I could scarcely believe what I was reading. The Huesca-born novelist Manuel Vilas hit out at the country of his birth, Spain, in an article in SUR in English last week, completely denigrating the country.
I was outraged.
Manuel Vilas [Photo: El Confidencial]
The evidence
I read the column “The Bottom Line” by Manuel Vilas in last week’s SUR in English (October 18 – 24) with great dismay.
Manuel Vilas, a Spaniard and a novelist, criticises Spain from top to bottom: no glamour; bad coffee; lack of beauty; beaches full of drunken tourists from Northern Europe gorging themselves on cheap beer and sunshine; town planning mistakes; poor dress code; lack of culture; and roundabouts.
And to finish his unpatriotic diatribe Sr. Vilas concluded that the modern-day Spaniard is not a human being, just another slave, a poor, sad animal.
I hope he has hired protection!
Young tourists having a good time [Photo: Murcia Today]
No glamour? No beauty?
As an immigrant from Britain who discovered Spain aged 20 and who now, over 50 years later, has lived here for 16 years, I do not recognise the Spain Sr. Vilas vilifies.
The Spain that I have got to know and love over a period of half a century, is not the country he describes.
Spain has no glamour, no beauty? “Ich lach mich tot”, as my German wife would say.
San Sebastian (Guipuzcoa) [Photomontage: Karl Smallman]
In Andalucía alone, each of the provincial capitals (Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Sevilla) is a treasure, each in a different way.
La Mezquita, Cordoba [Photo: Lonely Planet]
Ronda, where I live, is out of this world. Other towns are equally stunning, eg Baeza, Frigiliana, Jerez, Mijas, Nerja, Tarifa, and Úbeda, to name just a handful.
Elsewhere in Spain, what about Barcelona, Cáceres, Cuenca, Gijón, Girona, Guadalupe, Jaca, Madrid, Mérida, Olot, Oviedo, Pamplona, Salamanca, San Sebastián, Santander, Santillana del Mar, and Valladolid?
Puente Nuevo, Ronda [Photo: anonymous]
Let’s not forget the islands. Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, Lanzarote, and Tenerife (North) in the Canaries. And Formentera, Mallorca (North), Menorca, and Ibiza in the Balearics.
The coffee
As for the coffee, I have travelled widely in Europe and nowhere is the coffee better than here in Spain. And it’s affordable too.
The beaches
Beaches full (full?) of drunken tourists?
Go to different beaches, Sr. Vilas.
Where we go (Costa de la Luz, Western Costa del Sol) there are hardly any tourists, other than indigenous ones, and everybody behaves well.
Bolonia, Costa de la Luz [Photo: Trip Advisor]
Lack of culture?
Maybe in Huesca, your hometown, Sr, Vilas, but not where I spend my time. Ronda, where I live, has regular theatre, live music and dance.
Málaga City has at least 15 museums and art galleries.
Have you never witnessed the Semana Santa processions? Nor been present at a village fiesta?
Picasso Museum [Photo: Museos de Málaga]
Is Vilas' opinion of Spain all wrong?
No. To be fair, I agree with Sr. Vilas about town planning mistakes, about the proliferation of roundabouts and about the dress code.
Local councils have allowed some absolute monstrosities and "blots on the landscape" to be built, probably in exchange for some lucrative “backhanders”, but I’d say that’s largely a thing of the past, what with so many former mayors now spending time in gaol at “His Majesty’s Pleasure”, for their crimes and misdemeanours.
The average Spanish driver doesn’t have a clue how to negotiate a roundabout. Bring back traffic lights, I say!
Overweight Spanish men in Adidas or Nike tracksuits out and about on Sundays with their families represent a regrettable trend.
Endpiece
So, in conclusion, Manuel Vilas has written “a pack of lies” about my adopted country. I only hope his novels are better than his newspaper articles.
© The Curmudgeon
Note: a shorter version of this article, written by my alter ego Paul Whitelock, appeared on the SUR in English website earlier today. Click:
Paul Whitelock: Spain, is it really a country lacking glamour and with beaches full of drunken tourists gorging themselves on cheap beer and sunshine? | Sur in English
Acknowledgements:
El Confidencial
Karl Smallman
Murcia Today
Museos de Málaga
SUR in English
Trip Advisor
Tags:
Almería, Andalucía, Baeza, Balearics, Barcelona, Cáceres, Cádiz, Canaries, Córdoba, Cuenca, Formentera, Frigiliana, Fuerteventura, Gijón, Girona, Granada, Gran Canaria, Guadalupe, Huelva, Huesca, Ibiza, Jaca, Jaén, Jerez, Karl Smallman, La Gomera, Lanzarote, Madrid, Málaga, Mallorca, Manuel Vilas, Menorca, Mérida, Mijas, Nerja, Olot, Oviedo, Pamplona, Paul Whitelock, Ronda, Salamanca, San Sebastián, Santander, Santillana del Mar, Sevilla, SUR in English, Tarifa, Tenerife, The Curmudgeon, Úbeda, Valladolid