the dinner table

i am burning the midnight oil. literally. it's past midnight, and i have just finished dinner with my host parents. yes, we eat at 10pm - sometimes 10:30 - and yes, sometimes we sit there talking and debating until the wee hours of the morning until my host mother begins the half hour process of cutting off her husband so the neighbors can sleep. themes range from politics to religion, two topics usually taboo at the american dinner table, and tonight's special was the power of the media in forming public opinion, with a commentary on the current revolutions happening in the middle east.

i find it fascinating that much of the revolution has been organized by well-prepared and urbanized youth that have traveled outside of their countries, know how the world is outside, and returned with liberal ideas, expressing their desire to experience a moment of peace in their homecountry. the push for self-government is something we take for granted every day, but we must think about how many free countries have begun in revolution, including ours. my immigration professor, a journalist for a renowned spanish newspaper, told us many stories today from when he spent two months traveling around the middle east a few years back, writing about how the common people experience dictatorship, war and extremism. it is easy to forget that people, although they see bombings on their street every day, are trying to just live a normal life. for example, he met a female journalist, who spent time working for the washington post in baghdad, that had received so many death threats by saddam hussein that she had given up writing and become a travel agent. two other young iraqi men went to study engineering in turkey, and when they returned realized that their country had been living under a dictatorship since before they were born.

i have been taking advantage of how direct spaniards tend to be and making sure to ask lots of questions about life during franco's reign, the dictator of spain from 1939 until his death in 1975, when my host mother remembers not only not being allowed to vote, but also not permitted to leave the house after 10pm. other laws controlling public behavior prohibited meetings of more than four people in an effort to discourage rebellion, the public display of affection, and the right of women to divorce their husbands (although men could divorce their wives). apart from that, thousands of homosexuals, intellectuals, and other left-leaning individuals were assassinated.

the years since 1975 have brought a democratic constitution, the right to vote for women, the equality of men and women, and the separation of church and state. spain has advanced from an isolated country with high levels of illiteracy and victim to the backward ideas of a cruel dictator to one of the most popular destinations in europe in a mere 35 years. today, sevilla is a lively and environmentally-savvy city, as it was the first city in spain to adopt the green bike system. nevertheless, sevillanos continue to talk themselves down. my host parents always make reference to the north of spain as the richer and more educated part of spain, painting the south to be poor and lazy. but, they say, all the workers in barcelona are from andalucía (the province of which Sevilla is the capital). they also insist that america is 25 years ahead of them, citing reasons like paper bags, which have been in american movies for 20 years and are just appearing in spanish stores as an alternative to plastic. however, this movement is simultaneous to a new law that incentivizes the use of reusable fabric grocery bags, something that is popular among young people in the US but not legislated.

another aspect in which sevillanos are self-degrading, and i have noticed this more than ever during dinner conversations, is linguistically. the spanish of andalucía is very difficult to understand because it is not pronounced how it is written, as many consonants are cut out and words shortened. people in the south always say things like "we talk badly," "why are you learning spanish here," and "why don't you go to salamanca, where they speak 'pure' spanish?" well what the heck is pure spanish? the prejudice against their own mode of speaking is fascinating to me.

i must sleep now, considering i have a paper to write tomorrow morning. i set out to write about food at the dinner table, and instead i spat this out. i guess you can expect something else on food sometime soon!