The culture of Spain

Spain’s culture and history has always been a bit of a mystery to foreigners, hence the reasons why it has been the subject of so many great books. Having read Ernest Hemingway’s “From whom the bell tolls” and George Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” both semi autobiographical stories about their time fighting on the communist side in the Spanish civil I realised that there was a lot I didn’t know about Spain. Both Orwell and Hemingway made some interesting observations about Spanish culture and history, and both failed to elaborate on the full picture of the war. While Orwell was based in Catalonia in the farcical communist trenches, Hemingway’s tale tells the story of dynamiter hidden in the mountains with a communist guerrilla group, planning an attack. Both stories are regarded as classics and rightly so, however they give personalised accounts of events, leaving the reader with a lot of questions.To find out more about the facts surrounding the Spanish civil war and the aftermath I got hold of book by Giles Tremlett called “The Ghosts of Spain”.

The book was recommended to me by a friend, who was another recent arrival to Madrid and who said it would open my eyes to the hidden side of Spain. When I first got hold of the book I expected it to be a dense historical book full of dates and facts with very little insight. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Tremlett who has been living in Spain for over 20 years and has worked as the Madrid correspondent for the Guardian isn’t afraid to give his insight into the new cosmopolitan Spain or the old Spain as well for that matter. “The ghosts of Spain” explores everything from the digging up of the mass graves in villages throughout Spain to Spain’s new culture icon Pedro Almodovar. He also looks behind the scenes of Spain’s sex industry and visits the home of Flamenco in Sevilla. He looks at the corruption and decay of the tourist Mecca Costa del Sol and its capital Benidorm and explores the relationship between the King and Francisco Franco the deceased dictator.

The book gives a complete insight into modern Spain and will help any foreigner who is as enthralled by this country as I am to understand a little more about what goes on behind the scenes. Tremlett is very thorough in his exploration and explanation of Spanish history and culture and presents it in an entertaining and insightful way. Most of the chapters are told in the first person, this allows us to see things through his eyes and with his enthusiasm. If there was one part of the book that failed to entertain me it was the chapter on ETA and their terror campaign, this is something that is obviously close to Tremletts heart having reported on it for so long but for me personally it went on a little too long.

Overall, I couldn’t recommend the book more for someone who wants to understand Spain, the country that captivates so many foreigners.