Sunday, February 03, 2008

La Spagna ferma al suo Novecento

La Spagna è sul limitare degli anni Sessanta. Ha vissuto anni di crescita spensierata e di edonismo prima sconosciuto, si è sbottonata la camicetta come le nostre mamme quando ballavano il geghegè. Mentre il resto dell’Occidente viveva il trauma e il lutto dell’11 settembre, e si addentrava nella nostra nuova era pieno di angoscia e disillusione, la Spagna, pur toccata dagli eventi sanguinosi del marzo 2004, viveva la sua solitaria modernizzazione effimera e sfrontata, il suo boom dei consumi e dei costumi. Le città spagnole sono la meta preferita di chi vuole più o meno inconsciamente trovare lo spirito che da noi aleggiava quarant’anni fa, fluido e molleggiato.

Dice Miguel, amico di Burgos conosciuto a Boston: “la Chiesa in Spagna è così old-fashioned, ci parla ancora dell’inferno e del paradiso…”. Già, che senso hanno queste barbose preoccupazioni ultraterrene quando la vita terrena è così luccicante e attraente, quando si guadagna il doppio di dieci anni fa e ogni libertà del singolo è concepita in senso assoluto... spavaldamente, almodovarianamente?

Ma le nubi si addensano anche sul destino spagnolo, spiace dirlo ma è così, già le previsioni di crescita economica lasciano intendere che il miracolo iberico prima o poi finirà, e anche in Spagna ritroveremo sussulti e paure che attraversano il resto d’Europa e del mondo. Tempi belli e cupi, i nostri: da questo punto di vista l’Italia ne è molto più consapevole, e paradossalmente più all’avanguardia.

La Spagna invece, ancora una volta, come sempre nella sua storia – e particolarmente nel Novecento – segue vicende separate dal resto d’Europa, del mondo; in fondo, è il suo solito ritardo, che dura da cinquecento anni, dai tempi di Felipe Segundo e di quella strana scelta un po’ mistica e un po’ provinciale di richiudersi su Madrid, di voltare le spalle al mondo. Questa Spagna culturalmente autarchica, e un po’ stupida, prima o poi si sveglierà, e forse allora comincerà a raccontarci qualcosa di interessante.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scusa Fra, non ho capito...per caso non ti stanno simpatici gli spagnoli?!!

francesco c. said...

al contrario. è solo che questa Spagna è distratta e dormiente. Salvador de Madariaga è lontano lontano...

Anonymous said...

per quel poco che ho potuto percepire della Spagna nelle mie brevi visite in loco è che loro sono sostanzialmente fossilizzati nel ruolo di "Nazione festaiola" del gruppo e non intendono cambiare! A loro va bene così! Anzi questa crescita economica potrebbe addirittura rompergli le uova nel paniere e costringerli a LAVORARE! Situazione assolutamente non affrontabile e poi non si concilia con la MOVIDA! Tranquillo non andranno lontano se c'è da sudare...

Anonymous said...

La Spagna? Almeno loro hanno il Re!
E quel poco che hanno lo devono anche a Franco, che non è il comico di Zelig ma il caudillo che ha risparmiato agli spagnoli 40 anni di paradiso socialista. Buena suerte a tutti comunque.
eire76

Anonymous said...

Fra! I request a detailed translation of this post asap! Cuz what I understood sounded like you seeing us as primitive and uncultured! I thought you had permanently reserved those adjectives for our "beloved" States and its citizens?! But maybe I was wrong...

Or is it that you resent that Iberians and Celtiberians are doing much better than Romans? Cuz history knows that Celts where extremely successful and that Rome was after their gold...

And you say we are much behing than the rest of Europe? Then I may have to recall you the praises of Angela Merkel for the spanish economy, She said she envies our economy and she wished Germany could experience such a long process of high growth and development.

Or should I recall you from which nationality are the new huge corporations that are entering the lists of the most powerful companies in each industry? I bet you know the answer and the cases.
And didn't you hear also that Empires reborn from their ashes?

Better send an e-mail with the translation if possible. And for what we are worth, why don't you just come visit and I show you my vision of Spain, dude! Who knows, you may be uttered.

No resent mate, but I'm awaiting your answer...

Anonymous said...

Last two things.

You italians are not the appropriate to critisize for consumism and fashion! How you dare, specially you Francesco!!!

And Almodovar is not Spain!!! Spain is in Almodovar but not the other way round! He and what he represents are as you would say in Italy "TERROGNI". So...

francesco c. said...

This is a horrid translation into english of my post. Hope it helps you to understand that I am criticizing the way things are going in Spain nowadays and not Spain itself. I thought that was obvious enough (otherwise I would be a racist), but it always helps to repeat it twice. Enjoy! :)

-----

Spain is in her 60s. She's been living years of carefree economic growth and of a hedonism once unknown, she's undoing her shirt's buttons as our mothers did when they danced the "geghegè". While the rest of the Western world was living the shock and the grief of 9/11, and was getting into our new era full of anguish and disenchantment,Spain - even when touched by the bloody events of March 2004 - was living its lonely, ephemeral modernization, its consumer boom and its moral liberalization. Spanish cities are the favourite destination for those who want, more or less consciously, find the same fluid and springy spirit we had here 40 years ago.

Miguel, a Burgos' friend whom I met in Boston, says: "Church in Spain is so old-fashioned, still bothering us with hell and heaven...". Actually, do these boring worries still make any sense, when wordly life is so glittering and attractive? Do they make any sense, when you earn twice as ten years ago and each individual liberty is conceived as an absolute right... boldly, "Almodovarily"?

But clouds are thickening even on spanish destiny. It's sad but true. Economic forecasts are already predicting that the "spanish miracle" shall end, sooner or later, and then we will find in Spain too the same fears which are threatening nowadays the rest of Europe and the World. Our time is both a beautiful and gloomy one: Italy is more conscious of it, and for this reason, paradoxically, she is more in the forefront.

Spain, instead, another time, as always in her history - and particularly in the XXth century - goes through a separate event. Maybe it's just her usual delay, which lasted five centuries - by the time when Felipe II, in a strange, both mystical and provincial way, reatreated himself on Madrid, turning his back to the World. This culturally-autartic (and a bit stupid) Spain is going to wake up soon: then she will start to tell us something really interesting.

Anonymous said...

Well, I have to say that I knew my reading and understanding skills in Italian were very poor, but I actually substimated the huge differences meanings may have at both coasts. Well I have to agree mostly with what you wrote. But you know that I still have an idilic image of Spain, I guess as a consequence of not having lived for nearly two years. So Spain is becoming like a foreign country even for me. And for sure, the Hispanic feeling and way of living is so so traditional and anchored in the past. Yesterday I was having dinner with some other spanish friends here, and I realised how different is the north and the south, the mediterranean and the north-atlantic coasts. We seemed to come from different countries. And what is something to worry about, I felt disgusted by some things in their behaviour! I really think I don't feel like a spaniard anymore despite I will always carry my country in the heart, and therefore, idealise it somehow.