Dick Dasterdly

Strange I see no mention of those miserable Basques.
Have they been completely disowned.
A clear case of money not always buying happiness.

I found the Galicians to be an oddball bunch, almost as changeable as the weather from place to place,, but overall I quite liked them.

steviedeluxe

You do spout bullmanure at times...
I would argue that Madrid is a far more open and welcoming city to migrants than Barcelona for example. There's a particularly derogatory word used by some Catalans for Andaluz and Extremeno worker migrants.

As for being "the centre of Spanish fascism", quite the contrary, it's the city that held out most strongly in the Spanish civil war (despite the four columns without and the fifth column within). Once it fell, Barcelona fell in days, and the streets were filled with cheering crowds when the fascists entered (ok, so we don't know how many were just turncoats or just people trying to survive )

cricketman

This is about regional stereotypes no?

The whole internal argument in Spain is between the "lefty" regions and the "righty" centre. Even though for example the Catalan nationalists in Barcelona are fascist in their own way e.g. banning teaching of Castellano as the main language at school

Dick Dasterdly

Madrid is the only city where Ive seen bare chested footie fans openly flaunting their Nazi tattoos, however as Cman says its supposed to be about regional stereotypes, innit ?

amideislas

I dunno much about this, since I'm not a mainlander,

...but what I do know is that the Mallorquins despise Madrid and really, anything "Castellano". I've been told it goes back to Franco, who declared it illegal to speak Mallorquin (the local dialect of Catalan here). But the locals also accuse Madrid of "robbing" wealth from Mallorca - I also have no clue to the facts surrounding this, but you see it written in graffitti everywhere.

Like the Basques, there's always been a separatist movement here. No, not violent like ETA, but they do have rather strong influence in local politics.

steviedeluxe

If anywhere is described (not that I've ever a Spanish person describe it as such, always Brits for some reason) as the "centre of fascism" it's either Valladolid or Burgos, as they are perceived to be the strongholds of the army and of the church. Interestingly, some of the most reactionary leaders come from the northern states - Franco himself was from Galicia.
Madrid is the centre of criticism from separatists as the capital of the state - it's a bit like Scottish politicians saying they oppose London control over Scotland, when they mean the UK parliament located there. But there are too many left-wing associations with the city itself (as well as right wing links too) such as the gay zone Chueca, the wild nightlfe, feminist movements, the media set etc (El Pais and that crowd) for anyone to seriously claim it's the "centre of fascism"; it's certainly not a stereotype that people hold - even someone I know who is a separatist has never described the city in that way, although he's very critical of the national set-up. If anything traditional right-wingers from outside the city probably distrust the place for its modern ways, and for the Republic having such strong support there during the Civil War.