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St James and the Two Faces of Spain
- yosefzeev 7y agoSounds like some body-snatching took place along with the ultimate in cultural appropriation.
- pmarin 7y agoIt’s allways fascinating what a crime novelist with a degree in islamic history has to say about Spain.
- bitcurious 7y agoI can’t tell if you mean to be dismissive, but if you are you should know that the south of Spain was under Islamic rule for good deal of time, so the Islamic history degree provides a lot of insight into modern Spain.
- narag 7y agoActually, not that much. Recent genetical studies have shown that almost nobody got left behind after the fall of Granada. We that were born in the South were said to be half Moors. But historical records, and now genetics, said that muslim inhabitants of Al Andalus fled in mass in 1492 to North Africa. South Andalusia was mostly repopulated with people from nothern kingdoms. Of course there's much cultural osmosis and there was muslim population left behind, just not in Andalusia.
- pmarin 7y agoI born and live in Granada.
- vixen99 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Granada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirate_of_Granada
- harperlee 7y agoPretty sure he knows about that already. This is integral part of our history, they were there for about a thousand years, and particularly Granada was the last place to be freed and its main touristic landmark, the Alhambra, is an islamic palace.
- switch007 7y agoBeautiful city! The Alhambra is mind-blowing. The food, the music... ahh!
- spanxx 7y agoDo current US-citizens have any kind of heritage of Native Americans?
- hevi_jos 7y ago"But when El Caudillo died in 1975, Spain miraculously left her troubled past behind her, embarking on a rare, successful transition to democracy that was sealed by a landmark referendum in 1978." Not that miraculously. More like the CIA financed and trained in France a terrorist attract to kill the person that Franco has selected as successor, Carrero Blanco and then appointing the most stupid person in the regime, Arias Navarro. The "successful" transition to democracy was initiated by stupid decisions like giving the Sahara territories to Morroco so they can slaughter the native population and occupy it with Morrocan(It should have been given independence instead) and creating the State of Autonomias. The State of Autonomias was the transition from a highly centralized State, to one of the more decentralized countries on Earth. It was done this way in order to appease the Independentist that were a minority at the time,(In Catalunia a 6-12%) and now in places like Catalunia and Vasque country are becoming near to a majority(50%). The electoral system in Spain(chosen in the "succesful" transition to democracy, favored minorities over majorities giving way more representation than they should have. They made the effective eradication of the use of Spanish, even in places like Basque country(the Spanish language comes from the territory between it and Cantabria) in education and brainwashing of kids propagating hatred against anything spanish. That was also helped by the terrorist organization ETA that just killed and ostracized those that were not secessionist in Basque country. In Catalunia kids were taught that Catalonia were a kingdom in the past(never happened), the myth of the Segadors as independentist when they were a movement against the rich or that the war for Sucesion(succession) was a war for Secession in Catalunia. BTW, this lie is the the linked article. This is all false and very easy for anyone to check, because Truth doesn't matter because when repeating a lie a thousand times it becomes a truth. And they controlled local TV and education for 40 years. They even meet each year in front of a guy called Rafael Casanovas as a secession leader when every time he talked always finished with a "Viva España"(long live Spain). Spanish history is no more violent than that of the rest of European countries, or the UK and US(that have fought or invaded most of the countries on the rest of the world).
- nextos 7y agoI don't think one can summarize the history of Spain since 1970 any better.
- spanxx 7y agoSome background about why Anglo-Saxons usually consider Spain a backwards country: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend (i.e. pure propaganda).