Herein lies a cultural analysis paper I recently wrote for a class. Enjoy...

In order to understand Spain’s present, it is helpful to consider its past. In 1939, a bloody civil war came to an end, with the fascists emerging victorious. General Francisco Franco assumed the role of dictator, and for nearly forty years, he ruled with a Catholic iron fist. As dictators go, Franco was somewhat benevolent, building Spain into a tourist destination while maintaining order nationwide (including national curfews and persecuting dissidents of all kinds). Attending mass was obligatory, and Spain remained an austere land, largely isolated from cultural developments in the rest of Europe. Even when reform came to Rome with the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, which declared belief in the separation of church and state (among other things), the Spanish government did not budge, labeling itself as more Catholic than the Vatican. In 1969 Franco declared that Juan Carlos, the rightful Spanish heir in the broken royal line, would assume the throne as king upon his death. The dictator assumed that his handpicked successor would carry on his conservative policies.

He was wrong. Franco died in 1975, and within three years, the Spanish state was a constitutional monarchy. King Juan Carlos I became a national hero as his position became primarily a figurative one, and Spain entered 20th-century Europe at a breakneck pace. Attendance at mass was no longer obligatory (and sharply dropped); Protestants, Jews, and Muslims – those that hadn’t already emigrated – were no longer second-class citizens; women steadily gained in status as well; a variety of political parties could vie for power in democratic elections; laws on divorce, abortion, and eventually gay rights went liberal; commercial foreign policy shifted from an isolationist posture to an embrace of our increasingly globalized world. Whereas the United States and much of Western Europe had already been through a sexual revolution, Spain had its own in the early 1980s. Within a decade, the people had spoken, and Spain had been transformed from a conservative island to an integrated member of the materialistic European community.

The change did not stop there.

But, before we can look at this ongoing change, we have to examine other Spanish traits. Roughly the area of Nevada and Utah put together, the 36 million Spaniards in 1975 came almost exclusively from five different peoples, each with its own mother tongue and four with their own region(s). Most Spaniards, from a variety of regions across the center and south of the country, spoke Castilian (what we call “Spanish”), which was also the official national language. Across the north, there were three other languages spoken in people’s homes – Galician (in the northwest), Basque (north-central), and Catalan (northeast). Spaniards have a reputation for a strong independent streak, and those in the northern minorities often identify themselves more strongly by their ethnic identity than their national identity. The Basque people, whose unique language has long been a puzzle to linguists seeking to discern its origin, are stereotypically the most conservative, most Catholic, and most independent group on the peninsula (some of them even desire to secede from Spain). The fifth people group was the gypsies, who largely kept to themselves (by choice and persecution) and were not even considered Spaniards by many (including many from within).

Today, these are no longer the only people in Spain. For much of the 20th century, Spain was a country that people emigrated from to seek better lives elsewhere. Beginning in the early 1990s, with a fairly strong economy, Spain became a place that people immigrate to. They come primarily from Latin America, North Africa, and parts of Eastern Europe, but also from China and Great Britain, among others. So although the birth rate has nearly flattened among Spaniards (like other Western European countries), the population has blossomed to 46 million, both from the immigrants themselves and their higher birth rates. As a result this country, which just twenty years ago was a land of four Catholic peoples who had a fair amount of cultural similarities, has become a multicultural land, with all the accompanying blessings and challenges.

This is felt even more strongly in evangelical churches than in the culture at large. With the exception of North Africa, each source country of immigrants has a higher percentage of Protestants than Spain. So the share of evangelicals has grown in Spain, and the blessings and challenges of a multicultural community have been amplified among Protestants relative to the surrounding culture.

At least one more significant change dynamic should be mentioned, particularly as it relates to my anticipated future realm of service. In our increasingly globalized world, with technologies that connect people from across oceans in unprecedented ways, it has been said that the greatest cultural barriers today are generational. Those who are teenagers in Madrid may have more in common with teenagers in Denver than they do with their own parents. Thus, to think about Spain, one has to think about the global youth culture – progressive, technologically saturated, information overloaded, prematurely sexualized, clique-laden, celebrity worshipping, and a host of other traits I am ten years too old to know about.

Identify culturally positive, neutral, and negative characteristics: To start with the negative, two characteristics stand out. First, drug addiction is a disproportionately large problem in Spain. There are a variety of reasons for this, which could fill a paper all their own. The upside of this negative, for the kingdom of God, is that evangelicals in Spain have capitalized on this evil as an opportunity to serve. Christians are well known in the addict community as some of the most caring people who effectively help people quit. Second, Spain is post-Catholic. Generally speaking, this means that many are antagonistic toward a gospel that they do not even know, particularly among the younger generations. I could mention other negative traits, but these two are enough for now.

Turning to the positive, loyalty is the first trait that comes to mind. It is not always easy to earn a place in a Spaniard’s life, but once a she or he is your friend, you have a friend for life. Related to this is an orientation I consider to be redemptive – relationship takes precedence over task, and person over time (though these are shifting, especially in the cities). Also, Spain is a “green” country. Madrid is a city of parks, big and small. Because there is no status machine that labels apartment living as a stepping-stone to a real house as we have here in the U.S., much more area can be devoted as public space. The people ride the fantastic public transportation system during the day and pasean (“stroll,” sort of) at night with friends for recreation (and it is rather safe to be out as a pedestrian late at night). Clotheslines are far more common than dryers; fans are far more common than air conditioning.

As for neutral cultural traits, I am generally skeptical of this label. I tend to think the vast majority of traits are a blend of the positive and the negative, the constructive and the destructive. However, there are traits that might be thought of as a relatively even blend of those two poles, or perhaps their positive and negative elements are less easily recognized, such that we can call them “neutral” without giving up too much.

With this caveat in place, I would place a great deal of traits under the modified “neutral” banner. Meals are eaten about three hours later in Spain than in the U.S., and lunch is the biggest meal. Eating with friends is far more likely to occur outside the home than in it. Spaniards hablan en plata (“speak in silver”) – they are blunt; they call it like they see it. The highly individualistic impulse in Spain is a multifaceted characteristic fraught with various positive and negative sides to it. It is probably best to label Spain’s multiculturalism as a neutral trait, though I tend to see it as a positive thing. (Ditto for their long and storied history.) They have their own artistic forms, their own foods, and their own sports – all generally positive traits (with some negative thrown in), but basically neutral relative to those factors in other cultures. For evangelicals, the size of our movement (a small minority facing minimal persecution) means a number of strengths and weaknesses that, on balance, probably even out to neutral-ish.

Develop a list of five personal core beliefs about leading and communicating in this context: (1) God is the leader over all human endeavors and the communicator behind all truth. (2) The purpose of leadership and communication is to serve. (3) Leadership and communication will look different in different cultural contexts, but each exercise of leadership and each communicative act must continue to consider the context of Christian values and goals as preeminent over the cultural context. This implies that if the thing that “works” best in a given local context is incompatible with the context of faith, it will have to be jettisoned in favor of a more suitable, even if less effective, choice. (4) Generally accepted Spanish cultural traits can probably be loosely assumed when leading and communicating with groups, but they should be no more than background possibilities when interacting with individuals, because no individual fits in a box. (5) I always want to be putting myself in the other person’s shoes – how will what I am considering saying or doing be interpreted? Is that what I am trying to communicate?

(6) I gotta learn Castilian.

Works Consulted

Hooper, John. The New Spaniards, 2^nd ed. New York: Penguin, 2006.