I have to say, first off, that I know next to nothing about Spain. I have an interest in some aspects of Spanish history especially the Counter Reformation and the Spanish Civil War, but had never really thought about it as a destination for me, personally. It's not that I didn't want to come - it's that other places - Italy, France, England, Ireland, parts of Eastern Europe - had absorbed me more as possible spots to visit when opportunities arose.
So what you're about to read comes emerges from little knowledge and about 24 hours of presence in one city in this country. I'd like to hear from you, too.
One of the things that people - probably including me - like to talk about is how globalization and technology have shrunk the world and made it more homogeneous. The shrinking part is absolutely true, but I just don't know about the homogeneous part.
Because even yesterday evening as we walked around the confines of this particular neighborhood (L'Eixample), I picked up a different vibe, different sensibilites and priorities than I'd experienced in other large cities from Rome to NYC to Chicago to Atlanta.
McDonald's may be everywhere, but I am just nor sure that frantic worries about every spot in the world become just a suburb of the USA has much basis in reality. Granted, my experience is extremely limited, but it just seems to me that even with the pervasiveness of American pop culture, uniqueness remains and people are pretty fiercely attached to their uniqueness.
What are extremely similar, though, are tourist-oriented areas in urban centers. The architecture and some particularities of "attractions" may vary, but the experience of walking down and around Las Ramblas in Barcelona produces almost exactly the same vibe as walking In Times Square or on the Miracle Mile in Chicago. Yes, you've got Broadway glitter in one, the lakeshore in another and that fascinating Barcelona architecture in another, but you've got the same type of stores and even the same stores (H & M, Foot Locker...Subway...KFC...Burger King...McD's...Starbucks here in Barcelona...no Forever 21, though...), the same collection of tourists (that's us!), the same kind of mediocre food experiences, the same sort of fatigued touristic migratory march.
I don't know. What do you think? Maybe I'm still recovering from 2 weeks in Sicily which is very, very different.
Barcelona is Different
Thursday July 9, 2009
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Amy Welborn is the author of 17 books on prayer, saints, apologetics and church history. Her articles and columns have appeared in Our Sunday Visitor, Commonweal, First Things, Catholic Digest, Liguori, and been syndicated by Catholic News Service.
Amy has an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University and spent several years working in Catholic schools and parishes before taking up writing full time. She was married to Catholic author Michael Dubruiel until his unexpected death in February of 2009. She has five children ranging in ages from 4 to 26.
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Yes, Barcelona IS different. It is not Madrid, not only because it has a splendid sea-front (get to the beach to see unique folways), but because of the Catalan identity. Noting Catholic liturgical patterns all of my life, the piety exuberance, the liturgical participation levels, and catechesis-depth are extraordinary there. Get to the Seu (cathedral), its swan-habited cloister, and varied chapels. Not Sicily, Not USA... If you're still there on Sunday, midday in front there is the fantastic sardana communal dance. Many other phenom churches, and the whole Catalan patrimony spead forth up the hill at the National Museum (especially romanesque section) (kids will love the front escalators).
You might want to check out the movie, "Barcelona."
You mentioned the Spanish Civil War...try to visit the Church of St Philip Neri, just behind the Cathedral in the Barri Gotic. As you can see from the attached photo taken in 2006, the walls in the courtyard still bear the chest-high pockmarks made when Communist rebels dragged the priests and nuns out of the church and lined them up against the wall for their execution. The blood of Christian martyrs still cries out from that quiet courtyard, it is a powerful experience.
On a trip with my children in 2002, we took one of those double-decker busses that run around town to get a quick over-view. The melting facades on the buildings & the Holy Family Church were cool, but what caught my attention was the birds singing in the trees as we proceeded down the high-end shopping boulevard - can't remember its name. I've never run into anything like that anywhere before.
Lisbon is a really neat city of a different sort that is on a hill with a main drag down to the sea like Las Ramblas. You must go to hear some authentic Fado singing if you go there - and the Jewish quarter.
My favorite Spanish city/town is Ronda - about an hour up in the hills from Marbella. There's a cliff and deep gorge where partisans were thrown off in the civil war in its most recent dramatic episode. The oldest bull ring in Spain is there with a museum - you can walk into the arena. Hemingway loved the place - I think one of his books "Blood in the Sand" or something like that is set there. Once a year they have corrida with authentic old costumes out of Goya paintings. I saw a relic of St Teresa of Avila in a Carmelite monastery where we had gone for some special cookies - it's encased in what looks like a bronze hand model that used to be used in stores to display gloves. It was in a glass case next to the line waiting to buy cookies through the revolving compartment connected to the kitchen. Fascinating old, old sections of town and you can see sheep being herded way, way down below, but first you hear the tinkling bells. Magic. Your kids would love it.
I was so pleased that I read much of Robert Hughes' 1992 history "Barcelona" on my flight to Barc back in 1994. It made a massive difference in how I experienced the city, about which I knew little (my friends and I had picked it because we got ultracheap flights and accomodations). Before reading that book, I knew very little about the Spanish Civil War, for example, which made seeing the bullet holes in the walls from the volleys that murdered priests and nuns so jarring. And I had no idea how deeply Catholic Gaudi was, which gave me a totally different take on his architecture.
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