Part 1 (1/2)
Getting to know Spain.
by Dee Day.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge the a.s.sistance and hospitality of Direccion General del Turismo in all its offices in Spain, the Spanish State Tourist Department in New York, and Iberia Air Lines of Spain, without whose co-operation the gathering of much of the material and the personal experience reflected in this book would have been impossible. A majority of the pictures were drawn from photographs by Herb Kratovil, taken especially for this book.
New York, 1957 Dee Day
Editor of this series: Sabra Holbrook
Seventh Impression
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 57-7427
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
For My Parents
You probably know that it was a Queen of Spain, Isabella, who made it possible for America to be discovered in 1492. It was an Italian sailor, Christopher Columbus, who first had the strange new idea that he could sail westward from Spain in order to reach the Far East. He came to Spain to tell people about his idea, and everybody he met thought he was crazy because they knew, or thought they knew, that the northern corner of Spain, jutting out into the Atlantic, was the very end of the world.
Even the most daring sailors and fishermen wouldn't go very far from that sh.o.r.e for fear they would drop over the rim into nothingness.
But Queen Isabella didn't think Columbus was crazy. She took time to listen to him and decided she wanted to help him. She didn't have any money to buy s.h.i.+ps for his expedition, so she ordered a little fis.h.i.+ng village, Palos, to build three s.h.i.+ps as a way of paying a fine they owed her. The fishermen of Palos knew how to build good, st.u.r.dy sailing vessels, and they soon had the three s.h.i.+ps ready for Columbus and his brave sailors.
That is why, in August of 1492, the daring expedition started from this little Spanish village. What a sight! Three little s.h.i.+ps, the _Nina_ (Small Girl), the _Pinta_ (Spotted), and the _Santa Maria_ (named in honor of the Virgin Mary) cast off from the wharf of Palos. Flags fluttered in the breeze as the sails billowed out from the masts. All the villagers were lined up on the sh.o.r.e to pray and to cheer, and the bells in the church rang as Columbus and his crew sailed off ”the rim”
to the west in search of wealth and glory for Spain!
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Many Spanish explorers followed Columbus to the New World, and even sailed all the way around the world, west to east, but the Spanish people today are mostly ”stay-at-homes.” Sometimes they leave home for a little while to make money, like the Spanish shepherds who are so good at handling flocks of sheep that American ranchers in California, New Mexico, Nevada and other western states pay them a lot of money to come and work for them. But those who leave always go back to their beloved land as soon as they have earned what they need.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
If you were to meet a Spanish person, you would find that he would be interested in America and other countries, but he couldn't imagine living the rest of his life anywhere except in Spain. ”Why should I ever live anywhere else?” he would ask you. ”Everything beautiful and good in life is right here.” He would feel this way even though he might be very poor and might even have to leave for a little while, like the shepherds. To him, the important things in life are his family, his friends, his church and his country.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
His country is a large, squarish, mountainous land at the southwesternmost tip of Europe. To the north, over the tall wall of the Pyrenees Mountains, is France. To the west is Portugal and the Atlantic Ocean, and to the east is the Mediterranean Sea. Spain has more seacoast than any other European country and more mountains than any except Switzerland. Spain and Portugal together make up what is called the Iberian Peninsula. It is named for the Iberian people who came there from North Africa almost 5,000 years ago and settled down to become the ancestors of the Spanish people.
If you were to stand at the bottom of the Iberian Peninsula, on a hill overlooking a town called Algeciras, you could look right into Africa, only twelve miles away. You would also see the Rock of Gibraltar--a giant rock rising out of the sea and turned into a fort to guard the narrow pa.s.sage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
This pa.s.sage is the Strait of Gibraltar, and all s.h.i.+ps must go through it to get from the sea to the ocean.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
In this mountainous country between two seas, more babies are born every day than in any other country in Europe. There are 29 million people in Spain already, although it is only the size of our state of Montana, where 600,000 people live. This country might seem very small to us, but it is the third largest country in Europe. And because their mountains shut different parts of the country away from each other, there are many differences in ways of living among the 29 million Spaniards. There are 15 different regions in Spain, and each one has a different way of dressing, different music and dances, different ways of fixing food, a different sort of house to live in, and even different ways of speaking. Sometimes you will meet a Spaniard who has never been out of his own region, or even away from his own village, because the mountains make it very difficult to travel when your way of getting around is on your own two feet or in a little cart pulled by a small burro or donkey.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
Another reason for the many different ways of living is that Spain is a very old country which has been invaded many times by other countries.