steviedeluxe

We went through Spanish stereotypes on a course I took - it was many years ago so I'm sure I've forgotten half of them, but they went (I think) along these lines:

Andaluces - very happy party people, always appear glad to see you. But any promises made one day are normally forgotten by the next day.

Catalanes - Very tight with their money, but very astute in financial subjects

Aragoneses - Someone who has very strong opinions about most subjects - you will never change their opinion

Valencianos - like the people from Aragon, they have very strong opinions (note: if you ask about the authentic way to make paella, you'll find this out very quickly)

Gallegos - able to hold conflicting opinions at the same time, but never really let on what they truely believe.

all wild stereotypes of course - anyone heard of different ones?

steviedeluxe

An article here on overall stereotypes. I've read other stuff by the author and disagreed with some of what he says, but I think here he nails the true or myth aspect of most people's views of the Spanish

http://www.matthewbennett.es/553/spanish-stereotypes-2/

jackytoo

The people of galicia are regarded as "different" by the rest of Spain. There are many Spanish jokes about them similar to the English ones about the Irish.

steviedeluxe

I remember the Madrileño one now - as well as being party animals they always harp on about how things are bigger and better in Madrid, so are seen as arrogant by people from the rest of Spain. (of course imo they are right )

JLFS

Different, too right.............


We are seen as not being able to give a straight answer, which in my case is a load of crap, I shoot from the hip.

We are seen as being a bit on the tight side, which in my case is the opposite, I am of the opinion that when you are dead you cant spend money so you may as well spend while you have the chance and I dont do "cutre"

We are seen as being lovers of land and agriculture, not me, prefer city centry.

We are seen as having very conservative tastes in food and stick to the traditional. I will eat everything including "foreign food"

We are seen as not being the usual all gratefull,welcoming to strangers that other parts of Spain are, which I suppose is very true.

We are seen as not too friendly, living next door, or greeting eachother in the street does not count as friendship, it counts as a "conocido". which in my case is true, I distingush between friends and acquaintences with a very wide line.

jimenato

Anyone been to Lepe in Huelva province?? We went there last summer to watch Bristol City play Charlton Athletic in a pre-season friendly.

Apparently people from Lepe are thick.

JLFS

That is what the say.

Pocaloca

Because of their Celtic roots I guess. The same with Bretons in France. The mainstream population can't get its head round the complexities of Celtic culture and wisdom so it resorts to taking the p1ss.

Pocaloca

Maybe not so thick, if it brings in the tourists!

Pocaloca

Another regional stereotype:

Extremeños (natives of Extremadura) are long-suffering, used to enduring terrible hardship, wild and rugged like their landscape.

People often think "Extremadura" means extremely hard, but it just means "beyond the Duero river".

cricketman

That's funny

The Asturians up here say it is the Andalucians who are always the butt of the jokes

The regions of Spain are what make it so rich. Catalunya, Asturias and Andalucia are so so different and the people have very different characters, but only together do they make Spain

Oviedo couldnt be more different to the Costa de sol. Everyone dresses up here and takes pride in their appearance, especially for the hours of paseo, between about 7pm-9pm. There are certain cafes where people go to be seen. The babies are dressed in very posh traditional clothes, which makes our son look a bit pikey, but then we dress him so he can crawl around on the grass and eat whenever he wants to rather than being force fed from jars.

People are friendly in the street but much colder than in the South. Our neighbours have kept their distance and I scared someone off by actually telling someone something about myself rather than keeping to platitudes

My wife and her family are very reserved, even more so than the British I would say. I think they are from the mindset of careful what you say, because someone could use it against you...

Dick Dasterdly

So not at all like you then ?

cricketman

Exactly

Pocaloca

Exactly! It gets my goat to hear people going on about "the Spanish" as if they are all the same.

I was told that Andalusians are regarded by the people from Castilla la Mancha, who regard themselves as "pure" castellanos, as country bumpkins, unambitious and lazy. Thy believe that Andalusian blood is tainted by Moorish blood, which makes them swarthy and short of stature. (Ironic, since it was the Moors who brought civilisation to Spain.)

cricketman

Well, some Castellanos especially in Madrid can be very fascist as we well know. It is the centre of Spanish fascism

But there are relatively few "pure" (whatever that means) Castellanos especially because Madrid is actually a pretty new city (C16th).

There is no such thing as a "typical Spaniard". Franco tried to create an illusion that there was, thats how the tourists got to know about flamenco and paella. It was all an illusion created by the board for tourism.

Post-democracy, the regions then tried to deny they were Spanish and many still do, as a reaction to what they were made to give up or hide during Franco's rule.

But I like to think of Spain as a colage of different peoples. In this respect having Catalans and Basques and even Andalucians contribute to Spain's sporting success and then celebrate with their regional flags has helped a lot.