I thought I had written about the rather lax approach to time Italians seemed to have when taking Italy Air last year. I did not, or I can't find it. Whatever the case, it was not without a little trepidation that we visited another country steeped in Mediterranean ways, Spain, and Iberia Air.
What I know of Spain is probably what most folks from North America know about Spain: Gaudi, Franco, conquistadors, soccer (probably?), hot sun, flamenco. I think that's all I know, well, some splotches of info I gleaned from Patrick O'Brian books of course; but I don't think 'does rather well in guerilla fighting against Bonapartists', or 'has a budding Catalan independence movement' are things that help me understand modern day Spain.
It is also, you know, the main colonizer of the Phillippines (named after their King Philip, no less) for hundreds of years. And I'm half-Filipino, so there's that. Filipinos have been called the 'Latinos of Asia', which, I suppose might be true. I know maybe less about the Phillippines than I do about Spain, shamefully (ask me about the Samurai Jack artist rendered Clone Wars animated short series and it's impact on Star Wars lore and I could go ON).
So there is some, mild attachment to Spain, which lent quite a few things to Filipino culture that then remixed it to their own liking: leche flan, quinceañera, Things Made from Pork, Catholicism. My attachment is slight, but it's more than say, France, or Croatia. But not so much that we when we land I take deep breath and say 'ah, the Motherland'.
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