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Spaniards leading a national surge in global business and politics, culture and the arts. As the country prepares for a pivotal election, TIME examines its striking creative burst
Maybe it’s the sheer rate of change that feeds that impression. “It has all happened very fast,” says Jiménez, 41, a leading light of the Socialist Party (psoe) and unsuccessful candidate for Madrid mayor in last May’s municipal elections. “When I was younger, I remember Latin American countries with per capita incomes higher than ours, with more advanced technology. How could we have ever dreamed we would consider ourselves elbow-to-elbow with France, with the United Kingdom, with Germany — something which we can do today in a number of fields? We’ve advanced so much, but that creates distortions, because it’s hard to assimilate all that intense change.”
Put in more gustatory terms, Palacio says, “Spain is a bottle of champagne that has been opened up, and now the whole force of the society that was compressed inside is flowing out.” Vela thinks the metaphor is perfect, but he takes it further: “The champagne is all over the floor, and now we have to start putting everything back in place.”
But ordered progress has never been the way with Spain, says Trueba, 34, a novelist and filmmaker whose latest film, Soldiers of Salamina, is about the civil war and stars his wife, Ariadna Gil. He points out that Spain’s turbulent history has thrown up many periods of intense change, but there’s a pattern to its regeneration: “The cultural world in Spain has always been like a florist shop in the Sahara: something with no grounds to exist, but that exists nevertheless, as if by
How could we have dreamed we would be elbow-to-elbow with France and the U.K.? We’ve advanced so much
— TRINIDAD JIMÉNENZ
spontaneous generation. I think that has a lot to do with how, time and again, we’ve seen the emergence of individuals able to create a sense of professionalism, and with it a capacity to reinvent the country. This is a country of pioneer individuals, people who clear the way and enliven latent talents.” For Trueba, this ability has created a special brand of national self-assurance. “Spaniards have an absolute confidence not in the structures of the country — in which I believe we have a great distrust — but in the country itself.”
Banker Vela makes a similar point in lauding the “human capital” of today’s Spain. And chef Adrià concurs, saying that the young generation “in my field is the best generation ever. I was with some 20-year-olds just now and the things they are doing are simply magic.” Jiménez marvels over “the enterprising character of the Spanish, our desire to be part of the world, to be part of everything that’s happening. We revel in it especially because it’s a relatively new feeling for us.”
Even one of Spain’s older legacies, its conquistador empire, seems to be devolving to its youthful advantage. “The only cultural frontier that is clearly shifting now, at the beginning of the 21st century, is that of Hispanics in the United States,” says Palacio. She sees Spain as a natural “turntable” for that culture: a place where European culture and investment can find a portal to the Americas, through active Spanish banks, for instance, and also facilitate flows in the other direction — such as the political essays of Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa in the Madrid daily El País. “At a time of great integration in the Americas and across the Atlantic, that’s one of the great gifts that Spain has,” she says.
That advantage — some 400 million Spanish speakers worldwide — may be one reason why TIME’s roundtable participants didn’t view Spanish culture as endangered, the way France views its own cultural heritage. Spaniards are making cultural products the rest of the world wants. Trueba, a maker of decidedly independent films, might be expected to resent Hollywood’s dominance of the movie business, but he doesn’t bother. “There’s no way I’m going to spend one minute of my life trying to rout American cinema,” he said. “Apart from the fact that the battle is completely lost, why should I? I love it.” Vela suggests that Spain’s curious condition as a new country tempered by age gives it a kind of cultural toughness. “Maybe it’s our historical experience as a people,” he muses. “We’ve been invaded on so many occasions that we’ve been left with no fear to face up to any culture or person.”
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