I read the“The Bottom Line” column by Manuel Vilas in last week’s SUR in English (October 18 – 24) with great dismay.
Señor 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 concludes that the modern-day Spaniard is not a human being, just another slave, a poor, sad animal.
I hope he has hired protection!
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 describes.
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.
In Andalucía alone, each of the provincial capitals (Almeria, Cadiz, Cordoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén, Málaga and Sevilla) is a treasure.
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, Valladolid?
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.
As for the coffee, I have travelled widely in Europe and nowhere is the coffee better than here in Spain. And it’s affordable.
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.
Lack of culture? Maybe in Huesca, your hometown, Sr, Vilas, but not where I spend my time. Malaga city has at least 15 museums and art galleries. Ronda has regular theatre and live music. Have you never witnessed the Semana Santa processions?
Nor been present at a village fiesta?
To be fair, I agree with Sr. Vilas about town planning mistakes, about the proliferation of roundabouts and about the dress code. Overweight Spanish men in Adidas or Nike tracksuits out and about on Sundays with their families is a regrettable trend.
So, in conclusion, Manuel Vilas has written “a pack of lies” about my adopted country. I hope his novels are better.