Offensive cultural differences, I

The last post I wrote about foul words has made me think a lot about cultural differences, what people find offensive and what people find honorable.

As I wrote before, in all my classes for people 14 or older, I always need to make a long speech warning the students against taking for granted that they can be as foul-mouthed in other countries as they are in Spain. I make the most of the lecture and also warn them about other cultural differences. For example, being gay and kissing their partners in a country where homosexuality might be forbidden. Or the story of the two idiots who went to Finland, of all places, and desecrated the Finnish flag, getting themselves fined and into detention. They usually find the discussion really funny, and some of the teens take the chance to ask information on English swear words. I satisfy their usually innocent curiosity, but warning them against swearing in English. If they need to swear, I recommend them to do it in Spanish. After all, when you are nervous, worried or scared, you revert naturally to your mother tongue. And in any case, I do not think they will ever find in the English language the vast amount of profanity you can find in Spanish. And when I write “profanity” in most cases it’s literally.

Spain has been a Catholic country during centuries. Except for those centuries in which it had been invaded by the Muslims and was a province of the Damascus caliphate, later the independent caliphate of Cordoba, later an assortment of tiny realms, and later… But I digress. The thing is, given the vast amount of power the catholic church has had in Spain, a good part of Spanish foul words are actually foul sentences against everything that is hold sacred by Christians, and specially catholicism. That is why, in Spain you can regularly hear curses such as “Me cago en Dios” (I shit on God), or any equivalent beginning with “me cago”… the victims can range from the Virgin, Jesus Christ, or “la leche” (milk). The ones about milk would need a longer explanation regarding mother’s milk.

Here, the tolerance towards what is politically incorrect is wide and vast. And there are widely accepted traditions that apparently count as something insulting or unbearable in the United States or the UK.

For example, apparently in the USA and the UK, a white man disguised as a black man with dark brown or black make-up is something really insulting that offends many people. Apparently, it has to do with “whitewashing”, or the tradition of never letting a non-white person get a starring role in movies or TV shows. That’s what I sort of understand, I can’t really admit I get it. And I can’t get it because a white man dressing up as a black person is something common… at least once a year.

Here in Spain, children do not get their Christmas presents the 25th of December, but the morning of the 6th of January. It is the “Día de Reyes” (Kings’ Day). The tradition comes from the Gospels, but it deviates from them, too.

According to one of the Gospels, Matthew if I remember correctly, a group of magi went to the place of Jesus’ birth, guided by a star. There, they made him gifts of gold, frakincense and myrrh.

This is clearly a case of syncretism, that is, influence between myths. The magi were priests of zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism is another middle East religion that makes a clear distinction between good and evil, and also one which promises salvation after death. The three gifts are highly symbolic: gold, symbol of earthly ruling power; frankincense, which was burned in temples, as a symbol of divinity; myrrh, a healing ointment, as a symbol of humanity. Much as I like part of the message of the Gospels (and remember I specified the Gospels and did NOT include St. Paul or the Old Testament), Matthew seems to have been adorning the story a bit. But I digress.

Back on topic, that’s what the Bible says. The tradition made changes: of course, no mention about priests of another religion: the magi ended up being “Reyes Magos” or “Wizard Kings”. Tradition specified that the magi were three, and also gave them names: Melchor, Gaspar y Baltasar (Melchior, Casper and Balthazar). In the tradition, Baltasar happens to be black. I suppose it was a way of portraying the universalism of the Christian teachings. I wish it had something to do with the fact that the first Christian church (and I don’t mean the building, I mean the organization) was the Ethiopian, not the Roman one. Maybe it does, who knows?

When I asked my father if they were really wizards and where were their kingdoms, he told me “they weren’t wizards, but wise men. Almost no one could read back then, remember. And they weren’t kings, but they were dressed so richly that they were mistaken for kings”. I don’t know if that’s what the catholic tradition explained: it is the oral tradition as it got to me, from my father who was told by his parents.

In any case, since the Tres Reyes Magos spend all night from the 5th to the 6th of January delivering gifts (coal to naughty children), there is a parade in their honor the afternoon-evening of the 5th. I think the parade takes place in almost every town in Spain. A village would need to be really, really small to not have their parade, and then people would go to the nearest one to see it.

People pay to participate in these parades. They are organized mostly by private associations, and getting into the float for the honor of being looked at, wearing a nice dress or costume, and throwing vast amounts of candy at the crowd, doesn’t come cheap. I never got to be in a parade.

Among the floats, there can be many special ones, but the ones that people expect the most are the ones of the three wise kings. Normally they throw much more candy, in bigger handfuls. In some towns, the kings also launch toys, like balls, fake plastic cameras, toy windmills and such. Melchor’s float comes after the first third of the parade, Gaspar’s after the second third, more or less, and Baltasar’s normally closes it. In a sense, Baltasar’s is a place of honor. It’s normally the last one, the king has to launch lots of candy.

And most of the time (I’ve never seen it differently), Baltasar is portrayed by a typical Spaniard (white) painted black. In one big city, the cost for playing the role was 5 million pesetas, plus 30.000 in candy. That’s 30.000 euros and 1800 in candy, and that was more than ten years ago. It must be more expensive now. Maybe in a big city like Madrid or Barcelona there are black men well-off enough to participate and claim the role, and if I remember correctly, some rich footballer has done it some time.

However, it’s not normal. In places like Villanueva del Ariscal or Castilblanco de los Arroyos, Baltasar is going to be a white man in blackface.

I was wondering if Americans would find this offensive.

I have read about the culture of “whitewashing”… about how it was very hard in hollywood for black or Asian performers to get starring roles. I never understood it until an American friend recommended the excellent animation series “Avatar, the Last Airbender” (thank you, Tiffany!) and I then saw what they had done with the movie casting.

Oh, well… whenever Americans come to Spain and see Baltasar in the parade, I hope they understand that it’s a place of honor, and that people pay to get there.

It makes me wonder about what people might think about the penitents in la Semana Santa de Sevilla.

Seville’s Holy Week:

 

Source: https://www.dropbox.com/s/c82tiueakgwysm7/Captura%20de%20pantalla%202014-12-08%2021.05.40.png?dl=0

 

Source: https://espanglis.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/semana-santa-sevilla-seeing-is-believing/

Source: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/441402

 

I’ll talk about this one some other day…