Culture of Spain Class Takeaways

We have certain readings about the history and culture of Spain that we are suppose to read before class. Then we are to apply these readings to what we see in person! I will put each of my takeaways for each reading below.

Reading 1: “Pre-historic & Roman Spain”

• Spain used to be divided into regions

• Barcids are responsible for mining in Spain

• We learned and saw that Spain was hard to conquer because it is very mountainous. This also aids in the variation of language and background.

Reading 2: “Diversity in Medieval Spain”

• Islam came to Spain because Muslims started traveling and conquering new areas.

• Muslim brought the production of paper

• Christians adopted Muslim manners and dress more spoke Arobic

• Other Christians we’re more dominant in Northern Spain

• At the archeological museum we saw lots of Christianity still in Spain. There we’re many caskets and paintings with religious meaning.

Reading 3: “Segovia’s Aqueduct“, “Segovia Digs into Its Roman Past”

• Segovia residents don’t want the Devil statue installed

• The devil represents the myth that the devil built the aqueduct in a day

• New Roman structures are attempting to be preserved to show for tourist

• When we visited we saw the holes in the rocks where the “devil“ used his claws to build the aqueduct

Reading 4: “Plaza Mayor: Blood & Theatre”, “The Improbable Empire”

• Plaza Mayor started off as a lake

• Members who attended bullfights were grouped economically

• You can tell the difference in the income levels and the way people used to spend their money based on what one aristocratic‘s family spend their money on in the museum we visited!

Reading 5: “The Rise of Spain to International Prominence“

• The Iberian peninsula might have had a different configuration in the past.

• Romans left law, language, religion, and structures

• It was common for multiple different groups people to fight against a common enemy

• Andulusia was Muslim until 1492

• New land owners don’t demolish previous property, they adapt it. We saw this when there used to be a column designed to look like a flower, but now it is an Arab style.
  

Reading 6: “Revolution & Tradition in Bourbon Spain”

• The new Palacio Real is more conspicuously ‘Roman’ in style

• Goya’s paintings were to bring terror as enlightenment. We saw his paintings in the palace

• Zuologa art eventually became more popular

• In the royal palace we saw an allegory painting in the foyer. It had Africa and Spain colliding as one and many angels.

Reading 7: “A Brief History of the Prado Musuem”, “At The Prado, Love…”

• Prado Was one of the first ever public museums ever created

• The museum was created because Fernando wanted a picture gallery of the paintings French troops left behind

• Homosexuality was always present within the Prado

Reading 8: “Writers, historians react to Mexico’s demand”

• The Mexican president demands an apology from Spain over the Spanish conquest

• Spaniards compared this request to Mexico asking Trump to apologize for stealing their land

• I find asking Spain to apologize very odd. I compare it to me apologizing to people of color for slavery, while it was a horrific and disgusting period of time, it was not my actions to apologize for.

Reading 9: “Brief History…”, “Baroque Seville”

• After Mohammad died, he left behind a revelation of tradition and revolution

• Moving the heart of the empire from the Arabian peninsula to Syria was the first step in creating a distinction between Arab and Islamic things

• Rome replaced Greece by absorbing Greek culture and history

Reading 10: “Toward Modernity“

• Napoleon hoped the Spanish people would accept Joseph Bonaparte as a replacement

• During the war, most of the Spanish population remained loyal to Fernando

• They remained conservative, religious, and independent

• Politicians kept failing to address the people’s problems, army leaders thought they could

Reading 11: “The Struggle for the Spanish Soul”

• Republican candidates won a majority of the votes in larger cities

• Azaña wanted to resolve the political conflicts in Spain.

• He thought the army was too large and expensive

• Franco pressured Hitler to leave Jewish descendants alone

• He was a single party system. All the power was with him

• Spain lost many colonies to America in the Spanish America war. This allowed for focus of investment and advancement

• The second republic allowed for great transformations

Reading 12: “The Revolutionary 20th century Mirrored in Modern Art”

• The major creative ferment took place in Barcelona.

• Gaudi’s work is said to correspond to Art Nouveau but it specifically represents modernism

• The shift from Pablo to Duchamp was like moving from modernism to postmodernism