Siesta, Fiesta, Tapas...
by Maria Pomes
I confess: I have been feeling homesick recently! Being a Spaniard in London the first months of the year can sometimes be challenging: while people back at home are already out on the beach on holiday, here we are still unable to leave our umbrellas at home!
It's not just the weather. Homesick therapy includes visits to London tapas restaurants and bars. Earlier this week I was sitting at one of the restaurants, ordering tapas from a plastic menu, knives, forks and cloth on the table. It was just when I ended the last albondiga when I realised that it was not genuine tapas. You eat tapas at the bar, they are already prepared, you point at them to the waiter, and you eat them with your hands.
But actually, good weather and a Mediterranean diet are aspects of the Spanish way of life that one can leave behind without much danger. A siesta is a more difficult one. It is a myth that all Spaniards have a siesta at lunch time. But it is true that our lunch breaks are meant for going home, having a three course meal, and a rest after that. Almost every Spaniard that I meet here agrees that performing at work without a quick nap is challenging. The origin of the siesta follows several myths; the most common one is that Spain was basically too hot to work in between two and four. My own belief is that it's healthier for you.
Si, Spain is known for its sunny weather, the tapas, siestas. But especially for its fiesta. I cannot recall how many British friends have told me that they fly out just for a crazy party weekend: Ibiza, Mallorca, Barcelona. Almost the same number of Spanish friends come here and get extremely frustrated when pubs ask for the last order at 11pm - basically our dinner time.
There are also some false Spanish stereotypes - we certainly don't spend our days dancing flamenco and eating paella. Flamenco is only danced in Andalucia and paella is a Valencian dish (that we all unsuccessfully try to master!).
All quite tough so far. However, I would miss those very things wherever I went. I must admit that I am lucky enough to be in a place like London. I sometimes think that the whole city is tricking me, with uncountable moments that make me think of home, and even making me feel as if I am back home! I must also be grateful that the British are hispanophiles and welcome Spanish culture; they all seem to like the country and always have pleasant comments about it. I am also thankful for those Spaniards who emigrated to England and brought a bit of my culture with them.
One of the first tips that I received when arriving in London was how to find the small and hidden shop in Portobello market where you can find some of those Spanish products that can help you get through a homesick afternoon. Cola cao can be bought there… It is a thick chocolate powder, breakfast for every Spanish under twenty… and some older ones as well!
Sadlers Wells has just finished an excellent Spanish flamenco festival. Last year it included Sara Baras, one of the top flamenco dancers. Quite a few Spanish emigrants [immigrants?] have seen flamenco for the first time in London. And have loved it. Because, in some ways, being away from your country reinforces your sense of home, and makes you feel closer to any other emigrant [immigrant?]… Closer than you would ever feel back home. It is interesting as well how many Londoners wish they had such a strong sense of home, as Spaniards do. We certainly are from where we are born and brought up, and it is uncommon to leave home before your twenties.
Regent Street holds a Spain Day fiesta. The street is closed to traffic and everyone joins in celebrating Spain, paella and basically a fun day. When you realise that your culture has absolutely stopped one of the main streets in London you know you are welcome here.
The British Film Institute also helps to make Spaniards feel at home. Last year they had a fantastic Almodovar season (at the same time as the actress Penelope Cruz appeared on billboards all over the city in a shampoo advert). We, Spaniards, got the opportunity to see on the big screen some of Almodovar's first films, the same ones that will take you a while to find in a messy Spanish video club, and you would take home on a VHS. Now it is doing the same with Luis Buñuel, with the advantage that you wouldn't even find his films in the video clubs. So, in this way, London is even better than home!
The Cervantes Institute is another place to feel at home. There you will always be welcome with a smiley and friendly Spanish atmosphere, and its busy cultural programme will make sure that you are more in contact with Spain that you would be even living there. There are quite a few novelists that I have been able to chat to in their library or auditorium… Unthinkable back in Spain.
The National Gallery also helps to beat that feeling of homesickness, not only with its permanent exhibition but even more with the amazing Velazquez exhibition hosted during the winter. Sold out every day, queues to get in, and many "wows" that make Spanish visitor proud to be Spanish. Proud until you leave the gallery and face Nelson's Column. Whenever I see it, and for someone living in London that happens very often, you want to think, "You up there! You beat our Armada that was meant to be invincible! Wish I could go up and tell you a couple of things!"
The Spanish language is spoken on London streets. Not just by immigrants, but also by numerous tourists. Chatting with English friends, they can't understand why we Spaniards would come to a place like London on holiday… We are also a noisy culture, so it is very easy to hear loud Spaniards chatting almost everywhere! I am not ignoring the fact that not only Spanish people speak Spanish. It is also difficult to go to a bar or restaurant that doesn't have a Spanish waiter… Almost as difficult as finding a Brit that doesn't want to learn the language, further than siesta, fiesta and cerveza… because they all know those words. And not just the waiters - London has amazing Spanish restaurants (I have been discovering them during this homesick therapy): Moro, Fino, Cambio de Tercio… I have tried some of the most succulent Spanish recipes here… (Even if I am still missing my daily Mediterranean diet, because restaurants are not an every day thing!) I have even been to Cambridge University for a sherry tasting evening!
Wales… I also feel at home there. Spain is an extremely mountainous land, unlike England. Whenever I travel towards Wales the landscape becomes much more familiar. It is also true that Spain has two immense plains (La Mancha and Castilla y Leon), but they are dry, arid… So nothing to do with London surroundings... also flat, but green and wet.
Not to mention the numerous posters on buses, in magazines, at airports… encouraging British tourists to take their next holiday on Spain's beaches… As if they hadn't discovered them yet! The last time I was in the South of Spain, the local hairdresser had paid for all the workers to do some English courses, because almost eight out of ten clients were English… Business is business… Or, as he said with the best Seville accent, "Biznez is biznez" !
Si, London and the UK are full of reminders of home… but there are still some unbeatable differences. An interesting difference is the way Spanish people live in apartment blocks, not that common in London, and we are used to knowing our neighbours, to knocking on their doors when we are short of sugar, or eggs… and after a couple of attempts I understood that you don't do that here. We, Spaniards, also find it fascinating having people living in ground floor flats or basements. That's why we can't help staring through the windows when we walk pass them! For us it is like a shop window! And shopping… Shopping on one of London's high streets can also be very Spanish. Zara, Mango, Adolfo Dominguez… The new Spanish armada consists of shops, banks (Santander - Abbey), and other big companies that are slowly taking over the city… and the world! However, when it comes to the checkout you suddenly get shocked back into a foreign reality… a foreign and more expensive pound reality! Not only clothes shopping.
The local market, the butcher, the fishmonger, the baker… are the centre of a Spanish neighbourhood's everyday life. That is the place where you meet your neighbours, and where you chat with the fishmonger, you're on first-name terms, you discuss what the cod is like, when and where it was caught, but also how quickly the third floor neighbour's kids are growing up… I still have not been able to do that when waiting at the checkout in Sainsbury's.
Yes, I miss home, and yes I am in another country that has some cultural aspects that will remind me, everyday, that I am in a different country. But I think that I am speaking for every Spaniard when I say that we are extremely lucky to be in a city with such a hispanophile culture… but that we are even luckier to have Spain as a homeland!
I recommend...
FOOD: Tapas… But really, it is more about the culture that surrounds our eating habits, getting together for lunch, our sobremesa (after-table), a chat after lunch, almost as long as the lunch it self, while enjoying coffee, a drink, a cigarette… Lunch and dinner are for us Spaniards a highlight of the day, more than a bite for a biological need! FILM: Any Almodovar film gives an excellent taste of the real Spain. Worth keeping an eye on the British Film Institute - it had an excellent Almodovar season and it is now undertaking a brilliant Buñuel one. BOOK: The Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon) is one of the latest Spanish books and is readily available here. Aventuras del Capitan Alatriste (Arturo Perez Reverte) is a successful collection about Spain's colonial period. MUSIC: Mecano changed Spanish music, being the leaders of the Spanish movida. Café del Mar has become totally international, but it started in Ibiza! Fito, Ismael Serrano or Joaquin Sabina are also famous singers - a necessary treat for homesickness.
© Maria Pomes. All views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to the European Commission.
Maria Pomes is 23 years old, and has been living in London for two years. She combines her full time job in a lobby company with some freelance journalism articles for print and online Spanish publications. She also runs two blogs about London. Maria is a Communications Graduate with a passion for politics, travel and photography.