a book that explains topics that appear in Spain, such as the siesta country and the bailiff

So we are the land of siesta and bail (How can you afford it with an intense jornada?), there are no toreadors, flamencos and ruca merrily running through our streets, apart from carnivals and many celebrated festivities.

No, To the rest of Europe, we are so many seeds that we are aborrimoespecially in the period in question Hispanic player Nigel Townson (Kent, 1959) dedication on the last book, this caustic Spain is no different (Unpacked), which analyzes our recent past, from the disaster of 98 to 2000.

Historically, we are used to this as an anomaly or a failure, but to find out, Townson reflects the pessimism of the 98 generationwho believed that one of the causes of the disaster was what he said Spain, with established agriculture and extensive industry, was “much worse than Europe”. ¡Ni mucho menos!, declares Townson: agriculture diversified and helped balance the trade balance. The industrial sector could therefore be considered a disaster given the continuous and sustained growth.

Suppose that in 1898 Spain experienced the loss of the last vestiges of its empire as a unique tragedy We discussed the most important political, ethical, social and cultural issues, but yes, we were exceptional in that too.

Although Manuel Fraga is believed to have been the creator of the slogan “Spain is different”, its origins date back to the 1940s.

Portugal experienced the collapse of his transcontinental empire in Africa in 1890 as a tragedy, frustrated by Great Britain and Belgium, and likewise at the end of the 19th century. Italy I was shipwrecked in the African empire. After establishing itself in Abyssinia, creating Eritrea and attempting to conquer Somalia, it suffered a catastrophic disaster at Adowa in 1896 with the loss of 5,000 lives.

Not only was it the first time in modern times that an African army had joined a European one, but in Townson’s words “the shameful depravity of God gave rise to a consciousness of national inferiority”. And it was even more traumatic the end of the gray dream to integrate into the nation-state all the Griegs who lived outside its borders, scattered in its mayor over the lands of the Ottoman Empire.

The Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 allowed the conquest of numerous territories such as Salónica, Crete and even the Aegean islands, until in September 1922 a Turkish counter-offensive annexed Griego’s army, plunging the country into a crisis comparable to that of Spain. The only difference is that instead of reporting a disaster, they called it a Disaster.

Although Manuel Fraga is believed to have coined the slogan Spain is differentTownson reports that this is a reality at the beginning it reaches up to 40 yearswhen the French regime scuttled “Spanish exceptionalism”, further degrading the chasm that separated imperialist rhetoric from the reality of a country “unable to overcome its own shortcomings”.

This is what Fraga was talking aboutMinister of Information and Tourism in the 1960s, he was contracts with the best public relations companies. Así, en la Feria Mundial in New York (1964-1965) there are millions of dollars in the Spanish pavilionmore than the premise of the 1964 Oscar film, Mary Poppins. The result was exceptional as 27 million people visited the table and magazine Life He hailed it as “the joy of feria”.

At the same time, to support our country’s quest for Europe and the United States, since 1961 el Spain is different was removed from the new tourist signage and an official guide Spain is youtranslated into sharp idioms, he insisted Spain is no different (Spain is no different).

Además, se fomentaron los international rodajes movies like Doctor Zhivago, El Cid, 55 days in Pekin, The fall of the Roman Empire or El feo, el good and el evil.

While official Spain fought to conquer Europeans and citizens, the latter, which fought in secret, was less different from the rest of the world. Indeed, the protest explored in Spain had much in common with the rest of the world. The fundamental difference was that the Spanish aimed to replace the official union of the state with one of their choice, without which the other would have to do.

During the Transition, a period when the world began to take on the shadow of the new Spanish “thousands” of tolerance and modernity, the West began to standardize in part through red and means of communication. National peculiarities have been discovered all over the world, even if some people from our country are in southern Mexico or, as in the days of Juan Valera, wondering if they can breed lions in Spain.