Spain is different: Why are we so affraid of showing off?

This post comes after spending a whole week watching old episodes of a TV program that I very much enjoy. Its name is Cuarto Milenio, presented by Iker Jiménez and Carmen Porter, and whose impact on the Spanish audience is bigger and bigger each year (they’ve been on since 2005 on the telly and since 2002 on the radio with their program Milenio 3) regardless of the subject, sometimes frightening, of some of the reports shown there. Many people think that the program is only about paranormal incidents and apparitions of ghost and UFOs. It has indeed some reports and discussions with specialists of this kind but the kind of subjects it covers is much wider than that, including science, archaeology and history.

I’m not here to discuss and argue in favor of the legitimacy of the topics discussed in the program, since many people seem to think that it is all a farce; but to discuss and tell you what has aroused in me the need of writing this post. I’m 22 years old, not old enough and without the enough money to have visited the whole country of Spain as I would like to do someday, but I’ve visited a bit of it: I’ve visited the northwest of the country (Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria mainly), Valencia; Segovia, Salamanca, Ávila and surroundings, and the whole autonomous community of Murcia. 

Castle of Lorca

There are many places in Spain that I haven’t seen, but after watching Cuarto Milenio I now know that there are literally hundreds of places undiscovered, unexploited (in the good sense of the word) or closed to the public. I’ll give you an example: everyone knows about Stonehenge, near Salisbury, in the south west of the UK; which it is considered to be one of the biggest groups of dolmens in all Europe. However, what about the dolmens of la Menga,in Antequera, near Málaga? It is even BIGGER than Stonehenge, with inscriptions that are (always apparently, I have no idea of archaeology and I tell you what I’ve found on Google) exactly the same that appear in some dolmens of Stonehenge and which the archaeologists don’t know what they mean yet. I repeat, they are even bigger than Stonehenge. But everyone knows about Stonehenge and few people have ever heard about la Menga. Why is that?

Dolmens de la Menga, Antequera.

Last year I spent some time in the UK under the Erasmus grant, and although I was there only nine months I made the most of them and visited many places (there are still several that I left unvisited, though, for next time). After visiting all those places and comparing the ones in the UK with the ones in Spain that I know and I’ve seen, one question strikes me: why on earth are we so afraid of showing off the historical and cultural heritage? I now think, for example, Nottingham Castle. Nottingham, as we all know, is famous for Robin Hood’s story but barely anything remains regarding his legend; there’s only a sculpture at the entrance of the castle and little more. However, the castle is able to show off its presence in First World War with an impressive display of weapons, uniforms, and pictures of the heroes that lived (and some died) during that tragedy. The castle is in perfect shape and perfectly maintained even though if you go there with high expectations you may be a bit disappointed.

Entrance to Nottingham Castle

Robin Hood sculpture in Nottingham

However, in Spain things change. As I said, three or four years ago, my family and I decided to visit Murcia. We spent ten days there, everyday visiting something different, and only three things of the dozens that I saw were impressive. Only three: the roman theatre of Cartagena, the castle of Lorca and a sort of Roman museum with bits and pieces of the remnants of an old time. And by that I don’t mean that Murcia doesn’t have historical places to visit, in fact many of the towns have an old castle which in ancient times kept an eye on the peoples of the village down below. What I mean is that all these places are incredibly poor maintained, money has not been invested in procuring a good preservation. Of course there are castles and museums, but many of those are closed to the public or have little investment and therefore poorly preserved. It is obvious now that there is no money to invest on these sort of things (now there is no money, literally), but during many years there was enough money. Why then, didn’t we invest on them? 

Roman theatre in Cartagena

I’ve done a bit of Google before writing this and I’ve discovered that, in comparison, Spain has a higher cultural wealth than other places like France or the UK but contrary to what we would think, the rate of cultural and historical tourism is lower, both international and national. The investment of public money is one reason, but I’m sure that can’t be the only one. I refuse to believe that we are fools enough to not care about our historical heritage. I can tell you that one of the summers I enjoyed the most was when I went to Segovia, the number of places to visit was incredibly high, from palaces such as La Granja de San Ildefonso to museums, towns, cities and restaurants with history of their own. In Segovia most of them are well taken care of, but why that doesn’t happen in the whole country?

Granja de San Ildefonso

Spain may be many things, but one thing that remains true is that historically it’s been an important place in the map, and the remnants that we have today show that. Let’s show off what we have, let’s be proud of the historical and cultural heritage, and let’s invest in what we have; so that the future generations are proud of what their country meant historically and what it means now.