But the Spanish have what seems to me a more natural acceptance of death than do we present-day British; not as the ultimate insult of God, or Nature, but as an integral part of the cycle of life.
It seemed that the entire population of our local town and numerous outsiders were present, for a Spanish funeral involves the whole community. Many of the congregation were still in their work clothes and some slipped out occasionally to have a smoke.
In this Spanish church, the vestments of the priest, the hymns and the incense, I found echoes of the solemnity, mystery and magic of the Tridentine Mass of my Catholic childhood. And the eulogy for the deceased rang with sincerity, for the priest had known them personally.
All national characters are formed by a nation's history, and perhaps it is that Spain's blood-soaked history (the three and a half centuries' reign of the Inquisition, the carnage of the Civil War and the repressive Franco regime) have taught the Spanish the price of disunity [a juzgar por los últimos años, no parece que sea el caso].
The Spanish, I wrote, are so welcoming that one has the impression of being a member of a huge, extended, loving family; a view which my detractors clearly did not share, and for some reason found offensive. It is a great pity that such people do not adopt the Spanish way of life, which is, indeed, also the Spanish way of death.
Muy bonito. Si al menos fuera verdad... (no me tomen en serio, los neoprogres somos así, :))
It seemed that the entire population of our local town and numerous outsiders were present, for a Spanish funeral involves the whole community. Many of the congregation were still in their work clothes and some slipped out occasionally to have a smoke.
In this Spanish church, the vestments of the priest, the hymns and the incense, I found echoes of the solemnity, mystery and magic of the Tridentine Mass of my Catholic childhood. And the eulogy for the deceased rang with sincerity, for the priest had known them personally.
All national characters are formed by a nation's history, and perhaps it is that Spain's blood-soaked history (the three and a half centuries' reign of the Inquisition, the carnage of the Civil War and the repressive Franco regime) have taught the Spanish the price of disunity [a juzgar por los últimos años, no parece que sea el caso].
The Spanish, I wrote, are so welcoming that one has the impression of being a member of a huge, extended, loving family; a view which my detractors clearly did not share, and for some reason found offensive. It is a great pity that such people do not adopt the Spanish way of life, which is, indeed, also the Spanish way of death.
Muy bonito. Si al menos fuera verdad... (no me tomen en serio, los neoprogres somos así, :))
7 comments:
La de este señor sí que es imaginación...
;D
Siempre que oigo o leo a un corresponsal guiri en un periódico extrajero -conozco bien los de iuquei y los de dóichland- siento retortijones en el estómago.
Esta gente generalmente no tiene ni zorra de España o de la historia de nuestro país. ¿Pero por favor, Líber, cómo puedes tomar en serio un artículo sobre ejpéin donde para apuntalar una opinión te sacan las muy manidas Inquisición, Guerra Civil y Dictadura Franquista?
¡Menuda gentuza ignorante!
Me sorprende que tú, Líber, chico viajado, y que deberías de conocer los prejuicios positivos -romantizando España- o los negativos -que proceden de la secular rivalidad entre los imperios británico y español- que los anglosajones tienen hacia España y hacia todo lo hispánico, te puedas "emocionar" con CUALQUIER artículo de CUALQUIER corresponsal angloguiri.
There's something called irony. A mí también me ha parecido una chorrada, como otras que se publican en la sección de expatriates del Telegraph. Una de las mayores tonterías que dice se refiere a la solemnidad de las misas católicas. Yo he estado en misas anglicanas de la rama high church y eso sí que es pompa y solemnidad.
Pues chico, it seems that irony and ironía have different meanings...
Nene, tú que vives en Gran Bretaña deberías saberlo :)) Pero como sólo te juntas con inmigrantes, algo perfectamente entendible dada la aversión de los ingleses al agua y al jabón, todavía no lo has captado.
Vaya paja. Ha sido leerlo y creerme que era un fragmento de una novela de ciencia ficción. Lo de disunity… manda cojones.
Niño, he visto algo sobre la ejpanis íngland que te encantará:
http://helmanticalibertas.blogspot.com/2008/05/fachas-en-inglaterra.html
Post a Comment