An Examination of Spanish Culture

For my Spring break, I went to visit a friend in Barcelona for the week. The cultural difference I was most mindful of was the food culture. First off, the food was amazingly fresh and delicious. Every morning, my friend and I would go down to the bakery and get fresh pastries. It was nice to greet the day by getting out of her apartment, feeling the energy of the day, drooling at the fresh baked goods at the bakery while chatting with the baker, and feeling more a part of the process and the culture of the food. My friend explained that she does not usually keep much food in the house. She tends to do her grocery shopping daily, as most people do in Spain. You buy your food for the day based on what you are in the mood for and what is fresh and in season at the market. Buying something in the morning and having it fulfill its purpose by the end of the day is a more complete cycle that feels freeing in a sense. In the US, we tend to buy mass quantities and store them. The way our societies are set up make such a system more environmentally beneficial. We live in a car-centered society as how we have more room for sprawled out suburbs. We usually have to drive whenever we need something rather than walking down the street.

Furthermore, the displays of the food at the markets give a much more honest approach to what they are. There are whole freshly slaughtered chickens ready to buy, for example. To many, that may be unappetizing. It is more logical to be presented with the raw form of what you will be eating rather than having it be butchered, wrapped in cellophane, and stocked on the fluorescently lit aisles of the super market.

They have lots of pride in their food culture. As I think I have mentioned in previous blog posts, I am a bit of a food TV addict. Before embarking to Barcelona for the week, I made a point of making my food TV doses centered on Spanish cuisine. The chefs that I watched seem to a have a real connection to the tradition of the food and the nativity of their ingredients. There is a context in these ingredients and recipes specific to the environment that have given Spaniards their literal livelihood for centuries. It is cool to be able to trace the roots of the traditions. Having said that, the mixing pot of cultures we experience in the US has great value as well.

The aesthetic appeal of the city was lovely. The mature architecture in Barcelona has an integrity to be taken seriously not only for functional use, but as a means of portraying a civilization with pride. The Cathedrals and plazas were stunning. Such cultural monuments give context to humanity. They are a reminder of values, creativity, beauty, community, and the history of the people all of these things have come out of. The buildings of cities bring character to the environment and dictate a certain way of living, much like the cathedral-like trees of forests and the wide-open plazas of the Great Plains.