus, some of boys showed some real rhythm with the characteristic hand-clapping.  They must have grown up tocando palmas.

And then, the crowning glory... the compañeros de Vilches.  This was actually a nice change (at the start) as it was a group of about 15 adult males, and they had various guitar-like, strung instruments, which hadn't appeared so far in the concert.  And their first song was completely different to all of the others we had heard, with a very slow, accentuated beat, and Arabic-sounding trills between notes.
Their second song was just like the first.  And so was the third.
When they finished, everyone clapped for quite a long time.  So they came on and did a fourth.  Guess what it sounded like?  Well, it had a very slow, accentuated beat, and Arabic-sounding trills between notes.

At this stage, we decided we had had our share of villancicos for the day.
Well, at least we have now experienced a (kind of) Spanish carol service.

I just found this... Not at all funny unless you speak Spanish and know the 'Peces en el Rio' villancico.  But, if you do, it really is quite funny!