Dawn

Dawn

Saturday, May 27, 2006

It seems that Ana Obregon is even more reconstructed than I thought; Spanish friends tell me she’s in her 50s and not her 40s. Almost Spain’s answer to Cher, then.

My blog of yesterday was picked up by another of those trackers, this time one aimed at comments on Galicia. It’s called chuza.org but so far I’ve not been able to find out what chuza means. Anyway, I’m referred to as ‘Scottish’, which is a quarter right. As would be Welsh, Irish and English. Take your pick. A four-fold non-nationalist. Or a ‘Brit’ as we have been called for about 200 years. I wonder how long it will be before everyone in Spain can be both local and national. Or national and supranational, as some of them would prefer. But it doesn’t matter how they see themselves, just so long as they stop being so narrow-mindedly provincial.

I had thought the Cornish language was dead but I now read there are 4-500 people who speak it fluently. Cornish is a Celtic language and a close relation of both Welsh and Breton, with links into Gaelic [both varieties] and Manx. Welsh, Breton and Cornish form the sub-group of Byrothnic languages. So I guess the language purists would see a case for restoring the nation of Byrothnia[?]. Meanwhile, though, the 4-500 speakers of Cornish are to benefit from the spending of 600,000 pounds so as to 'increase the use of the language in public life'. Which can’t be bad. I wonder if there is anyone left in Italy speaking Etruscan and who feels so miffed at Latin superseding it they can establish a case for a subvention. And I also wonder if this blog will now be picked up by Cornish and/or Etruscan trackers. God help me!

The other question which has crossed my mind this morning is – How many of Spain’s problems stem from the fact that people here tend to stay where they are born and so form a stronger-than- elsewhere attachment to their ‘patria chica’? Gerard Brenan had a few things to say about this in his famous book ‘The Spanish Labyrinth’. I must re-read it.

I knew it would be misinterpreted . . . I don’t wear either a tanga or ‘normal panties’; It was my experience with Galician women I was talking about yesterday. But I will be wearing a tanga in my next photo, even if you can’t actually see it. Honest.

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