The Insularity of Spain

The Iberian Peninsula cannot be called the bridge between Europe and Africa. Nor is it an extension of Europe into Africa; nor of Africa into Europe. Nor is it an open gateway from the Mediterra nean to the Atlantic. It is a stubborn, individual place on the route.

Although a mixture of many ethnic groups, the Spaniard is unlike any one of them. Further, his country is unlike the homelands of any one of them. The traveler enroute from Paris to Tangier may see Spain as a transitional region, but it will not appear to him as char acteristically European or African. The first Spanish province he crosses will be unlike France and the last unlike Morocco. Not a sentence spoken in Spain will be modern French or Arabic, and not a thought expressed is likely to be European or North African in concept.

The individual character of the Spaniard has been passed on to Spanish America. The Spanish personality was formed and hardened before the New World was discovered, and this fact has given Span ish America its personality as well.

Practically speaking, Spain is an island, and its life is insular. Ordi narily an island country is homogeneous. Unlike that of England, however, the interior of Spain is of difficult access. Its regions are sealed of! from each other by natural barriers that can be overcome only with difficulty. The island of Spain, therefore, is not homogen eous but remarkably diverse. Just as Spain is unlike any of its neigh bors, so the regions of Spain are unlike each other. Spain has a national government and a national capital. It speaks the same official language throughout and professes the same religion. Its people have one human characteristic in common which can be summed up in one word: individualistic. But after these general statements have been made, any discussion of the Spaniard must immediately descend to the regional and the personal.