Getting to know Spain Part 1

Getting to know Spain.

by Dee Day.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author wishes to acknowledge the a.s.sistance and hospitality of Direccion General del Turismo in all its offices in Spain, the Spanish State Tourist Department in New York, and Iberia Air Lines of Spain, without whose co-operation the gathering of much of the material and the personal experience reflected in this book would have been impossible. A majority of the pictures were drawn from photographs by Herb Kratovil, taken especially for this book.

New York, 1957 Dee Day

Editor of this series: Sabra Holbrook

Seventh Impression

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 57-7427

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

For My Parents

You probably know that it was a Queen of Spain, Isabella, who made it possible for America to be discovered in 1492. It was an Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, who first had the strange new idea that he could sail westward from Spain in order to reach the Far East. He came to Spain to tell people about his idea, and everybody he met thought he was crazy because they knew, or thought they knew, that the northern corner of Spain, jutting out into the Atlantic, was the very end of the world.

Even the most daring sailors and fishermen wouldn't go very far from that sh.o.r.e for fear they would drop over the rim into nothingness.

But Queen Isabella didn't think Columbus was crazy. She took time to listen to him and decided she wanted to help him. She didn't have any money to buy ships for his expedition, so she ordered a little fishing village, Palos, to build three ships as a way of paying a fine they owed her. The fishermen of Palos knew how to build good, st.u.r.dy sailing vessels, and they soon had the three ships ready for Columbus and his brave sailors.

That is why, in August of 1492, the daring expedition started from this little Spanish village. What a sight! Three little ships, the _Nina_ (Small Girl), the _Pinta_ (Spotted), and the _Santa Maria_ (named in honor of the Virgin Mary) cast off from the wharf of Palos. Flags fluttered in the breeze as the sails billowed out from the masts. All the villagers were lined up on the sh.o.r.e to pray and to cheer, and the bells in the church rang as Columbus and his crew sailed off "the rim"

to the west in search of wealth and glory for Spain!

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Many Spanish explorers followed Columbus to the New World, and even sailed all the way around the world, west to east, but the Spanish people today are mostly "stay-at-homes." Sometimes they leave home for a little while to make money, like the Spanish shepherds who are so good at handling flocks of sheep that American ranchers in California, New Mexico, Nevada and other western states pay them a lot of money to come and work for them. But those who leave always go back to their beloved land as soon as they have earned what they need.

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If you were to meet a Spanish person, you would find that he would be interested in America and other countries, but he couldn't imagine living the rest of his life anywhere except in Spain. "Why should I ever live anywhere else?" he would ask you. "Everything beautiful and good in life is right here." He would feel this way even though he might be very poor and might even have to leave for a little while, like the shepherds. To him, the important things in life are his family, his friends, his church and his country.

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His country is a large, squarish, mountainous land at the southwesternmost tip of Europe. To the north, over the tall wall of the Pyrenees Mountains, is France. To the west is Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean, and to the east is the Mediterranean Sea. Spain has more seacoast than any other European country and more mountains than any except Switzerland. Spain and Portugal together make up what is called the Iberian Peninsula. It is named for the Iberian people who came there from North Africa almost 5,000 years ago and settled down to become the ancestors of the Spanish people.

If you were to stand at the bottom of the Iberian Peninsula, on a hill overlooking a town called Algeciras, you could look right into Africa, only twelve miles away. You would also see the Rock of Gibraltar--a giant rock rising out of the sea and turned into a fort to guard the narrow pa.s.sage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

This pa.s.sage is the Strait of Gibraltar, and all ships must go through it to get from the sea to the ocean.

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In this mountainous country between two seas, more babies are born every day than in any other country in Europe. There are 29 million people in Spain already, although it is only the size of our state of Montana, where 600,000 people live. This country might seem very small to us, but it is the third largest country in Europe. And because their mountains shut different parts of the country away from each other, there are many differences in ways of living among the 29 million Spaniards. There are 15 different regions in Spain, and each one has a different way of dressing, different music and dances, different ways of fixing food, a different sort of house to live in, and even different ways of speaking. Sometimes you will meet a Spaniard who has never been out of his own region, or even away from his own village, because the mountains make it very difficult to travel when your way of getting around is on your own two feet or in a little cart pulled by a small burro or donkey.

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Another reason for the many different ways of living is that Spain is a very old country which has been invaded many times by other countries.

These countries were jealous of the beauty and wealth of Spain and wanted to get it for themselves. For hundreds of years the Spanish people were always fighting to protect their beloved homeland against invading armies.

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The Iberians themselves were invaders, because they weren't the first people who lived in Spain. We don't even know the names of those very first people who lived there when most of Europe was covered with ice.

We only know that they lived in caves and hunted wild animals, because some of their caves have been discovered and the walls are covered with bright drawings of the animals these people hunted--bison, deer, wild horses and wild boars.

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After the Iberians, came the Celts, Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians and Romans. From Rome, Spain took her language, her system of laws, and her church. There were once more than 80 Roman cities in Spain, with roads and bridges and walls which were built so well that they are still used by Spanish people today. In the city of Segovia, the Romans built an aqueduct to bring drinking water into the town from the nearby mountains, and this aqueduct still brings water to the people of Segovia.

The Romans liked Spain so much they stayed 500 years, but finally barbaric tribes from central Europe drove them out. A short time later, these tribes were conquered by Moors from North Africa. The Moors brought many new ways to the Spanish people. They spoke the Arabic language, and worshiped Mohammed instead of Christ, in churches called mosques. They taught the Spanish people algebra and the science of astronomy; they introduced a new kind of poetry, music and dancing. They brought many new kinds of trees and flowers to Spain, like the date palm, the orange and the pomegranate, and taught the people how to grow them with an irrigation system which is still in use today. Many little Spanish boys learn how to run it, so that they can help their fathers and mothers.

The Moors built many mosques and palaces in Spain which are still in use, and they look like buildings from Arabian fairy tales. These Moorish buildings have their rooms built around open courtyards, called patios, where orange and lemon trees and many bright flowers grow, and fountains splash in the sunshine. The rooms have many pillars to support the ceiling, and all the pillars and arches and ceilings are beautifully carved. The Moors could carve hard stone so that it looks like delicate lace, and this is what gives their buildings such a fairy-tale look.

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The Spanish Christians, however, didn't like the Moors, and during all of the 800 years the Moors ruled Spain, the Christians were fighting to drive them out. Finally, Queen Isabella and her husband, King Ferdinand, led their Christian army to victory against the last Moorish stronghold, Granada. Because of this victory, Queen Isabella didn't have to worry about fighting for a while, and she was able to help Columbus.

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When Columbus discovered America on October 12, 1492, he began Spain's most exciting period of history. The next century after Columbus was called the Age of the Conquistadores. Conquistadores were adventurers who set out to find and conquer new lands for Spain in the New World which Columbus had discovered. Many of their conquests later became part of the United States. For instance, De Soto claimed the Mississippi River and all the rivers that run into it, as well as part of the land that is now the American Southwest. Ponce de Leon, looking for a magic fountain that would keep people young forever, discovered Florida and claimed for Spain the land that is now the American southeast. Cortez, who had conquered Mexico for Spain and had sent millions of dollars'

worth of gold and jewels back to his homeland, also traveled through the Southwest and as far north as Colorado. The great Pacific Ocean, which washes the western coast of both North and South America, was discovered by a Spaniard named Balboa. One Spanish sailor, Juan Sebastian Elcano, was the very first man to sail all the way around the world.

The Conquistadores sent back a huge treasure of gold, silver, copper and jewels to Spain, and more than paid Queen Isabella and her family for her faith in Columbus. In fact, Spain became one of the most important countries in Europe. Her queens and kings and princesses married rulers of other countries so that soon, in addition to being very rich and owning many countries across the ocean, Spain owned most of Europe too.

She was sitting on top of the world. Only England had stood up against the Spanish power. So in 1588, Spain sent a great fleet of warships, called the Armada, to challenge England. England won.

Spain never recovered from this defeat by England. It became harder for her to govern the lands she had conquered. Today only two places outside the country are still Spanish. They are the Canary Islands out in the Atlantic Ocean near the coast of Africa, and the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean.

At the same time that Spain was losing lands she had conquered, her own lovely land tempted other countries, and the Spanish people were called upon to fight invading armies from England and France. The real losers during all these years of fighting were the Spanish people. They had to fight instead of grow crops, and natural resources, like forests, were neglected or used up. Spain fell further and further behind other countries, and even today she hasn't been able to catch up as far as she would like.

All the unhappy years of fighting in Spain weren't in the long-ago past.

Just a while ago, in 1936, a Civil War broke out between the Spanish people who wanted their king to come back to the throne he'd left in 1931, and the people who wanted Spain to set up a republic, like ours in the United States. This war went on for three years, and in the end, everybody lost. General Francisco Franco and his army defeated the forces which wanted a republic, and also those who wanted to set up Communism. He is now the head of the Spanish government. Because he is considered a dictator, there are many Spanish people who disagree with the way he runs the government and are hoping to change it. In 1947 a new const.i.tution was written in which General Franco agreed that Spain would one day have a king again, but the person who becomes king must be at least twenty-five years old. The old king is dead and there is n.o.body for the job right now. But the king's grandson, young Prince Juan Carlos, is taking special studies so he will be ready to be king when he is old enough. And of course there are still people who would like to see Spain become a democratic republic, like the United States, and not have a king at all.

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In the meantime, the Spanish people and their government have a lot to do to make their country stable and strong again. If you were to visit Spain, you would see why the Spanish people love their country so much.

You could also understand why so many different nations wanted to conquer Spain. Spain is a very beautiful country and also a country that can produce many good things. It has minerals such as iron, lead, copper and sulphur in the earth. In the south, it has a warm climate that helps grow luscious crops of oranges, lemons, olives and grapes for wine.

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You might like to take a trip from one region to another by riding on a little donkey as Spanish boys do, or in a little high-wheeled cart pulled by a donkey, the way little Spanish girls might do. Your donkey would probably not have a saddle, but just a rug or a straw mat folded across his back, and he might wear a headband of bright red and blue wool woven into a gay pattern to shade his eyes from the sun. You could carry your food and clothes for the journey in a pair of straw bags hung one on each side of your donkey's back. Along the way, you would see dozens of other little donkeys and burros. The burro is a donkey-cousin but even smaller. Donkeys and burros work with the Spanish men and boys in the fields or carry stones to help build new roads, or carry jars of water from a well to someone's house. These gentle little animals work to earn their keep in Spain.

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