Lo normal y el futuro

As I'm sure you all are well aware, Spain is an extremely Catholic country.  Between the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews centuries ago, and the more recent conservative dictatorship just decades ago, Catholicism has become deeply ingrained in the Spanish culture.  I experience the subtle effects of this Catholic culture regularly here, however there are two specific effects that I have noticed the most, one of which I love, and the other I cannot stand.

I'll start with my issues first.

There is an obsession here with "lo normal," which means essentially what you would think it means: normality.  I understand the immense need of Spaniards to blend in and seem normal: during the Inquisition, Jews had to conform to the Catholic rule as much as humanly possible, or risk their lives; and anyone who seemed different or unusual under Franco's regime risked disappearing as well.  Furthermore, the Catholic church as never seemed to me to particularly encourage individuality.  Nonetheless, though I can understand where this phenomena has its roots, I still find it extremely troubling.

In my cine course a week ago, we watched Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre, which deals with the lives of a number of strong women.  As I own this film, I have seen it a good number of times, and yet it never fail to move me in the way Almodóvar normalizes these marginalized women (transsexuals, drug addicts, HIV positives, single mothers, lesbians, etc).  Perhaps my deep connection to the film is why I became so upset when, after watching it, my film professor began to talk about the male to female transexual characters as "transvestite men" and how none of the people in the film are "normal."

Almodóvar experienced Franco's dictatorship, and played a major part in the movida, and so he has always strived to show the marginalized members of Spanish society as "normal" people.  Unlike the films that show the plight of a specific type of person (films I, honestly, cannot stand), Almodóvar instead shows people who would be marginalized in a typical Spanish context living perfectly usual, "normal" lives.  Unfortunately, however, the majority of Spain seems to still divide those around them into "normal" and "not-normal."

Another example of "lo normal" is that "normal" is essentially a synonym for heterosexual.  I do tend to have a knee-jerk response to any type of labeling of sexualities, particularly by those who are not the person who's sexuality is in question, yet I am sure that a good number of people also would have been offended when, over dinner, a Spaniard told me that "Chueca is a neighborhood for the gays, normal people tend not to go out there."

The phenomena of "lo normal" can be understood as any other outdated evolutionary adaptation.  Just as we have outgrown our past need for appendixes, though once they served us a purpose, "lo normal" was once necessary for survival, but it is time that we remove it from our consciousness.

Now for the good part.

Catholicism has also long upheld an emphasis on personal humility, and my lengua professor explained to us the other day that calling someone "ambitious" is essentially an insult because, in Spain, someone who aims to do great things is considered un-humble.  Having attended the schools I have, I have had some trouble in the past with the expectation that we will all go off and do remarkable things (I am sure my parents can remember my complaining about my high-school's seemingly impossible expectations of our futures).  Furthermore, America in general is full of people all striving to hold those coveted, and limited, most important roles.  As a result, I have spent most of my life having to make up ambitions and goals for those around me insistent on knowing what amazing things I have planned for myself.

Now, finally, I am in a place where my honest responses are valued.  Over dinner with my host mom the other night, my lack of future planning came to light.  I told her that I have always felt pressure to be planning for "the future," yet my natural instinct is to trust Destiny and focus on making sure I like what I'm doing right now.  This conversation was partially inspired by another conversation I had had with the director of my program here who asked me what I wanted to do in "the future," and when I responded truthfully, perhaps not taking enough time to construct a more appropriate answer, that "I honestly don't think about that much," he responded beaming that he "always had imagined me in academia!"

Both of these confessions brought back extremely positive responses, perhaps because they are the most socially appropriate responses here.  Nonetheless, I love that I am in a place where those always pushing to do more, know more, earn more, are actually looked down upon, rather than held up on pedestals as they are in the US.

To play the devil's advocate for a moment, I can understand that discouraging personal ambition can be a strategic way to control a society in that only a certain few are allowed to do great things, while the rest must be happy with their inconsequentiality.  And I can also see how this could be an effect of the control of the repressive regimes in Spain's history.  Nonetheless, perhaps what we need is more overall balance: those who aim to be president, or astronauts, or solve world hunger, can be patted on the back for their interesting ambitions, but those of us who are happy living in the moment can also be appreciated as well.

Un beso.