Cultural Event

One of the many cultural events that I was able to attend was a classic Flamenco dance. It

was located in a small restaurant that fit less than 50 people and had extremely high reviews all

referencing the quality of the dancers and the lack of quality of the food. For the price, that

seemed like it would be perfect for me. With my ticket all I got was a drink, so I got a coke and

waited with the group I was with for the show to begin. As the lights dimmed and the performers

went up to the stage, which my table was literally touching, an older man near me

chatted/heckled with the performers… he obviously knew more about what was going on than I

did. There were three dancers, two men and one women. There was also a guitarist and the

vocalists. They were all just obviously lighthearted and enjoying themselves as friends, and then

the performance began. The guitarist played first, simply and then the vocalist joined him and

then just one dancer, and at that point I realized I had no idea what I was getting into. First they

rotated, one performing at a time and then in other formats and all of it was absolutely amazing. I

was amazed by their technical skill and rhythm to all perform as a group even when just one was

actually dancing. Their ability to move their feet so quickly while maintaining their core and

above almost completely still except for the fluid movement of their hands depending on what

they wanted to portray in the moment. The whole show lasted over an hour, though they did take

a short break about halfway through. The dancers were working so hard that some of the spins

even caused sweat to go into the crowd.

Overall, I learned what Flamenco was and I think I would really enjoy going to a less

touristy performance, because if the whole crowd was as interactive as the one old guy and his

wife, it would add a whole new element to things. I highly recommend that anyone in Spain

takes the time to see a high-quality Flamenco performance.

Cemetery

First off, although I am supposed to compare a cemetery here with ‘normal’ one from the

United States, I haven’t actually been to very many cemeteries in the US. The cemetery in the

US that I have most visited is a National one specifically set apart for armed forces members and

their relatives, and therefore have all the different privileges that come with having been a

member of the armed forces. There is a lot of beautiful green space and besides the section for

people who decided to be cremated, the tombstones are all fairly uniform and only have a small

marking indicating their religion if applicable. Besides cemeteries such as this one, the only one

that I have been to was a small local one probably compressed into less than the square area of a

football field, where half of it was yet to be filled.

Needless to say, the cemetery that I went to, the Sacramental de San Justo was far

different from any that I have previously seen in the US. First off, there was basically a complete

lack of open space and the only greenery were the trees spread around the central area’s small

garden. Instead of the headstones with graves placed almost flat in the grass, the majority were

raised and all imbedded in the stone. There were also many walls that sectioned off part of the

large cemetery and these were also used as vertical space for more tombs. The catholic influence

of large stone crosses everywhere was evident and the decorative nature of some could be fairly

over the top. Also, the space between each grave was extremely small in almost all cases, with

everything crowed together so as waste as little space as possible. There also appeared to be

many family graves or whole buildings dedicated to a specific family with impressive

decoration. I also found the individual live decoration with plants or other offerings to be

interesting and fairly widespread. It was obvious that many of the graves were visited regularly,

while many more had not been thought of in years.

 Overall, visiting the cemetery was certainly an interesting experience and not like any

that I had seen in the US.

Museums

One of the museums that I went to was the Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Spanish

Identity is identifiable in many of its exhibits and overall a better understanding of the Iberian

Peninsula is obtained through the museum’s exhibits. The main exhibits are categorized into the

prehistory, protohistory, hispano-roman history, middle ages, and the modern era.

As part of the prehistory section, the museum focuses a lot on the emergence of social

classes and inequality. These were obvious effects of the societal advancements and are an

important part of history, but they may show up in Spanish identity where inequality has always

been an issue of discussion.

In the protohistory section, many interesting topics are discussed and the history of the

people before roman influence is interesting, however the point that most stuck out to me as part

of Spanish identity was the origins of their love of bulls. Here the first major statues and

sculptures of bulls are found and were probably used as part of worship for their local religions.

Then the hispano-roman history began and changed the Peninsula forever. Much of the

roman influence in the Spanish identity is seen today, in such aspects as the language, laws,

urban society, and new technologies. Spanish obviously came about as a result of the new

language brought by the romans and much of the old roman architecture and influence of their

architecture can be seen in modern times. The exhibits also explained how the romans really

began an urban society in Spain, which is certainly something that has lasted through the ages

with people being highly concentrated in the major cities.

 The middle ages influence can also be seen in the Spanish identity. This is especially

evident from the results of the Muslim presence in Spain for such a long period of time. The

language was heavily influence by the Muslims during this time and so was the architecture.

Another part that may be shown in Spanish identity was the results of the reconquest making

Spain a purely Catholic nation. The Mudejar influence in buildings is also a big point still seen

today.

Finally, in the Modern era what I found most interesting relating to the Spanish identity

was how they treated the national treasures of the museum during the civil wars in Spain. The

amount of protection put into either moving the most valuable pieces out of the area or heavily

fortifying the museum is a testament to the Spanish identity’s desire to preserve history and the

value that it puts on these treasures.

Political Parties

The major political parties in Spain I have decided to classify as those which have a fully

national political formation in Spain, since there are many smaller regional political parties with

diverse agendas and beliefs.

The four main political parties are:

- Name: El Partido Polular

o Initials: PP

o Political position: Center-right to right-wing. Generally it is considered

conservative, catholic, and economically liberal.

- Name: Patido Socialist Obrera Español

o Initials: PSOE
 o Political position: Center-left social democratic party. Most closely liked to the

biggest trade union in Spain, el UGT.

- Name: Unidos Podemos

o Initials: UP

o Political position: Left-wing republican that supported the removal of the

monarchy of Spain… it is closely tied to the Izquierda Unida (IU) which supports

a trade union and advocates green politics.

- Name: Ciudadanos

o Initials: Cs

o Political position: More of a centrist party, It supports political decentralization

which rejecting autonomous communities’ right to self-determination. Kind of a

sensitive area in Spain sometimes.

Religious Service

When I went to tour Alcala de Henares for a day, I went to one of the famous churches

there during a religious service where they were doing a sort of confirmation ceremony for a

large group of people who had been baptized. Luckily this was earlier in the year when I could

still where my nice jacket and with that I was more or less able to blend in dress wise to the

people who were attending, which were hundreds of people. I sat on one of the side seats rather

than down the center rows and just did my best to observe as everything went on. It seemed to

start as a typical mass with incense and such, but that which was being said was more particular

to the event. It was also interesting because the church is a popular tourist destination, so people

from outside who clearly didn’t look like they belonged came in and out while everything was

going on. The most interesting part of the event was when each member of the group that was
being confirmed went up, one by one accompanied by what appeared to be a parent, to the priest

who would kiss them and such, and then move on to the next person in line. There were so many

that this process took quite a while. Afterwards there was some more preaching and then it

eventually ended and everyone went to get together with the members of their family that had

come to the event. What I most would have liked to have seen, but that isn’t part of this type of

event was the use of the beautiful giant organ that was there. I feel like just having the small

choir without the use of such a beautiful instrument is kind of a waste. As is typical with many

religious services, the many bits of truth spread with interesting catholic beliefs do allow you to

feel somewhat closer to God, though it is different to be sure. I most thought that the rhetoric of

after this having the spirit to be with you always was something I hadn’t heard of before as part

of Catholicism, and it certainly makes my understanding of why that teaching isn’t quite as

impactful as a missionary make more sense.

Overall Experience

My overall experience in Spain was positive though different realms of activity certainly

constituted a wide variety of issues, problems, and adventures. From an internship perspective I

learned a lot, was able to improve my ability to work in a professional environment both in

Spanish and in English, meet lots of new interesting people, and establish many important

connections for the future. I found the ability and willingness to offer one’s strengths as service

to be particularly useful and the importance of finding a niche that may not be easily filled by

others to be particularly important. Also having to do with the internship, the importance of

taking the extra steps to get to know and become a part of the culture of the office were most

evident at the end of my time here. If anything, I would look for more efficient ways of doing

this in the future.

 From a tourist point of view of Madrid and anywhere that could be reached via the

normal travel pass, Madrid was amazing for maybe a month. This means that after having

basically seen everything that I wanted to see, touring Madrid was no longer all that exciting. It

is certainly an interesting place to live and has its specific quirks that one comes to love, but

those aren’t the same as what a tourist looks for in a city.

From a living point of view, once summer arrived, it was far too hot. Only having a fan,

even sleeping was often made more difficult and overall you just felt like doing less because of

the heat. If I were to ever live and work in Madrid, I would make air conditioning a priority.

The biggest challenge I faced was with the first place I stayed for less than a week. The

landlord and I had very different expectations and realities of a variety of issues, and overall I am

extremely grateful that I was able to find a new place to live while in Madrid and with such short

notice. Now, I have connections here in Spain that I could much more easily set up housing

beforehand through, and that would put me in a much better situation overall.