Spain

España

Spain is not one thing. Its constitution names Castilian as the language of the State and then, in the next line, makes the other Spanish languages official in their own regions: Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque, Aranese. The great fiestas are regional too — fire in Valencia, saints in Seville, bulls in Pamplona, human towers in Catalonia — and so are the food and the accents. Flamenco belongs to the south; Galicia has bagpipes.

What the regions share is a rhythm: a small breakfast, a second one at eleven, lunch at half past two, dinner at ten, and a clock that has run an hour ahead of the sun since 1940. The topics here start from that shared day and fan out to the places that make Spain plural.

History

History of Spain: a timeline (78 moments of its history)

• Before 1492 (15000 BC–1492)
• Empire and the colonial Americas (1492–1808)
• Revolutions and new nations (1808–1898)
• Revolution, war and dictatorship (1898–1975)
• Democracy and today (1975–)

Start with

• 218–19 BC: Rome lands in Hispania — The Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage began after Hannibal took Saguntum, a city allied to Rome.
• 25 BC: Augustus founds Mérida — In 25 BC, as his generals were finishing the Cantabrian wars, Augustus founded a colony for discharged veterans (emeriti) on the river Guadiana and named it…
• 19 October 1469: Isabel and Fernando marry — On 19 October 1469, in Valladolid, Isabel, heir to Castile, secretly married Fernando, heir to Aragon, against the wishes of her half-brother King Henry IV.
• 2 January 1492: The fall of Granada — After a ten-year war, Boabdil, the last Nasrid king, handed Granada over to Isabel and Fernando on 2 January 1492, ending almost eight centuries of Muslim rule…
• 2 May 1808: Madrid rises against Napoleon — In 1808 French troops were in Spain, and Napoleon had drawn the Spanish royal family to Bayonne, planning to make his brother Joseph king.
• 1898: The Disaster of '98 — Most of Spain's American empire had won independence in the 1810s and 1820s, but Cuba and Puerto Rico remained, along with the Philippines.
• 16 December 1927–August 1936: The Generation of '27 and Lorca — From 16 to 18 December 1927 a group of young poets travelled from Madrid to Seville, invited by the bullfighter and writer Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, to honour…
• 20 November 1975–15 June 1977: Franco dies and the Transition begins — Francisco Franco died in Madrid on 20 November 1975, after thirty-six years in power.

Culture

Culture of Spain

Food and drink

• Tapas — Small plates eaten standing at the bar, one or two per bar before moving on. The food matters less than the conversation.
• Paella — The rice of Valencia and the rules its defenders enforce: chicken, rabbit and beans, never chorizo, Sunday at noon, and the toasted crust everybody fights over.

Festivals and celebrations

• The year of fiestas — A calendar of Spain's great celebrations, each tied to its own town: grapes in Madrid, fire in Valencia, saints in Seville, bulls in Pamplona, towers in Catalonia.
• Castells: human towers — A tower made of people, up to ten levels high, with a small child at the top who raises a hand while the whole square holds its breath.
• The twelve grapes — At midnight on 31 December the whole country watches one clock and eats one grape per chime. Twelve grapes in twelve seconds, and luck for the year.

Customs and etiquette

• La hora latina: the elastic hour — An invitation for eight means you may arrive from eight. The skill is knowing when the time is literal — and there is a phrase for saying so.
• La sobremesa — The plates are empty, nobody gets up, and the best part of the meal begins. English has no word for it.
• Who's last? The queue without a line — At the bakery there is no line, and yet everybody knows whose turn it is. One question as you walk in, one answer to listen for, and what happens to anyone who pushes in.
• Customs and etiquette in Spain

Everyday life

• The Spanish day — Five times to eat, lunch at half past two, dinner at ten, shops shut from two to five — and a clock that has run an hour ahead of the sun since 1940.

Identity and society

• The languages of Spain — Spain speaks more than Spanish. Four other languages are official in their own regions, one of them older than Latin — and none of them is a dialect.
• The two surnames — Everybody carries two surnames, one from each parent, and nobody changes their name on marrying. How a name is built, why Picasso is not Ruiz, and what to write in the second box.
• Identity and society in Spain

Music and the arts

• Flamenco — Andalusia's art of song, guitar and dance: the cante, the toque and the baile, the twelve-beat compás, and the moment the aficionados call duende.

Literature and storytelling

• Literature and storytelling in Spain

Places and landscapes

• The Camino de Santiago — A thousand-year-old pilgrim road across the north of Spain: yellow arrows, a scallop shell, cheap bunk beds, blisters, and the greeting everybody uses.
• Places and landscapes in Spain

History

• History in Spain

Read

• Meals at Spanish hours — Horarios y comidas
• The hour after the meal — La sobremesa
• The languages of Spain — Las lenguas de España
• The siesta, honestly — La siesta de verdad
• Two surnames — Dos apellidos
• Who's last in the queue? — ¿Quién da la vez?
• Al-Ándalus y Córdoba — Al-Andalus and Córdoba
• Caminante, no hay camino — Wayfarer, there is no path
• Chocolate con churros — Hot Chocolate and Churros
• Cristóbal Colón, 1492 — Christopher Columbus, 1492
• El burro flautista — The donkey and the flute
• El Camino de Santiago — The Way of St James
• El Cid — El Cid
• El Desastre del 98 — The Disaster of '98
• El Dos de Mayo — The Second of May
• El Día de Reyes — Three Kings' Day
• El español de Andalucía — The Spanish of Andalucía
• El flamenco — Flamenco
• El franquismo y la Transición — Franco's regime and the Transition
• El imperio de Felipe II — The empire of Philip II
• El Lazarillo de Tormes — Lazarillo de Tormes
• El Quijote — Don Quixote
• El santo y el cumpleaños — Your Saint's Day and Your Birthday
• El Valle de Cuelgamuros — The Valley of Cuelgamuros
• Francisco de Goya — Francisco de Goya
• La Alhambra — The Alhambra
• La Armada Invencible — The Spanish Armada
• La batalla de Lepanto — The Battle of Lepanto
• La cigarra y la hormiga — The cicada and the ant
• La España vacía — Empty Spain
• La expulsión de los moriscos — The expulsion of the Moriscos
• La Feria de Abril — The April Fair
• La Guerra Civil española — The Spanish Civil War
• La Inquisición española — The Spanish Inquisition
• La lechera — The Milkmaid
• La monarquía a debate — The monarchy question
• La paella — Paella
• La Reconquista — The "Reconquest"
• La Sagrada Familia — The Sagrada Família
• La Semana Santa en Sevilla — Holy Week in Sevilla
• La siesta y las comidas — The siesta and mealtimes
• La tortilla de patatas — The Spanish omelette
• La vuelta al mundo de Elcano — Elcano's Voyage Round the World
• La zorra y las uvas — The Fox and the Grapes
• Las coplas de Manrique — Manrique's Coplas
• Las doce uvas — The twelve grapes
• Las Fallas de Valencia — The Fallas of Valencia
• Las lenguas de España — The languages of Spain
• Las tapas — Tapas
• Los castells — Human Towers
• Los refranes del tiempo — Weather Sayings
• Los Reyes Católicos — The Catholic Monarchs
• Los romanos en Hispania — The Romans in Hispania
• Los Sanfermines — The Sanfermines
• Poderoso caballero es don Dinero — A powerful gentleman is Sir Money
• Romance sonámbulo — Sleepwalking Ballad
• Rosalía de Castro — Rosalía de Castro
• Toledo, ciudad de tres culturas — Toledo, City of Three Cultures
• Una boda en Galicia — A wedding in Galicia
• Volverán las oscuras golondrinas — The dark swallows will return