JANIRE ZURBANO ARRESE

 

   STEREOTYPES                                                                                                                                                      

 

Stereotypes are always there in our day to day. Beyond our borders, people think Spain means sun, beaches, soccer, bulls and flamenco. They believe we are Mexicans, Shakira and Ricky Martin are compatriots, and we only eat paella and tortilla along with sangria. For foreigners, we go on a donkey along dusty roads, we are lazy by nature and we spend all the day napping or partying in Benidorm. Besides, we don’t speak English, we like weird timetables and we have dinner at 10pm. In conclusion, we almost deserve the economic crisis we’re going through.

 

And what do we do? Fight against those insulting stereotypes? No way. We distribute them along our autonomous regions: stingy Catalan people, lazy Andalusian citizens, Canary party animals, arrogant people of Madrid, “chuloplayas” from Valencia, rare Galician citizens, stubborn Basque people… If we have any addiction in Spain we cannot avoid is that we get attracted to these dangerous stereotypes. You can check it on your own watching the Spanish movie Ocho apellidos vascos (Eight Basque surnames, Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, 2014) where you will find the most popular stereotypes of Andalusian and Basque people at its most outstanding. This first article of stereotypes is precisely about Andalusian citizens.  

 

   ANDALUSIAN PEOPLE                                                                                                                                    

 

According to the rest of Spaniards, Andalusian people spend the day hanging out on the beach or drinking “finos” (Andalusian wine) at the bar while eating fried fish, all to the tunes of live Spanish guitar, of course. In addition, series, movies and books show that Andalusian people are lazy, religious, quite patriarchal and parochial. They also feel close to folklore, “sevillanas” (one of the most traditional dances), flamenco and bulls, and these elements represent all together a poor and uncultured past century Andalusia. They even have landowners! They seem to ride horses all the time and greet with a “¡Olé!” every second. And there’s more: their accent is one of the most imitated accents all over the country, due to their seseo and ceceo and the way they don’t pronounce some letters. Besides, words like “Quillo” or “Pixa” are always there while referring to a typical Andalusian person. You should know that the rest of Spaniards make fun about not understanding even a word of what southern people say.

 

However, one of stereotypes main problems is how they highlight the worst of a place, forgetting about the best. I’m a Basque girl who has visited the south of Spain many times and I assure you that when you visit Andalusia you will realize that Andalusian citizens are above all else good and nice people who knows how to live life to its fullest and be happy. You hardly meet an unfriendly man or someone who doesn’t greet you walking down the street, and there is no bar where you won’t be served some “tapas” (a wide variety of appetizers, or snacks, in Spanish cuisine) for free by a smiling waiter when asking for a drink. Andalusian people are attached to their traditions for sure, but keep calm, there are stores, El Corte Inglés, Starbucks, high speed train arrived long time ago, there is public transport and, just like in every single self-respecting Spanish city, there are airports. So when visiting Andalusia, of course you will find horses, Easter Processions or “sevillanas”, but what you’ll never forget about that part of Spain will be people’s friendliness, colorful places and its citizens’ happiness.

 

 

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