Spanish NewsBites Blog

Ramón or Radovan?

Both men were poets, both went for that Bohemian look, and both took more than a passing interest in political matters. One, Ramón del Valle-Inclán (1866-1936), was a novelist and dramatist who wrote politically charged, linguistically barrier-breaking work attacking bourgeois hypocrisy. The other, Radovan Karadzic, seems to have had Ramón in mind as he sat in front of the bathroom mirror, pondering how to escape justice. With apologies to Ramón: any similarity is merely superficial.

There is a Crisis: It's Official

There's been a lot of talk about that (to me) unlistenable 80s group Supertramp recently, since the Spanish government seems to have unofficially adopted this as their motto. So what a relief it is to learn from the front page of El País today that the government has finally admitted there is a crisis, and that yes, it's actually quite a big one.

Meanwhile, you may remember that a few months ago, at the Iberamerican summit, the King told Venezuela's much adored, much reviled Húgo Chávez to shut up, with a phrase that has since become immortal: ¿Por qué no te callas?. Well, it transpires that the King has now made a gift of a T-shirt to Chávez with that phrase written on it. According to El País, the King handed over the T-shirt with the comment that "you owe me a bit of money" - a humorous reference to the rights that the King has over the phrase.

A Moving Moment

This image of two elderly men was on the the front page of many of the Spanish papers yesterday as the newspapers found the symbolism hard to resist. It's very moving, since the two men are two of the principal architects of modern Spain. The one on the left is King Juan Carlos. The one on the right is Adolfo Suárez, who was Prime Minister of Spain between 1976 and 1981, thus making him the first president post-Franco. The tragedy is that Suárez has suffered from Alzheimer's since 2003, can no longer recognize anyone or remember anything - such as the fact that he was once Prime Minister. The photo was taken by Suárez's son, also a politician, who explained that his father "did not recognize the King, but was aware of his affection". The King has visited Suárez personally, to  deliver the Toisón de Oro (Golden Fleece), for his role in Spain's transition to democracy, making Suárez one of only seventeen people to hold the award. Suárez is still only 76 years old; the photo was taken in his garden; and it seems to suggest that an era is passing. "The King looks after his friend Adolfo," said Suárez's son who admitted that friends have been asking him to publish a photo of his father for some time. He defined the meeting as a "magic moment"; "not being able to see their faces is an invitation to imagine, to think."

The First Spanish NewsBites Blog Post.

Welcome to the Spanish Newsbites blog, the sister site of Spanish Newsbites. (That's the new site which helps you to learn Spanish at the same time as you read today's news.) A lot of people still question the value of languages (the link may be a couple of years old, but the attitude hasn't changed), and while Spaniards are as desperate to learn languages as they ever were (with frankly mixed results), the Brits seem to be mightily indifferent about the whole issue. So it seems only right to let one major baggy-suited political figure speak up for languages- whatever you think about him, you have to admit he's right about this. And when he makes his "merci beaucoup" crack, I'm afraid he's talking for the majority of Brits as well.  So please step up,  Mr Barack Obama.