iberianature – Spanish history and culture

Words and concepts in Spanish that don't exist in English
Here are a few words and expressions in Castilian Spanish that don’t exist in English, and perhaps could be borrowed. Foreigners speakers of Spanish in Spain certainly use so of them with alarming frequency with other English speakers in Spain, as do our Spanish friends and spouses. The list does not include food terms (covered elsewhere on iberianature) and most cultural terms (architectural, historical, bullfighting terms, etc) In some cases, a simple word doesn’t exist in English (tuerto – one-eyed man) while in others the whole concept doesn’t exist (consuegros – a child’s spouse’s parents) More to come

• compaginar: slot together” or “integrate timetables
• consuegros – child’s spouse’s parents
• El de la verguenza – that last tasty morsel (e.g. a biscuit) which everybody feels embarrassed about taking. I suggest from now on calling this the shameful one in English, as members of my family now do.
• enchufe – beyond the simple dictionary definition of plug, enchufe means a connection, knowing somebody, being well connected, knowing the right people, that sort of thing when you want something done. So, if you have an enchufe, it might very well make it easier to get a job.
• estrenar – to try out something for the first time, often in the sense of wear estrenar zapatos. A football team might also estrenar un nuevo estadio An estreno is the first night of a film.
• gestor – a kind of financial administrator, not quite an accountant, not quite a solicitor.

One word that you will hear a lot in Spain is gestor. The position is difficult to describe, simply because this agency does not exist in many countries. His main role is the interface between the public – in this case you – and the public administration. Generally, in UK you do not need any kind of interface, and when you do, it is clear that you should see a solicitor. In some other countries there will also be some person, or official in this kind of position.  From here (continue reading)

• homologar – compare and equate standards of
• lampiño – without a beard or with little hair. Note, also inberbe, a beardless youth.
• lustro – five years
• manco – one-armed man
• mimoso – as an adjective somebody who loves to be pampered/made a fuss of. Also a noun.
• monte – in the sense of wild land (as opposed to just hill) monte does not exist in British English but equates to the Southern African English bush and the Australian outback. Echarse al monte means to take to the hills, and by extension, los del monte, the maquis fighters.
• morbo – a dark fascination
• muda – change of underwear
• palomina: pigeon guano

En la localidad de Oliete (Teruel, España) se recogía la palomina que se acumulaba en la sima de San Pedro, lugar donde crían palomas. Existía una plataforma con torno en el borde de la sima para descender a los que recogían la palomina y luego elevarlos con la carga. Wikipedia

• recogerse – to go indoors in the evening
• resol – Reflected sunshine off the wall, floor, etc. that some Spaniards try to avoid in summer… as in, “We can’t sit at that table” (at a terrazza) “it’s got a parasol, but there’s a lot of resol” (Michael)
• sobremesa – the time spent after lunch sitting round the table and talking
• tertulia – a learned discussion, often as a regular event in a bar
• tuerto – one-eyed man
• zurdo – left-hander

Women do most of care work in Spain
In spite of significant advances of recent decades, women are still the main caregivers for the elderly in 80 percent of the cases, according to a study by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). More here

Largest towns and cities in Spain

List of metropolitan areas in Spain by population. I was surprised to see Oviedo–Gijón–Avilés as high as it is.

A history of Mojácar
I enjoyed this potted history of Mojácar:

Mojácar used to be a town of around 6,000 people in as far back as 1870. It maintained this number of inhabitants until round about 1900 when, slowly, numbers began to fall, speeding its descent in the 1930s. Through the various local vicissitudes of the drop in the local water-table, the end of the de-forestation, a peculiar plague of locusts in 1901, the end of the mines in the 1920s and the troubled times of the Civil War, the area in general eventually became depopulated with mass emigrations to Barcelona, Algeria, Germany and even Argentina, and Mojácar itself began its long descent into what was, by 1960, a moribund village of just 600 souls. Read complete post on Spanish Shilling

Paddy Woodworth on the Basque Country
Paddy Woodworth is an Irish reporter who has lived and worked in the Basque Country. His book The Basque Country: a cultural history, was described by the Irish Times as a terrific modern introduction to the Basque Country… succeeds in showing us the complexities of the Basque struggle for identity” Here’s an the introduction from his book from his website. “The Basque Country has had more than its fair share of stereotypes thrust upon it. The Basques have sometimes resisted this typecasting, but they have not been shy about making their own contributions, some as extravagant as any foreigner’s, to stock images of their homeland. More...

Tomato trek
I thought this cartoon strip was amusing. “Since a tomato leaves its branch of the plant in one of the hundreds of greenhouses from Almeria, until a consumer in Madrid take it into its meal, the price “grows” by 500% respect to the price given to the farmer”.