It seems as though this week is spaghetti week. I had a HUGE plate of spaghetti for lunch on Monday, complete with red sauce, but the sauce was creamy, not just straight tomato sauce. It was delicious! And then for lunch on Tuesday, I ate some more spaghetti, this time cold, without sauce, and possibly leftovers from Monday. Not sure. But they were also delicious. I also ate something else, but to be honest, I don't remember what it was. Beef something maybe? And then for dinner, my host mom made a sort of spaghetti alfredo dish, but the sauce included a little ham, and tasted like it had a little bit of nutmeg in it. Also delicious. And then for lunch today, I also ate some more cold, sauceless spaghetti. I also ate some sort of vegetable soup puree thing, which was also delicious. I like the food here.
Now for the History Lesson: Today is a national holiday here. A fiesta. Though saying that, anything that is considered "national" in an American's eyes, generally includes some opposition and hard feelings in Spain. We are definitely a more patriotic nation. Props to the Red, White, and Blue. Nationalism here is tied to Francisco Franco, the Communist dictator who ruthlessly ruled over Spain from the end of the Civil War in 1939 until 1975 when he died. Nowadays, Spanish identity is more personal. More centralized on the city or region where one is from and not so much on the "I am from Spain!" emphasis.
I've never really liked modern history much, but I have to admit, this Franco business and the anti-Franco sentiments of today have definitely sparked my interest. They don't teach anything about the Civil War or Franco in the schools here. "It's too soon..." That's why.
Today is the Spanish equivalent of our Columbus Day. Only here, it has the magnitude of our 4th of July. Christopher Columbus landed in the New World on Oct. 12, 1492, and the holiday commemorates this event and the international connection Spain has to Hispanics all over the world. "La día de la hispanidad" is it's official name, and was first celebrated in 1935, the year before the start of the Civil War (which went from 1936-1939). In 2000, this date was also given a second official holiday, "el día de las fuerzas armadas," the day of the armed forces, which is celebrated with a huge military parade in Madrid.
What does all this mean? Many stores are closed, the buses run on a fiesta schedule (every half hour instead of varying intervals depending on the time of day), most people don't have to work, and all the school kids have the day off. What does this mean for me and the opposition? Well, I still have class, and the owner of the tiny grocery store in the plaza where my school is told me, "it's just another day."
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