Envy exists in all countries. So why have Spanish people decided that their country is “el país de la envidia” (the country of envy)? I’m very curious. I wonder when this expression came into existence, and under what circumstances.
Obviously, not all Spanish people believe in this. But I’ve heard quite a few Spanish people use this expression, and insist that it’s true: that in this country, people are more envious (and hence more devious) than in others.
To me, this seems like another example of Spanish self-flagellation. Is there low self-esteem about being Spanish? Is it due to the Franco-era regression that left this country way behind the rest of Europe in some ways? Or does it go back farther? Is it Catholic-based? Original Sin? Do you feel guilty about having such good wine here?
I’d be interested in hearing your opinions.
Cuando fui a New York, los primeros días estuve todo el tiempo pensando que me despreciaba todo aquel con el que me relacionaba. Pero al cabo de los días me di cuenta que no era desprecio, era más bien pasotismo. Aquí, en cambio, nos gusta disfrazarlo todo de empatía o simpatía, pero al final esos formalismos son una forma de inseguridad que se vuelven en nuestra contra y acabamos envidiando (y criticando) al neoyorkino porque no necesita quedar bien con el extraño. Seguramente, tal como dices, ese tópico de la envidia sea otra forma de auto-flagelarnos, nos gusta auto-criticarnos. Como ves, yo también lo he hecho. Saludos!
Hola Chamizo! Interesante tu perspectiva. Estoy de acuerdo de que, aquí, la gente tiene más formalidad, TACTO, y elegancia en su forma de comunicar, a diferencia de los más directos New Yorkers. Pero esa simpatía ha sido un punto frustrante para mi también… tantas veces he pensado, “Por qué nadie dice lo que realmente piensa??!! Tengo que mentir también? No quiero mentir!” Mucha comedura de coco al final. No sé, me gusta la elegancia de aquí, pero la simplicidad de alli también.
Do you find everything ok? This a typical phrase that you can hear in many of the supermarkets here in California. People in Merced,California is extremely nice and well educated when treating the customers. I was not used to this in Spain or, at least, in Pamplona. Do really care people here if I find everything ok or it’s just a well taught protocol to the sellers? Is it a question of hypocrisy or just good manners? It is a fact that humans are product of their culture, but envy is something universal. In Spain, in Nepal or in Kalifornia…What happens in Spain is that we have a huge guilt for anything that provides pleasure ( sex as first instance) and the reason that I point out is Catholicism. We dont have to look further… too many cathedrals and churches..
I’m an atheist, but I honestly don’t see any relation between being religious and being envious. Anyway, people from the States are far more religious than Spanish…
Do Spanish people really consider themselves more envious than average? I have never heard of that before (I’m Spanish, of course). But in case it is true, I would say the reason may have something to do with the fact of being from a country that has developed from misery and poverty to a middle-class society in a very short lapse of time. During the last thirty years, people have seen their neighbors, poor as them, grow to richer and well-of situations, sometimes better than theirs. The status of most families changed quickly thanks to the sudden freedom and opportunity they found in their hands.
The ones with “bad habits” as reading forbidden books or listening to evil rock music were now welcome. They were even more welcome and more popular than the rancid go-to-church and watch-the-bullfighting ones. Everything turned upside-down and inside-out, and sometimes things like these are not easy to accept. Probably a part of this mentality of repulse was transmitted from parents to their children and there’s still some kind of residue left inside us. But I can’t feel it!! Ha, ha.
Many countries have had a development too, but, yeah, Spain was very very fast doing it.
I think you’re right about everything you’ve said here, Esther. It must have been a “cruce de cables” to see such change happening so fast. I always marvel at how, at least during the Bush Jr. years, Spain was more progressive and democratic than the U.S. as far as universal health care and gay marriage.
Don’t get it wrong, Rachel. When you hear people saying “we Spaniards are soooo envious” you must translate that to “everyone in this wasted country BUT ME are soooo envious”. This figure of speech, that we could call “revertismo” because writer Arturo Pérez Reverte uses it profusely in his texts, appears almost every time you hear somebody say anything wrong about the country, their town or wathever that they could be involved in. They think that if they include themselves in the criticism, people will see them as cool humble people. But they are pharisees, actually.
I think people use “revertismos” because they love putting themselves in a situation that not only they are better than their equals, but also they have a far better knowledge of society than you, so they can pontificate all the time without being questioned. You can hear hundreds of examples of “revertismos” in expressions that begin with “En este país…”, followed by an acid and clever criticism. If you ask them about it, they never really behave like that, you know, but “en este país lo hace todo el mundo”.
Hey, this whole text could be a “revertismo” too. But I’m aware of that and I try hard not to do it, believe me. And I think I’m right ^^
Ha ha, right on. Hard to argue against this perspective.
España país de la envidia? Agreed. If you wanna know why, just put away the question marks on your last paragraph and read it again!
In my opinion it´s a matter of inferiority complex. If you start a new project and I try to break you down for the envy I´m feeling, you can say “this is the country of envy”.
That self-flagelation is because the people that use it thinks in “Europe” (meaning Scandinavia, France, Germany and U.K:) EVERYTHING is much better than here. One reason? there´s no envy there. Just here, the bottom of Europe, blah, blah.
I tend to think there’s a political factor to it, but way older than Franco. It certainly has to do with being the first world power until others came along. Perhaps the fact that in some point in our history we decided that we had to free the world from heretics, muslims and pagans and spread the true word, even against other catholic powers who didn’t give a dam about it. And we foud ourselves alone, with our distorted sense of honour and courage, hatin’ the rest of the world. Does it make sense to you?
Thank you for commenting, Fabián. One group is notably absent from your list of people expelled in the quest to “free the world” and “spread the true word”: JEWS.
Which explains why Spain has such shitty comedians today.
Considering the cultural knowledege of the recent generations, I doubt very much that the fact of having been a powerful empire in the past has something to do with our present behaviour. This is only my point of view, of course. Maybe Fabián is right and we are all thirsty of power.
FIGHT! FIGHTIN’ THE WORLD, YEAH!
(¿Para cuándo MANOWAR en A.K?)
Bueno, si eso fuese así, “Borat” hubiera sido diferente.
Sí, los españoles parece que no tenemos una autoestima muy alta; sólo hay que ver series de humor donde no nos tomamos muy en serio, y todo es muy cutre y chapucero.
Seguramente, y en comparación con USA, puede ser que una de las claves es que en tu país la educación se base precisamente en la autoestima (aunque a mí siempre me cayeron mejor los “losers”).
(Bueno, mi primera frase tiene que ver con el primer comentario y respuesta, que yo pensé que era el último).