October 16, 2008

To Spanish Elites Palin is as "Chusma" as us Cuban-Americans

From the CNN's article " Europe mocks 'half-baked Alaskan' Palin":
"Spain's left wing El Pais described Palin as "a figure who comes from the America that is farthest removed from and incomprehensible to the European spectator."

Everyone and anyone at all familiar with the grotesque socio-economic disparities between Spain and the U.S. (and Cuba) in the first half of the 20th Century know why Spanish elites spurn the U.S. (and Cuban exiles as an extension of the same socio-political culture), chum up to Fidel and revere Che Guevara: these latter wrecked and battered Cuba into such a filthy, impoverished, hopeless , and pathetic mess that it actually came to resemble something that even a Spaniard could feel superior to! Amazing but true.

In 1958 Cubans boasted almost DOUBLE a Spaniard's per-capita income. Who ever heard of a Cuban emigrating to Spain pre-1958?

The very notion was UTTERLY LAUGHABLE!! Indeed, it was a cliche among Cubans that we all made some bedroom space for our "gallego" cousins, sobrinos, etc. above the restaurant kitchen or in the sotea or en la backyard. This way the hapless but hard-working "gallegos" (Catalans and Asturians in our case, as in many others) would have an unimaginably luxurious (compared to the hay-lined Spanish hovel they shared with a donkey a goat and a few thousand piojos) place to sleep after they washed the dishes and trimmed the gardens and shined the shoes of their high-rolling Cuban relatives.

Fidel and Che sure NIXED THAT!! From Franco to Zapatero and from King Juan Carlos to the publishers of El Pais the Mother Country's leaders will never, ever forget Fidel and Che's favor--this balm to their infamous "Castillian" pride.

Posted by Humberto at October 16, 2008 06:23 PM

Comments

Amen.

Posted by: readytoshoot [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 16, 2008 07:30 PM

Count me in as flattered to be compared with Palin.

Posted by: George L. Moneo [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 16, 2008 08:19 PM

Por lo que vale -

Tell the folks at El Pais the following -

1. "Plain Sarah" appears to be a distant relative of the late UK Princess Diana. Might just give her some "Cachet."

2. Regardless of the outcome of this election, she is likely to be the "Next-Next" President of the United States - DEAL WITH IT!

-S-

Posted by: Dr.Shalit [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 16, 2008 10:02 PM

I lived in Spain in 1958. My observation at the time was that there was essentially no 'middle class' in Franco's Grande Libre. There were the well-to-do who lived very well indeed and, a block or two off the fine avenues, there were those that lived in dirt-floor hovels or buildings still half in ruin from the Civil War.


I've been back to Spain many times since then, most recently during the turbulent years of the rise of socialism. I enjoyed Spain, even in the 50's. Socialism may have come along with recovery and growth, but I don't think it was responsible for it. It also brought an alienation and a bitterness to the people that wasn't there even in the worst of times.


Your post made me think of Caldo Gallego.

Posted by: PTG [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 17, 2008 12:13 AM

For more laughs, check out the cartoons in the Spanish press in 1898 about how they depicted the U.S. and were self-assured about victory in the Spanish-Cuban-American War.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/spanish-press.htm

Posted by: delacova [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 17, 2008 10:59 AM


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