What do you know about Spain?

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ALILITOP

If you are thinking about bullfighting and "matador" (by the way, this words means "somebody who kills" and is not used in Spain, the right word is "torero") forget it.
An increasing number of people in Spain is against it although it's true it has many unconditional fans

Crazy English

If you've done the research you'll know the main parts - the Inquisition, the Reconquista by the catholic monarchs after centuries of Moorish(muslim) rule, the Romans before that and the Celts before them. Not to mention the hard years of Fascist rule under Franco when the different, once independent regions, weren't allowed to learn their own languages at schools(Basque, Galician, Catalan). The Basque language pre-dates all the other indo-europen languages and some research at Oxford University suggests that British people are descended from the Basques.

All the above should be freely available on the web. If you want a more individual slant on Spain, from an English person, check out my blog link below. It touches on some of the history, and the truly wonderful fiestas, a big and very important part of Spanish life - perhaps you could make that the central theme..... Some of the main ones are, Las Fallas and La Tomatina in Valencia, San Fermin(running of the bulls) in Pamplona, Carnaval in Sevilla, Cadiz and Ã€guilas, and Semana Santa(Easter week) in many cities. Also the patron saint of Spain, Santiago Day, especially at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.

Good Luck!

John

SUE

You might want to note that the flamenco dresses that everyone thinks of as typical or traditional dress are only typical in one region, that every province has their own traditional dresses, and that they are only trotted out for special festivals and dance recitals (and in the instance of Flamenco, for the tablaos or Flamenco shows), but not worn daily (any more than kimonos are still worn in Japan, or any other folk clothing is worn in any country.)

They still close down most businesses for Siesta in the middle of the day, and some business owners don't actually return in the afternoons.

They are one of the greener countries in the world (in terms of fossil fuels, and pollution control, keeping litter under control, etc.)

A fairly backwards nation thirty years ago, after the death of Franco, they have become a highly industrialized nation, far outpacing some of their neighbors, but they are in a bit of an economic slump these days.

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