SPANISH CINEMA - A SPANISH AFFAIR (Ocho Apellidos Vascos)

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL IN AUSTRALIA 2015

Here are some cultural tips, if you were not born in Spain, about the main cultural & social idiosyncrasies of Andalusia (in the South) and the Basque Country (in the North) that will help you to enjoy and understand better this comedy. 

Are all stereotypes shown in the film believable? Are they true? The answer is yes and no. Spain has evolved rapidly in the last decades into a modern European country, so many of the stereotypes regarding habits and customs are no longer accurate, but they are still part of the cultural identity of each place. Stereotypes referring to character or temperament always manifest themselves within an spectrum, that is, some individuals may display some characteristics markedly whereas others not at all; I would add that, all in all, stereotypes are helpful navigation tools, as they simplify reality, but we have to keep in mind that they can mislead us in specific situations. 

In this film nothing must be taken too seriously. It is a satire of two regional stereotypes: Andalusia and Euskadi (The Basque Country). In Spain there are stereotypes for every region of the country. People used to make jokes about specific regional traits, and it would work in each direction (I laugh at you and you laught at me) and for the sake of a healthy sense of humour let's hope this will continue to be the case.

THE PLOT: Rafa has never left the city of Seville, Andalusia (Southern Spain) where he was born. He meets Amaia, a young woman from the Basque country, who is visiting Seville with her girlfriends. Her basque boyfriend has sumped her and to cheer her up her two girlfriends take he to Seville. The trip has the opposite effect on Amaia who hates the 'compulsive' joy of Sevillanos. She is perceived by the men form Sevilla as a graceless woman who is most likely an ETA terrorist, another stereotype for the Basque people.  

It turns out that Amaia leaves Sevilla but left  her handbag at Rafa's place.  Against his friends' advice Rafa wants to return it to Amaia and travel to Euskadi, in the North of Spain. When he arrives, a series of misunderstandings force Rafa to impersonate being a full-blooded Basque who has eight surnames (to prove to Amaia's father that he is a genuine basque); he imitates the accent of the Basques but this is not great help and he gets more and more entangled in his fake character in order to have the love of Amaia and take her with him back to Seville.



CULTURAL STEREOTYPES

ANDALUSIANS are extroverted, they can express their feelings easily and many of them can be the funniest people in the country; once they start telling stories & jokes it' hard not to laugh, they are masters of exaggeraiton so you can have a really good time with them. They are also such great raconteurs and can improvise jokes as they speak, their language is flourished and often poetic, they do not feel embarrassed with expressing "feelings" and their world is still full of animistic beliefs, objects are given human characteristcs. It may have to do with the legacy from the Arabs, that brought with them a tradition or oral stories, like the 1001 nights and also created beautiful love poetry; when Andalusians speak it is common not to understand a word because they tend to cut the words in half (para ti = pa'ti, for example); also,  they don't speak at you but shout at you or even, scream at you, as if you were totally deaf; they don't like to work in large amounts, and ideally what they like is to spend the day at the bar eating olives and drinking cold beer; Andalusian women are feisty and can talk for hours, often all at the same time, (men can do this also but with less intensity); they all dance the Sevillanas, young and old, and sing flamenco, clapping their hands, they also play the Spanish guitar; they are majortarily religious and express devotion of the Virgin Mary, or rather, the many Virgin Mary's that you can find in Seville which have been given very glamorous names; they invented 'the siesta', or so they say, and they live in the present, so there's always  mañana? They may be perceived sometimes a uneducated or unsophisticated but this is superficial, Andalusians are very wise, their wisdom is very, veru old, so be attentive and observe them before labeling; they all seems to be from Seville or Granada, but Andalucia has another 6 provinces ... Finally, regional cuisine seems to be to be reduced to two popular dishes: 'gazpacho' and 'pescaíto frito' (fried fish) but this os not the case. 

Common stereotypes about THE BASQUES. They have no sense of humour, they are too serious; men are fishermen, they are a primitive and insular lot that does not want to mix with other races, so they are all inbred; their national sports are rough, like themselves: stone block pulling and stock lifting, tug-of-war, wood-chopping and log sawing and they also play pelota; also, they don't take no for an anwser, and many men are excellent cooks, who escape from their women to go to these culinary clubs (where only men can be members) and there they cook and drink and cook and drink some more and in the end they eat what they cooked while still drinking and eating some more; the Basques make the best tapas (called pintxos) and the Basque cuisine is considered the best in the country; as mentioned before they are introverted, fairly dry, they often sulk and this is because in the Basque country it is always raining, and so they get into gloomy moods; they believe they are not a region but a nation, they do not like people from other parts of the country, they want independence form Spain and they still fight for it. In fact, one of the jokes portrayed in the film is to think that all Basques are terrorists, although this stereotype may have been softenend with the passing of the time.

EUSKERA (the Basque language)
Approximately 27% of the Basques speak Euskera. With the reinstatement of democracy in 1978 the teaching of the language in schools resumed with the aim to increase the number of speakers. Previously, Franco's regime has seriously undermined Euskera (and Catalan) so these languages suffered a lot. It was the people's determination in the Basque Country and also in Catalonia that kept the languages alive. Euskera is not your average language. In it not a bastardised form of Latin, like the other romance languages spoken in Europe. In fact in Spain, outside the Basque country, no one has a clue about the language. Some believe that Basque is one of the few surviving Pre-Indo-European languages, others, eccentrically, say it comes from outer space, extra-terrestrial beings brought it to Earth. In any case, its origin is still being studied and debated.

Finally, here are some Basque surnames:  Gabikagogeaskoa, Agirregomezkorta, Barinagarementeria, Atxurraagirre, Zuazubizkar, Oianko, Gabikagogeaskoa, Agirregomezkorta, Izagirre, Barinagarementeria, Atxurraagirre, Beranoagirre, Eguzkiagirre, Iparragirre,Maneneagirre, Olatzagirre, Orkaizagirre, Zubiagirre, Zubiaga, Zabalegi, Zubizarreta, Zuazubizkar,  Oianko, Beranoagirre, Eguzkiagirre, Iparragirre, Izagirre, Maneneagirre, Olatzagirre, Orkaizagirre, Zubiagirre, Zubiaga, Zabalegi.

They are long because they attach prefixes and suffixes to family & geographical names.

Here is the longest Basque surname recorded:

"We promise not to laugh at your Spanish"

A modern fable for adult learners of a foreign language.

Bar la Boca del León in Plaza Altozano, Sevilla

“You almost kill yourself (figuratively speaking) studying Spanish for 4 years. Then, one day, you decide it's time to put your efforts to the test and decide to travel to Seville, stay there for a fortnight and practice your Spanish ‘face-to-face’ with ‘the locals’ (“los nativos” as they are called over there).

The cost of the trip almost gets you bankrupt but you don’t care because ‘we only live once’.

You arrive in Seville and immediately love the place. You go directly to your ‘pensión’ and leave your suitcase there. You should have a rest but you can’t.  How can you delay the visit to ‘the Bar’ in the ‘Oh-so-mythical-Barrio-of-Triana’ that is highly recommended in your Lonely Planet guide? No, you can't. You freshen up and leave straight away. It's almost midday. It's not too far so you decide to walk. 

When you arrive at ‘the Bar’ you are welcomed by a waiter who wants to take your order and when you are just about to utter your first sentence in Spanish, (which was going to be “¿tienen albóndigas? (do you have meat balls?), you see a sign written in Spanish that says: “WE PROMISE NOT TO LAUGH AT YOUR SPANISH”.

You re-read it. “WE PROMISE NOT TO LAUGH AT YOUR SPANISH” You re-read quickly several times “WE PROMISE NOT TO LAUGH AT YOUR SPANISH”. Yes, this is clearly what it says. Your brain shifts into overdrive and in your mind’s eye you picture yourself being laughed at by the whole bar, about 30 people.

The fact that in the sign it also states clearly that “OUR ENGLISH IS NOT VERY GOOD” (meaning: “is pretty bad and possibly unintelligible”) makes no difference to you. You were not expecting this. You did not prepare for this. You could, certainly, engage in a two-way activity: ‘I laugh at your bad English and you laugh at my bad Spanish’ but you are not having none of this because you are not the type of person who has fun at other peoples’ expense.

The waiter is waiting and still talking to you, but you are not listening. You are so offended that can’t think at all. You stand up, thank him, in English, and leave the bar. 

While you are walking back to the ‘pensión’ sobbing quietly, you hear the voices of you mother and your grand-mother, both good Methodists and highly pragmatic ladies saying to you: chin up girl, chin up and wipe out these tears, it is not that bad.

When you arrive at the pension you think the place looks ‘shady'. You go straight up to your room, your dark and smelly room you realise now, grab your unpacked suitcase, go back downstairs, check yourself out and get out of the place as fast as lightning.  Shortly after, inside a taxi, you tell the driver, in a perfectly pitched Oxford accent, ‘To the airport, please’.

You will go back home as quickly as possible and forget about learning any f*ck*ng foreign language for the rest of your life, that is, forever and ever, or, if you know any Latin: for ‘seacula saeculorum’.

Who told you that in a global world people need to speak languages?  This is not a global world, this is a rude world.  Being insulted like that, after all these years of study, and in Seville, of all places.

From now on it will be ‘English only’ and for a hobby learning to play the flute or do some bird watching do not seem such a bad idea.

THE END

The silly story is not real, obviously, but the sign shown in the photo is. It's form the bar 'la Boca del León' in Plaza Altozano, Sevilla). I have written this because as a foreign language teacher of adults of many years, I like to help students who struggle to overcome the fear of failure and the fear of being ridiculed. With languages you can make mistakes "all-the-time"so you need some perspective regarding your linguistic performance. 

If I had to assign a moral of this modern fable would be: "Do not make a mountain out of a molehill."

Learning a language involves at some stage ‘to go solo’ that is, getting out of the comfort zone that is the classroom, your class mates, the computer, or whatever applications you have used to learn and study the language. The time comes when you have to jump into the void, so to speak, and this can feel awful but it should not be.

Learning a language gives a learner, not only the satisfaction of communicating in another language, but also a sense of personal achievement, the satisfaction of having overcome many barriers including the fear of being ridiculed, criticised or laughed at.  If this happens, which it may not, the important thing is the way you look at it: "what does it matter, making a mistake, receiving an ironic comment?" It matters zero. What matters is that your efforts and years of study pay off, in a personal way. Yes, deciding to make the effort to communicate is a solo trip, like a young bird learning to fly, but it is a trip where you will meet people, where you will go to places, real and unreal, and where you will say "Gosh, I like it so much being here!"

TO GIVE UP (in Spanish)

HOW DO YOU SAY - TO GIVE UP - IN SPANISH

Here are the main verbs we can use, with examples:


DARSE POR VENCIDO/A: 

• me doy por vencido (I give up)
• no me doy por vencido (I don't give up)

ABANDONAR: 

• ¡no abandones los estudios! 
• (don't give up your studies!)

DESISTIR (de) +verb in the infinitive: 

• Al final desistió de buscar un trabajo 
• (He/she finally gave up looking for work)

RENDIRSE:

• ¡Me rindo! (I give up!)
• Yo no me rindo nunca (I never give up)

SPANISH CINEMA - THE QUEEN OF SPAIN (La reina de España)

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL IN AUSTRALIA 2017

This post provides some background information for the film La reina de España (The Queen of Spain). This is not a review of the film.

Penélope Cruz in 1998 and 2016

The Queen of Spain (2016) is the sequel of The Girl of your dreams (1998). 

BACKGROUND

In 1998 Fernando Trueba's film "La niña de tus ojos" (the girl of my dreams) won several Goya awards in Spain, including for best picture and best actress. 

The plot is about a Spanish cinema crew who went to nazi Germany in 1938 to make a film. 

The reason for going to Germany was this: during the three years of the Civil war in Spain (1936-1939) most Spanish intellectuals & artists remained loyal to the elected government of the Republic. It was very difficult for the military insurgents to have access to any cinema studio. Franco, who had just formed his first fascist government in 1938, was very keen in making movies that would promote his ideological crusade: "Una, grande y libre" ('One, Big and Free') (Motherland).

So, he made an agreement with Hitler or, rather, with his minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels, to have access to the prestigious UFA studios in Berlin for the purpose of making a movie; in exchange, it was agreed, there would be 2 versions of the film made: one in Spanish and another in German.  

The crew who went to Germany was made up of poor and desperate actors, technical people and a director who, wishing to escape the miseries of the Civil war, were happy to participate in the filming of a trashy Andalusian drama. They did not ask any questions, neither in Germany nor in Spain, and they looked to the other side when necessary. Survival was the name of the game.  

Macarena Granada (played by Penelope Cruz) was a young actress and singer who would be in the leading role playing famous Carmen of Triana while his father was in one of Franco's prisons.

The plot was very simple and the humour originated from the misunderstandings between the Germans and the Spaniards. They had a different mentality and a different approach to life. There was also the story of  Goebbel's infatuation with Macarena and his attempts to seduce her. 

VIDEO. Scene: A Taberna in Seville where Carmen sings a popular traditional Spanish copla: Los piconeros.

The first video is the Spanish version of Los piconeros and below is the German version.

In this scene, Goebbels is dancing with Macarena with an interpreter present. Goebbels wants Macarena to leave the hotel where she is staying with the others and move into a house provided by him. Macarena looks very uncomfortable and does not know what to do. 

The character of Macarena was freely based in an Argentinian singer and actress known as Imperio Argentina. She was very popular in Spain at the time and did actually went to Germany in 1938 to film  Nights in Andalucia where she also played the famous Carmen of Triana.

Then, almost 20 years went past and ...

... director Fernando Trueba thought that he had enough material to film the continuation of the story with the same characters of the original film and so, he made ... 

The Queen of Spain (plot)

Macarena is now a famous actress. She left Spain for Argentina and from there she made it to Hollywood where she lives. She has the chance of returning to her home country to play Queen Isabella of Castile in a big Hollywood production. When she arrives in Spain she meets the former crew who went to Germany with her 18 years ago.

SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE FILM

WHO WAS Isabella of Castile?

Queen Isabella was the Queen of Castile and married King Ferdinand of the King of Aragon on 19 October 1469. With this wedding the two biggest kingdoms in Spain became unified.  In 1478, they established the Spanish Inquisition the same institution that was active in Europe a few centuries ago (click here).  In 1492, they conquered the last Moorish Kingdom of Granada and they also expelled the Jews by means of the Edicto of Granada; it was the friar Tomas de Torquemada, head of the Spanish Inquisition, who convinced the Queen to take this action. Queen Isabella was reluctant to do it, knowing the important contribution of Jews in the country and in her own government. Queen Isabella financed the plans of Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, who presented his plans to the Queen after being rejected by the Portuguese. In 1492 Columbus arrived in the New World.  

Franco's relationship with the US

The United States entered into a trade and military alliance with Spain as part of its policy of containment. This historic alliance commenced with the signing of the Pact of Madrid in 1953. Spain was then admitted to the United Nations in 1955. American poet James Wright wrote of Eisenhower's visit: "Franco stands in a shining circle of police. / His arms open in welcome. / He promises all dark things will be hunted down." (...)

Later on, in another visit, American President Richard Nixon toasted Franco,^[ and, after Franco's death, he stated: "General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States". 

HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTIONS SHOT IN SPAIN

The Americans shot some epic-scale super productions or blockbusters in Spain, produced either by Samuel Bronston, King of Kings (1961), El Cid (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Circus World (1964)), or by others (Alexander the Great (1956), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Solomon and Sheba (1959), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Trojan Women (1971)). These movies employed many Spanish technical professionals, and as a by-product caused that some film stars, like Ava Gardner and Orson Welles lived in Spain for years. Actually, Orson Welles, with Mr. Arkadin (1955), in fact a French-Spanish-Swiss co-production, was one of the first American 

"La reina de España" is a "UNA ESPAÑOLADA" 

What's that?

An "españolada" is a pejorative term to describe a film which shows a cliched and a stereotypical image of Spain and particularly of its people.

In the 'españoladas' the protagonist’s characters are exaggerated, men are too masculine and women too very feminine but not always in a good way.  The stories are full of passion, people speak in loud voices and the stories have a moralistic end. It was a black and white vision of the world; "good" won over "evil" even when it did not; the subliminal message was that if justice was not done on earth, it would in Heaven. 

Españoladas were common and popular during the Franco years. He was not a cultured man but was very intuitive and very astute. He understood the value of cinema in disseminating the fascist ideology so the "spirit of Spain" would be a common feature in this type of films.

Franco often discredited Europe. He would repeat, again and again, that Spain was the spiritual reserve of the Western World (España es la reserva espiritual de Occidente). 

After Franco's death the"Españoladas" slowly evolved adapted to the changes that would gradually transform Spain into a modern country.  

Many Spaniards abhor of this type of movies, but this is not only a Spanish phenomenon.  A film like Crocodrile Dundee, for example, makes many Australians cringe as they do not identify as the characters in the movie.

Finally, let me add that both films "La niña de tus ojos" and "La reina de España" are Fernando Trueba's homage to the world of cinema, and particularly to the people who work in cinema. 

I hope you see the movie and you enjoy it.

VOCABULARIO: LAS CANICAS / MARBLES

JUGAR A LAS CANICAS – TO PLAY WITH MARBLES

In other European languages:

FRENCH: jouer aux billes; CATALAN: jugar a les bales; ITALIAN: giocare con le biglie; PORTUGUESE: jogar bolinha de gude GERMAN: Murmeln spielen; ENGLISH: to play with marbles and SPANISH: jugar a las canicas

VOCABULARY: EL COMEDOR (the dining room)

EXPRESIONES: UNA MESA REDONDA (A round table)

Todos sabemos que una mesa redonda no tiene esquinas. Así pues, en una mesa redonda todos los comensales ocupan el mismo lugar con relación a los demás. Es decir, no hay ningún lugar privilegiado. En el lenguaje figurado 'una mesa redonda' es una mesa en la que todos tienen el mismo derecho a la palabra así que hoy en día es sinónimo de debate, negociación y acuerdos. En la leyenda del rey Arturo, la Mesa Redonda o Tabla Redonda era una mesa mística de Camelot alrededor de la cual el rey y sus caballeros se sentaban para discutir asuntos cruciales para la seguridad del reino. En algunas versiones, el mago Merlín también tenía un asiento.

UNA MESA REDONDA / A ROUND TABLE