Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Hernando Cortez

The Triangular Destiny of Spain...




Antonio Gala, an octogenarian-looking intellectual who once looked with lascivious eyes at my VYW (very young wife), defends that the body of Spain is European alright but one of its hands is in the Maghreb and the other in Iberoamerica.. The history of Spain has, in every sense, the marks of Islamic blood and American blood. The triangle of the Spanish heart, he calls it, adding: "a grand Destiny"...

Now, if one uses this model, what could one say about Portuguese destiny? ... European body? Are we happy to "just" be Europeans? Is that enough? A Maghreb hand? Not really.. What about a Brazil hand? .. But Spain is bigger than most Ibero-american countries while Portugal is a small irritant for the gigantic ego of enormous Brazil.. Black-African blood?.. Sure.. Pride and joy about it.. And what about delusional dreams of lost Indias, of South East Asia fingerprints, of the exotic enclave in Chinese Far East?.. What about the million and a half descendants of Portuguese who live in North America? What is the devisable destiny of a population with this kind of background?.. Dare not to be just a shop-keeper, I say.. At least, dare!

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