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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
The British now expand the resident population by a
quarter of a million (although three times that number
are said to spend much of the year living in Spain).
Reactions to the new arrivals vary but, on the whole,
they’re welcomed. Many Africans and Latin Americans
are willing to work at the wrong end of the job market,
filling the menial posts that Spaniards shun. Integration
is still very much an explorative process, benefiting of
late from government funding. Right-wingers are more
hostile, using graffiti and, occasionally, violence to make
their point. Of course many in Spain judge ethnic origin
by region, not nation. So, ask a Catalan and they may
well tell you that around 15 per cent of Iberians are of
Catalan ethnicity, eight per cent are Galician, two per
cent are Basque and most of the rest are Castilian.
Gypsies also still make up a sizeable ethnic minority,
numbering about 300,000.
The changing shape of Spanish families
Under Franco, and according to the Spanish norm of
old, large families were encouraged.The ample brood,
with submissive mum and dominant dad at the core,
was said to underpin society.The situation has changed
a lot since Franco died. Families are smaller – the
majority of children don’t now have siblings – divorce
is easier and the role of women has progressed
dramatically. Spaniards marry less and later in life (most
waiting until 30), while couples often live together
unmarried. One in four Spanish children are now born
out of wedlock and the stigma attached to single parent
families for so long is greatly reduced. But while
circumstances change, the family unit – or at least the
notion of it – has remained central to Spanish life, even
if today it takes a nuclear rather than extended shape.
Spain is reverential toward its children. It’s always been
Unsporting behaviour
Extreme racial bigotry,
particularly the more
violent end, is generally
no worse in Spanish
society than elsewhere.
However, casual racial
abuse does appear more
easily tolerated. Sport has
a particular problem with
racism; as seen in 2008
with the taunting
of British Formula One
racing driver, Lewis
Hamilton, bitter rival to
Spanish driver Fernando
Alonso. English football
fans were stunned four
years earlier when their
black players received
monkey chants in Madrid.
Such behaviour isn’t that
unusual at Spanish
football matches, where a
significant minority deem
racist shouting as a
legitimate way of putting
the opposition off, as
simple sporting rivalry.