A little bit of everything

Don’t be in the dark about Spain, its celebrities and traditions!

First of all, I had to attend a two days seminar, which is why I haven’t written for the last two days. I’ll certainly make up for lost time!

Today, I want to write more about books and films, and my preferences, but first I’ll give you some basic knowledge to have a global view of people who most influenced the history of Spain and its culture.

Let’s start from the beginning!

- Isabel La Católica was the Queen of Castilla y León from 1474 to 1504. Thanks to her Colón discovered the new world, since the Spanish Crown financed such an odyssey.

- Juana La Loca ascended the throne upon the death of her parents. She finally matched the kingdoms of her parents, Castilla and Aragón, to shape the current geography of Spain.

Cristobal Colón. It’s still a mystery where he came from. Some experts mantain that he was from Italy, whereas others claim he could be from Portugal or the old Castile. However, the name of America was in honor of Americo Vespucio, an Italian seafarer who wrote about his journeys to the new world. Years later, the cartographer that had to draw a new world map found those documents and he granted Americo for the discovery.

Fernando de Rojas was a famous playwright, author of La Celestina. That dramatic work is supposed to be the precursor of the modern novel and of the Quijote.

Miguel de Cervantes was a novelist, poet and dramatist who is still considered as one of the most outstanding figure of the Spanish literature. His novel, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, has been described as the first modern novel and one of the best pieces of work of the universal literature. It has also been translated into nearly any language. The first sentence of this adventure story is distinctive and remembered by everybody. It says: “ En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme…..” (In a certain village in La Mancha, which I do not wish to remember…..) Actually, that beginning broke with the existing rules for writing, since it doesn’t even mention where the action takes place, just giving to the reader a vague idea.

Talking now about art, the most influential Spanish painters have been: Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Dalí, Juan Gris, Picasso and Miró. All of them were art revolutionaries. However, the most prolific and worldwide known is certainly Pablo Picasso. He was the most important painter in the twenty century. He was a pacifist and had a communist ideology. He underwent different artistic periods till he achieved his artist maturity, and one of his masterpieces is the Guernica, which captures the tragedy of the war and expresses all the grief and terror that the inhabitants of Guernica, a northern town, suffered during the civil war.

El Greco, or the Greek, was born in Greece. However, he moved to Italy to carry on with his art study, and he eventually spent most of his life working in Spain. One of his masterpieces is Entierro del conde de Orgaz. You cannot imagine the vivid colours of his paintings until you see them. He had an original way of represent the human being, in which he deformed people’s bodies, lengthening them exaggeratedly.

Velázquez was a baroque painter. He was influenced by the Italian painters of his age, especially Tiziano, and by his good friend Rubens. One of his masterpieces is, without a doubt, the Meninas, which isn’t by far as impressive as it’s when you’re in front of it. It’s a huge painting that was brilliantly painted.

Francisco de Goya. Goya is a well-known painter. Although he was deeply marked by Velazquez, he found his own style and some of his most remarkable works of art are: El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid: los fusilamientos en la montaña del Príncipe Pío, La maja desnuda (the naked woman) and la maja vestida (the dressed woman). You can admire most of his works in the museum del Prado, which is located in Madrid.

Salvador Dalí is one of my favourite painters. He was an artist, a painter, a photographer, a film director and a sculptor. He was quite a character and his style is distinctive and unique. In his paintings, labeled as surrealist, he tried to capture his dreams and obsessions. At first sight these works seem to be non-sense. However, after having studied them quietly you’ll discover that they reflect the deepest thoughts of the artist.

Gaudí was a 19th-century modernist architect, who was really prolific, and designed a lot of buildings, a spectacular cathedral (the Sagrada Familia) and some parks (Güell Park) in Barcelona. I strongly recommend you to visit that city. I’m sure that you’ll fall in love with the artist works, and with the city itself.

Calatrava is an architect that tries to break the usual building rules, changing the way of thinking about which materials to use or which shapes can be built. The ciudad de las artes y las ciéncias in Valencia is a good example of his work.

Nevertheless, those prominent people aren’t as well-known as those who are currently in the limelight due to the fact that they enjoy a tremendous popularity because of their job, such as actors, politicians, sport players (mostly football players), or directors. These celebrities appear much more frequently in the papers, gossip magazines or on TV. That’s why their names surely ring a bell.

Have you heard of any of the following names? Could you guess what they do for a living?

Alejandro Amenábar, Pedro Almodóvar, Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Juan Carlos I de Borbón, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Rafa Nadal, Fernando Alonso, Arturo Pérez Reverte, Ramón y Cajal, Severo Ochoa, Carlos Sainz, Pedro Duque, Plácido Domingo, Miguel Induráin.

I’ll give you a couple of hours to think about it. Tonight I’ll write the answers.

But now, if you are curious to know more about those notable people and others, click on the link below, and you’ll find a really long list of the most famous people of Spain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Spaniards

Jonathan, I’m learning a lot from your corrections. Thanks again for your explanations!

I like the Polish Christmas tradition you talked about. I believe it’s very important to keep the Christmas spirit alive, and enjoy a wonderful family holidays. Both, Poland and Spain have similarities. The polish tradition says that you have to taste twelve dishes to ensure good luck during the coming year, whereas in Spain what is typical is to eat twelve grape seeds, but at New Years’ Eve.
I’d like to know whether the fact that you mustn’t eat meat for the Christmas meal is due to religion or a tradition.

Well, I’m attending German lessons in the evenings. So, I must leave right now, but tonight I’ll make some more comments about the polish Christmas (that I’ve found really interesting) and all the others’ comments :)


Laters!

Silvia

Thanks for all your contributions. This blog has now closed and can no longer accept new comments.