The 12th of October marks an important day in Spain for two reasons. First, the 12th of October represents the "Día de la Hispanidad" (Day of Hispanic-ness), and more contemporarily, is also referred to as "Fiesta Nacional" (Day of the Nation). It commemorates the accomplishments of the Spanish-speaking world and is celebrated in other Spanish-speaking countries. In Madrid, typically, there is military parade that the royal family, important Spanish officials, and leaders of other Spanish-speaking countries attend. Part of the holiday celebrates the "discovery" of America on the part of Christopher Columbus. In a sense, it celebrates all that Spain was at that time--when it was a world power and a force to be reckoned with.
However, the holiday has gotten more austere in recent years because of the economic crisis. Furthermore, another holiday has begun to overshadow Día de la Hispanidad. In fact, when I was talking to the teachers at my school, they all said that we had the day off because it was Día de Pilar.
The "Día de Pilar" (Day of Our Lady of the Pillar) honors the patroness of Spain and the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard). According to what I've read, she appeared to the Apostle James when he was in Spain--trying to convert people to Christianity. In his despair, he prayed for help, and the Virgin Mary appeared to him with a pillar/column. She instructed him to make a church where it stood and promised that the site would endure there until the end of time and that many miracles would be worked there.
Since all of us had the day off, the other Fulbrighters and I decided to make a big American breakfast. We made eggs, pancakes (with chocolate chunks!), bacon, and potatoes. I told one of my teachers about our plans. Unfortunately, I think we have inadvertently reinforced the stereotype about what Americans eat for breakfast every day!
I've never actually made pancakes before--so I quickly learned how to flip pancakes without burning them or flipping them too early and getting misshapen pancakes. We were able to enjoy our potatoes with American style ketchup. Here the ketchup is generally a little sweeter. I don't really care for it--so I was glad that we were able to find ketchup like we get at home.
After eating breakfast, we decided to do something more relaxing so we could digest all that delicious food! We went to a nearby movie theater to see the movie The Debt--which was a thought-provoking movie. The movie features Helen Mirren, Ciarán Hinds, and Tom Wilkinson. They play retired Mossad secret agents who, when they were young, were sent on a mission to capture a Nazi war criminal (the Surgeon of Birkenau). The movie goes back and forth between the present when they are retired and the past when they were tracking down the Surgeon of Birkenau. Part of what I liked about the movie was the fact that it sparked an intense discussion between the three of us afterward. It left us with questions that have no real answer--which I think is what the best movies do.
While walking back to our apartments, we discovered that there was a special diversity event taking place on the Explanada. All along the Explanada, there were booths with representatives from different countries and minorities with information about their organization or their country/minority group. Interestingly-enough, there was a booth that was working to help better the situation for Gypsies. I can't speak to the situation for Gypsies in other places in the world. However, in Spain, Gypsies are a highly discriminated group. Some people will tell you that they are thieves or bad people. In fact, last time I was here, my host mom told me to be careful on the metro because Gypsies might try to rob me. At school, I've heard students make negative comments about other students with ties to the Gypsy community. However, the whole point of this diversity event was to dispel some of these stereotypes and gain more acceptance for these groups.
In the bandstand on the Explanada, different groups performed dances from their country. We saw some people doing a dance from Mexico, and a group preparing to do a dance from Argentina.
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