{"id":2106,"date":"2017-05-15T18:51:18","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T18:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=2106"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:49","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:49","slug":"elpaisdequijote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/elpaisdequijote\/","title":{"rendered":"A cultural\/historical snapshot of \u00abEl pa\u00eds de Quijote\u00bb"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a1Buenos d\u00edas!<\/em> It\u2019s been a few months since I last wrote for <\/span>LingoMap<\/span><\/i>, and since then I have moved from Brussels in Belgium, to Ciudad Real in Spain. Firstly, I would like to apologise for my lateness in posting the April blog, I have been very busy handing in some of my final pieces of work for the semester here in Spain, <\/span>and <\/span><\/i>I wanted to wait for an event to take place before I posted the blog. <\/span><\/p>\n

Located at about 200KM south of the Spain\u2019s capital city of Madrid, Ciudad Real is in the Comunidad Autonoma (Autonomous community) of Castile-La Mancha (Castialla-La Mancha in Spanish).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A map of the Autonomous Communities of Spain<\/p>\n

Since this (last) month\u2019s topic is \u201cLocal and regional culture and characteristics of your country<\/em>,\u201d it would be useful to to have a very quick history lesson about Spain, and as a result how it functions as a country in the modern day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the millennia, the\u00a0land on which modern-day Spain and Portugal are located, known as\u00a0the\u00a0Iberian Peninsula<\/span>, has been under various regimes, leaving varying impacts on the country. Some of the most obvious influences were from the Arab Occupation in the 8th Century. Arabs from North Africa invaded Spain from the south in 711AD; by 750AD, were in control of most of the peninsula.<\/p>\n

\"The
The scope of the Arab occupation of Spain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For this reason, there is a key influence of Islamic architecture in Spain, especially to the south of Madrid. I have not been to the two larger cities, with a key Islamic influence, \u00a0on this map (Seville or Cordoba), but I have been to Toledo, where this influence can be seen first-hand. Also, within the city in which I am studying, Ciudad Real, there is the Puerta de Toledo or “Gate to Toledo”, which also has this influence:<\/p>\n

\"Islamic-influenced
Islamic-influence Architecture in Toledo (L) and Ciudad Real (R)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the Arab occupation of Spain, came the Reconquista.\u00a0<\/em>This is where Christians from the North, pushed the Arabs out of Spain, and established smaller, individual kingdoms during the 11th Century. Some of these kingdoms are reflected in the modern-day Autonomous Communities.\u00a0\u00a0The largest of these kingdoms was “El Reino de Castilla” or <\/span>The Kingdom of Castile,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>from where the Spanish language originates. In order to differentiate this language\u00a0from the other regional languages spoken within Spain such as Galician, Basque and Catalan<\/span><\/span>, it is referred to as \u201c<\/span>Castellano<\/span><\/span>\u201d, meaning: \u201cThe language (or person) from Castille\u201d. The reason that almost everyone in Spain speaks “<\/span>Castellano<\/span>” as their first or second language, comes from history too.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/6\/63\/506-Castile_1210.png\"
The Kingdom of Castile in 1210<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As this was the Middle Ages, wars were being fought all over Europe to gain more land, and therefore be more powerful. \u00a0The Kingdom of Castile invaded and overtook other Kingdoms, until in the 15th Century, it was in control of most of the Iberian Peninsula, under its new name of “<\/span>La Corona de Castilla<\/span>“, or <\/span>The Crown of Castile<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span>With one kingdom spreading over most of the area, the language spread as well. Then, with the marriage of Isabelle, the Queen of Castille, and, Ferdinand, the King of Aragon, the Crowns of Castile and Aragon were united, along with annexing (invading) the Kingdoms of Navarre and Granada, Spain as we know it today was formed, with Castellano<\/em> becoming\u00a0the official language throughout the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving forward into the 20th Century, for\u00a0nearly 40 years, (1939-1975) Spain was controlled by a dictator; Francisco Franco. He was a fascist who thoroughly limited the rights of the Spanish, and prevented those from various regions of Spain from celebrating their individual culture and speaking their regional languages forcing them to speak standard Spanish (Castillan) – somewhat similar to what happened in Wales and Scotland under the English. For this, after his death and the reintroduction of the former Spanish Monarchy, Spain was run as a democratic monarchy (like the UK) and divided into 17 \u201cComunidades Autonomas\u201d. These <\/span>Autonomous communities<\/span><\/i> represent the different cultures which are found in Spain, as well as providing an area in which the regional languages can be spoken in an official setting, just like the Welsh-speaking schools and bilingual\u00a0roadsigns within Wales. However, since Castilla-La Mancha is part of the former Kingdom of Castile, only Castellano (the Spanish we learn\u00a0in school) is used and spoken.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"http:\/\/www.esacademic.com\/pictures\/eswiki\/83\/Saragossa-Zaragoza_signpost_cropped.jpg\"
A bilingual roadsign Castillian and Catalan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Spain is also a religious country, with many public holidays being based on Catholicism. Easter is an important time in Spain, and is celebrated over one week called “Semana Santa”,\u00a0<\/em>with the main celebrations occurring on from Good Friday-Easter Monday. There are some similarities between celebrating Easter in the UK and in Spain. Firstly, the Spanish do like to eat sweet things and chocolates through the week, with the local\u00a0panader\u00edas (bakeries) and\u00a0<\/span>confiter\u00edas (sweet shops) making impressive window displays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Easter
Easter displays in the Basque Country from 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, something that is different, are the parades. Each day of Semana Santa\u00a0there is a parade, each for a different reason, and all with impressive floats. The Spanish take these parades very seriously, however for me, the fact that each parade can last upwards of 6 hours could be quite boring, so I often just watched from my balcony.<\/p>\n

Something that may shock you, as it did me, is the traditional wear for these Easter parades in Spain.\u00a0I know that may look like a negative symbol, but in fact the Spanish have been wearing this for hundreds of years; it is known as a “Capriote<\/span><\/em>“.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Spanish “Capriote” at an Easter week parade in Madrid<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, the first week of May in Spain is “La fiesta de las Cruces<\/em>” (The Festival of Crosses). Here, each town or city\u00a0places highly decorated and elaborate crosses around for people to see. One day during this week there will be some form of celebration, or bank holiday. It is really great to see, and if you ever have time I would recommend you to go!<\/p>\n

\"\"
La fiesta de las Cruces in Castilla-La Mancha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I like to end my blog-post with a quiz of some of the terms I mentioned throughout it.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What are some of the languages spoken in Spain (other than Spanish)?<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. What is the Spanish term\u00a0for the Easter week?\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n
  3. What is the term used in Spain for “Standard Spanish”?<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. How do you say “Bakery” and “Sweet shop” in Spanish?\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post, don’t forget to comment and come back in a few weeks to read my next one!<\/p>\n

    \u00a1Hasta luego!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Firstly, I […]","protected":false},"author":1083,"featured_media":2160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[268],"tags":[251,252,51,42,249,71,250,90],"class_list":["post-2106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-castile-la-mancha","tag-castilla-la-mancha","tag-culture","tag-erasmus","tag-europe","tag-spain","tag-spanish","tag-studying"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-xY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2076,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/la-vida-escolar-en-espana\/","url_meta":{"origin":2106,"position":0},"title":"\u00a1La vida escolar en Espa\u00f1a!","author":"Harriet Codd","date":"May 8, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello again to you all, I hope the year is treating you well! When thinking about\u00a0school\/college life for this blog, I found it relatively difficult to put everything into one concise answer for you. To be totally honest, university life where I am based is far from what I expected\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2805,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/2805-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2106,"position":1},"title":"Ser un j\u00f3ven en el Espa\u00f1a de hoy.","author":"Katie Elgie","date":"January 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hola, buenas. Bienvenidos a mi primera \u00b4Routes into Languages blog\u00b4. I have been provided with the broad subject of \u00b4Being a young person in Spanish speaking society\u00b4. This year abroad so far has been incredibly fulfilling and has opened my eyes to the lifestyle and culture of another country; which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2018\/01\/27046938_10215118661300383_1656202329_o-450x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3302,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/an-a-z-of-the-best-food-and-drink-spain-has-to-offer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2106,"position":2},"title":"An A-Z of the Best Food and Drink Spain Has to Offer","author":"Hannah Qunibi","date":"May 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a1Bienvenidos todos! 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I love exploring all aspects of the Spanish culture, but as a foodie discovering all of the tasty delights Spain has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2018\/05\/IMG_24561-e1525798183662-338x450.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3133,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/lingomap-blog-los-festivales-y-las-celebraciones-de-espana\/","url_meta":{"origin":2106,"position":3},"title":"LingoMap Blog: Los festivales y las celebraciones de Espa\u00f1a","author":"Lewis Hacker","date":"March 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a1Hola a todos! \u00bfQu\u00e9 tal? The theme of this month\u2019s blog is Spanish festivals and celebrations, and in this blog post I\u2019m going to talk about the two that I\u2019ve experienced since I\u2019ve arrived in Spain. 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