Spanish

• Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
• Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938)

Chile

• Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948)
• Enrique Lihn
• Gabriela Mistral, born Lucila Godoy, (1889-1957) Nobel laureate in 1945
• Pablo Neruda, born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes, (1904-1973) Nobel laureate in 1971
• Nicanor Parra

Cuba

• Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989)
• José Martí (1853-1895)

Ecuador

• Jorge Carrera Andrade (1903-1978)

Mexico

• Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera (1859-1895)

Nicaragua

• Gioconda Belli (1948-)
• Ernesto Cardenal (1925-)
• Rubén Darío (1867-1916)

Peru

• César Vallejo (1892-1938)

Puerto Rico

• Julia de Burgos (1916-1953)

Spain

• Vicente Aleixandre (1898 - 1984) - Nobel Laureate 1977
• Dámaso Alonso (Generation of '27)
• Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836-1870)
• Luis Cernuda (1903-1963)
• Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)
• Luis de Góngora (?-1627)
• Jorge Guillén (1893-1984)
• Miguel Hernández (1910-1942)
• Antonio Machado
• Jorge Manrique
• Santa Teresa de Jesús
• Lope de Vega

Uruguay

See also: list of Spaniards, list of poets, list of people

See also

• proverb
• Chinese proverbs
• English proverbs
• French proverbs
• German proverbs
• Japanese proverbs
• Latin proverbs
• Polish proverbs
• Portuguese proverbs

External Links

Flamenco

There are two forms of flamenco songs: cante jondo and cante chico. Cante jondo are slower and usually feature sad lyrics about disappointed love or death, while cante chico are much quicker, more popular and dance-oriented.

The golden age of flamenco is said to be 1869 to 1910, later becoming more and more popularized internationally and influenced by South American music, especially the tango. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Antonio Mairena and similar artists kelped kickstart a flamenco revival.

Some of Spain's most famous singers are:

• Miguel Bose
• Rocio Durcal
• Enrique Iglesias
• Julio Iglesias
• Rocio Jurado
• Tony Katrasca
• Melody (singer)
• Isabel Pantojas
• Raphael
• Camilo Sesto
• María Jímenez
• Mártires del Compás
• Los Berzas
• David Bisbal
• Tamara
• El Fary

Also from Spain was the famous trio of singing clowns Gaby Fofo Y Miliki, and the humorist Arévalo.

Beginning in the 9th century BC, Celts, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians entered the Iberian Peninsula, followed by the Roman Republic, who arrived in the 2nd century BC. Spain's present language, religion, and laws stem from the Roman period. Conquered by the Visigoths in the 5th century AD and subsequently in 711 by Islamic North African Moors, modern Spain began to take form in the Reconquista, the efforts to drive out the Moors, which lasted until 1492. In 1492 Queen Isabella I of Castile began the Spanish Inquisition, which lasted for more than 300 years. This was also the year in which she gave Christopher Columbus the money for his first trip across the Atlantic to the "New World". By 1512, the unification of present-day Spain was complete. Nevertheless, the project of Castilian monarchs was to unify all Iberia and this aim seemed almost accomplished when Philip II became King of Portugal in 1580, as well as of the other many Iberian Kingdoms (collectively know as "Spain" which was not a unified State then). In 1640, the centralist policy of the Count-Duke of Olivares provoked wars in Portugal and Catalonia: Portugal became an independent kingdom again and Catalonia enjoyed some years of French-supported independence, but was quickly returned to the Spanish Crown.

During the 16th century, Spain became the most powerful nation in Europe, due to the immense wealth derived from the Spanish colonisation of the Americas. But a series of long, costly wars and revolts began a steady decline of Spanish power in Europe. Controversy over succession to the throne consumed the country during the 18th century (see War of Spanish Succession - importantly, it was only after this war that a centralized Spanish state was established), with an occupation by France during the Napoleonic era in the early 1800s, and led to a series of armed conflicts and revolts between Liberals and supporters of the Ancient Regime throughout much of the 19th century; a century that also saw the loss of most of Spain's colonies in the Americas, culminating in the Spanish-American War of 1898.

The 20th century initially brought little peace; colonisation of Western Sahara, Spanish Morocco and Equatorial Guinea was tried as a substitute for the loss of the Americas. A period of dictatorial rule (1923-1931) ended with the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic. Dominated by increasing political polarisation, combined with pressures from all sides, coupled with growing and unchecked violence, led to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936. Following the victory of his nationalist forces in 1939, General Francisco Franco ruled a nation exhausted politically and economically.

Nevertheless, in the 1960s and 1970s, Spain was gradually transformed into a modern industrial economy with a thriving tourism sector. Upon the death of the dictator General Franco in November 1975, his personally designated heir Prince Juan Carlos assumed the titles of king and head of state. He played a key role in guiding Spain further to a modern democratic state, notably in opposing an attempted coup d'etat in 1981. Spain joined NATO in 1982 and became a member of the European Union in 1986. After the death of Franco, the old historic nationalities - Basque Country, Catalonia and Galicia - were given far-reaching autonomy, which, in due course, was extended to all Spanish regions.

See also: List of Spanish monarchs - Kings of Spain family tree

Spain is a constitutional monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes or National Assembly. The executive branch consists of a Council of Minister presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections.

The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms.

As of 2003, Spain is currently holding talks with the United Kingdom about Gibraltar, a tiny peninsula that changed hands during the War of Spanish Succession in 1713. The discussion has been about "total shared sovereignty" over Gibraltar, subject to a constitutional referendum by Gibraltarians, who have largely expressed opposition to any form of cession to Spain.

Spain is, at present, what is called a State of Autonomies, formally unitary but, in fact, functioning as a Federation of Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers (for instances, some have their own educational and health systems, others do not) and laws. There are some problems with this system, since some autonomous governments (especially those dominated by nationalist parties) are seeking a more federalist kind of relationship with Spain, while the Central Government is trying to restrict what some see as excessive autonomy of some autonomous comunities (ex. Basque Country and Catalonia).

Terrorism is a problem of present-day Spain, since ETA (Basque Homeland and Freedom) is trying to achieve Basque independence through violent means, including bombings and murders. Although Basque Autonomous government does not condone any kind of violence, the different approaches to the problem are a source of tension between Central and Basque governments.

Map of Spain


Spain's autonomous communities

Autonomous communities

• Andalusia (Andalucía)
• Aragon (Aragón)
• Asturias
• Balearic Islands (Islas Baleares / Illes Balears)
• Basque Country (País Vasco / Euskadi)
• Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
• Cantabria
• Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
• Castile-Leon (Castilla y León)
• Catalonia (Cataluña / Catalunya)
• Extremadura
• Galicia
• La Rioja
• Madrid
• Murcia
• Navarre (Navarra)
• Valencia (Comunidad Valenciana / Comunitat Valenciana)

There are also five places of sovereignty (plazas de soberanía) on and off the African coast: the cities of Ceuta and Melilla are administered as autonomous cities, an intermediate status between cities and communities; the islands of the Islas Chafarinas, Peñón de Alhucemas, and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera are under direct Spanish administration.

Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tagus, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found.

Spain's climate is mostly temperate and mediterranean; there are clear hot summers in the interior, with more moderate and cloudy conditions along the coast. Winters are cloudy and cold in the interior, with the coastal regions being relatively temperate.

• List of Spanish national parks

Economy

Spain's mixed capitalist economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 80% that of the four leading West European economies. Its center-right government successfully worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency on January 1, 1999. The administration of Jose Maria Aznar has continued to advocate liberalisation, privatisation, and deregulation of the economy and has introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment has been steadily falling under the Aznar administration but remains the highest in the EU at 13%. The government intends to make further progress in changing labour laws and reforming pension schemes, which are key to the sustainability of both Spain's internal economic advances and its competitiveness in a single currency area.

See also: List of Spanish companies

Spain can be said to be composed of many nations but has adopted Castilian culture as the Spanish one, although increasingly recognising other nationalities inside its borders, such as the much older Basque.

Four major languages are spoken in Spain, which are official languages in certain regions:

• Spanish (castellano or español), official language throughout Spain.
• Catalan (català or valencià) in Catalonia (Catalunya), the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), and parts of Valencian autonomous community (València, where the language is officially called Valencian).
• Basque (euskara) in Basque Country (Euskadi), and parts of Navarre.
• Galician (galego) in Galicia (Galiza).

Spain is a predominantly (94%) Roman Catholic country. The most important minority group in the country are the gipsies.

• Famous Spanish people
• Spanish cuisine
• Spanish football
• Bullfighting
• Music of Spain

International rankings

Miscellaneous topics

• Communications in Spain
• Transportation in Spain
• Military of Spain
• Foreign relations of Spain
• Tourism in Spain
• List of cities in Spain

External links

The Treaty of Tordesillas was an attempt to solve the disputes with the Portuguese colonizers. It split the mostly unknown New World into two spheres of influence; however, when it was fully charted almost all the land fell in the Spanish sphere.

It was 1517 before another expedition from Cuba visited Central America landing on the coast of the Yucatán in search of slaves. This was followed by a phase of conquest: The Spaniards (just having finished a war against the Muslims in the Iberian peninsula) replaced the Amerindian local oligarchies and imposed a new religion: Christianity. (See also: Conquistador, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Bartolomé de las Casas, Spanish Conquest of Yucatan)

The initial years saw a struggle between the Conquistadores and the royal authority. The Conquistadores were often poor nobles that wanted to acquire the land and labourers (Encomienda) that they couldn't achieve in Europe. Rebellions were frequent (See Lope de Aguirre).

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Cuba
• Hispaniola, the modern Dominican Republic and Haiti
• Jamaica
• Puerto Rico

South America

• Argentina - Buenos Aires was settled in 1580; independence was formally declared in 1816.
• Bolivia - La Paz founded in 1548. Independent in 1825.
• Chile - In 1541, the Spanish conquered the Incas. Chile won its independence from Spain in 1818
• Colombia - In 1510 Spaniards founded Darien, the first permanent European settlement on the mainland of the Americas. In 1538 they established the colony of New Granada. Independence in 1824.
• Ecuador - Conquistador Francisco Pizarro conquered the land in 1532; left Spain in 1809 to form Greater Columbia.
• Paraguay - Asuncion, Paraguay was founded in 1537. Independent from 1811.
• Peru - Conquered from the Incas in 1531. Independent in 1821.
• Uruguay - Taken by Spain from Portugal in 1778. Part of Brazil from 1821-1828. Independence in 1828.
• Venezuela - Caracas was founded in 1567. Independent in 1821.

Central America

• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala - Settled by Spanish in 1523,
• Honduras
• Nicaragua - Founded in 1524 by Hernandez de Cordoba

• Panama - As part of Columbia, independent in 1819.

North America

• Mexico
• Florida including parts of modern Alabama and Mississippi
• California and New Mexico - In the west the extent of Spanish colonies was formally set in 1819 by the Adam-Onis Treaty to replace nebulous boundaries. Most of the interior was not permanently inhabited by Spain. This included all or some part of the modern U.S. states of: California, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Oklahoma, Kansas, Wyoming.
• Louisiana territory - Spain controlled this territory from 1762-1803. Most of the north and interior was not inhabited by Spain. French settlers made up most of the inhabitants and new immigrants. This included land in the present U.S. states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Idaho, and Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

New World Trade

Soon the exclusive of commerce between Europe and America was conceded to Seville (later to Cádiz).

Mexico served as a base for the later colonization of the Philippines (see Galeón de Manila)

In 1781, a Spanish expedition during the American Revolutionary War left St. Louis, Missouri, then under Spanish control and reached as far as Fort St. Joseph at Niles, Michigan where the captured the fort while the British were away. Spanish territorial claims based on this furthest north penetration of Spain in North America were not supported at the treaty negotiations.

In 1898, the United States won the Spanish-American War and occupied Cuba and Puerto Rico, ending Spanish occupation in the Americas.

Still, the early 20th century saw a stream of immigration of poor people and political exiles from Spain to the former colonies, especially Cuba, Mexico and Argentina. After the 1970s, the flow was inverted.

In the 1990s, Spanish companies like Repsol and Telefonica invested in South America, often buying privatized companies.

Currently, the Iberoamerican countries and Spain and Portugal have organized themselves as the Comunidad Iberoamericana de Naciones.

It was in the interest of Castile to keep a last remnant of Moorish power as the vassal kingdom of Granada so that, through the tributes, gold from the Niger region of Africa would enter Europe. Nevertheless, Castile also intervened in Northern Africa, competing with the Portuguese Empire, and acquired the Canary Islands from its Norman lord.

After Columbus, the subjugation of the New World was led by a series of warrior-explorers called the Conquistadors (conquistador is Spanish for conqueror.) The new kingdom of Spain had just emerged from the union of the Castile and Aragon, its religious zeal and convictions of ethnic superiority strenghted by the Reconquista.

The first Spanish conquest in the Americas was the island of Hispaniola. From there Juan Ponce de León conquered Puerto Rico and Diego Velásquez took Cuba. The first settlement on the mainland was Darién in Panama, settled by Vasco Núñez de Balboa in 1512.

The most successful conquistador was Hernán Cortés, who in 1520-1521, with Amerindian allies, overran the mighty Aztec empire, thus making Mexico a part of the Spanish empire; this would be the basis of the colony of New Spain. Of comparable importance was the conquest of the Inca empire by Francisco Pizarro, which would become the Viceroyalty of Peru.

After this, rumours of golden cities (Cibola in North America, El Dorado in South America), caused several more expeditions to be sent out, but many of those returned without having found their goal, or having found it, finding it much less valuable than was hoped.

Some Spaniards, singularly the priest Bartolomé de Las Casas, defended Native Americans against the abuses of conquistadors. In 1542, new Spanish colonial laws were made to protect Indians. In 1552, Bartolomé de las Casas published "Short Account of the Destruction of the West Indies" (Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias), which was used by the other European colonial powers, rivals of Spain, to criticise Spain's role.

His son, Philip II of Spain parted the Austrian posessions with his brother Ferdinand. It was said that in his domains, the sun never set. He also inherited the Portuguese Empire and tried to marry Mary, the queen of England.

Spain lost her posessions on the mainland of America with the independence movements of the early 19th century, especially with the power vacuum during the Peninsula War; at the end of the century most of the remaining Spanish Empire was lost in the Spanish American War.

External links

After the Mexican-American War, many of the territories in the north of Mexico were lost to the United States. As a consequence of that conquest, both English and Spanish are official languages in New Mexico, and Spanish has been spoken continuously in the northern New Mexico/southern Colorado area and in the Mexican border area from the 19th century.

The rise of Spanish in the United States is a consequence of the Spanish-American War, too: Today, Puerto Ricans are native U.S. citizens and Spanish is the first language of Puerto Rico. Also, there has been a strong immigration from Mexico, Cuba and other Latin American countries in the 20th century.

Some critics have referred to the rise of the Spanish language in the USA, especially in the southern areas bordering Mexico, as the "Amexica" effect. This term blends "America" and "Mexico". Similarly, on the East Coast, they speak of "Nuyorican", blending "New York" and "Puerto Rican". Spanglish is the name for the combination of using Spanish and English together to effectively communicate something.

On the other hand, many words have entered in American English from Spanish. For detailed list of borrowed words, see American English. Also, many places in the country, especially in the Southwestern part, have Spanish names:

• area: Llano Estacado, Cape Canaveral
• Cities: Fresno, California, Las Vegas, Nevada, Los Angeles, California, Modesto, California, Palo Alto, California, San Francisco, California, Amarillo, Texas, etc.
• Island: Alcatraz
• Road: El Camino Real
• States: Colorado, Florida and Nevada

See also:

• Languages in the United States.
• Bilingual education
• English-only movement

External Links

By the 16th century the consonantal system of Castilian Spanish underwent the following important changes that differentiated it from some neighbouring Romance languages, such as Portuguese and Catalan):

• The initial /f/, that had evolved into a vacillating /h/, was lost in most words (although this etymological h- has been preserved in spelling)
• The voiced labiodental fricative /v/ (that was written 'u' or 'v') merged with the bilabial oclusive /b/ (written 'b'). Contemporary Spanish written 'b,v' do not correspond to different phonemes.
• The voiced alveolar fricative /z/ (that was written 's' between vowels) merged with the voiceless /s/ (that was written 's', or 'ss' between vowels), now written 's' everywhere.
• Voiced alveolar affricate /dz/ (that was written 'z') merged with the voiceless /ts/ (that was written 'ç,ce,ci'), and then /ts/ evolved into the interdental /T/, now written 'z,ce,ci'. But in Andalucia, the Canary Islands and the Americas these sounds merged with /s/ as well. Notice that the 'ç' or 'cedilla' was in its origin a Spanish letter.
• The voiced postalveolar fricative /Z/ (that was written 'j,ge,gi') merged with the voiceless /S/ (that was written 'x', as in 'Quixote'), and then /S/ evolved by the 17th century into the modern velar sound /x/, now written 'j,ge,gi'.

The language was brought to the Americas and Philippines, by the Spanish colonization since 16th century. It was used there by the Creole and Mestizo descendants of the Spaniards. The Catholic church preached the Amerindians in local languages like Quechua, Nahuatl or Guarani rather than Spanish, to protect them from the "sinful" influence of the colonizers. After the independence processes, the new ruling elites extended Spanish to the whole population to strengthen the national unity.

In the 20th century, English was declared the official language in Philippines after the Philippine-American War, but Spanish was introduced in Equatorial Guinea and Western Sahara.

Spanish is also spoken in Andorra, Belize, Canada, Gibraltar, Israel, Morocco, Netherlands Antilles, Philippines, United States of America, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and Western Sahara.

There are important variations in dialect among the various regions of Spain and Spanish America. In Spain the North Castilian dialect pronunciation is commonly taken as the national standard (although the characteristic weak pronouns usage or laismo of this dialect is deprecated).

In the Americas, the first Spaniards to settle brought some of their regionalisms with them. Today you can find distinct accents in different nations of Spanish speaking America. Typical of Latin America is seseo. The European Castilian phoneme /T/ (interdental voiceless fricative, SAMPA phonetic scheme used) (as in ciento, caza) does not exist in American Castilian, it fell together with /s/ (as in siento, casa).

Traditionally Spanish had a phoneme /L/, a palatal lateral, written ll. It was lost in most of the Americas (with the exception of bilingual areas of Quechua and other indigenous languages that have this sound in their inventories), but now it is also being lost in Spain (also with the exception of bilingual areas of Catalan and other languages that have preserved this sound in their inventories). Now this phoneme is merged with /j\\/ in most of the Spanish speaking areas. This phenomenon is called yeismo. In Argentina, /j\\/ and /L/ are generally pronounced as /Z/ (palatal voiced fricative) as in French 'jour'. This phenomenon is called žeismo.

The different dialects and accents do not severly block cross-understanding among the educated. The basilects have diverged more. As an example, early sound films, were dubbed for one version for the whole Spanish market. (Disney Pictures used educated Puerto-Rican speakers). Currently, non-Spanish (usually Hollywood) productions are dubbed separately into each of the major accents, but productions from another Spanish-language country are never dubbed. The popularity of telenovelas and Latin American music familiarize the speakers with other varieties of Spanish.

Many people think that Spanish is regulated by the RAE (Real Academia Española). Actually, languages cannot be regulated, but RAE, in association with twenty-one other national language academies, exercises a conservative influence through its publication of dictionaries and widely respected grammar guides and style guides.

1. yo estaba hablando (present participle)
2. yo he hablado (past participle)

The subjunctive mood is more widely and intentionally used in Spanish compared to other languages like English. Its three tenses are:

• presente de subjuntivo (present)
• subjuntivo pasado/imperfecto (imperfect), and the largely unused
• futuro (future).

Gender

Nouns can be grouped in the following categories:

1. Applied to persons and animals whose sex is known
   1. Declinable nouns: add "a" or replace final vowel by "a" to the masculine (or inclusive) to form the feminine (or exclusive). Examples: el profesor/la profesora, el niño/la niña, el perro/la perra.
   2. Invariant nouns (in Spanish "sustantivos de género común"): el artista/la artista, el testigo/la testigo.
   3. Nouns with gramatical gender, but that apply to both sexes: el personaje, la visita.
2. Applied to animals. In addition to declinable nouns we have epicene nouns: gender is fixed and sex is indicated by "macho" (male) or "hembra" (female). Examples: la jirafa macho, la jirafa hembra, el rinoceronte macho, el rinoceronte hembra.
3. Applied to things
   1. Masculine or inclusive: el pan.
   2. Feminine or exclusive: la leche.
   3. Vacillant (called "sustantivos ambiguos" in Spanish). El azúcar/la azúcar, el esperma/la esperma.
   4. In some cases the same word can take two genders. In that case it is better to say that we have two words. El capital = funds, la capital = important city.

Number

• The inclusive (or masculine) gender includes both sexes: los niños = the children
• The feminine gender is exclusive: las niñas = the girls

Written Spanish precedes exclamatory and interrogative clauses with inverted question and exclamation marks, examples: ¿Qué dices? (What do you mean?) ¡No es verdad! (That's not true!). It is one of the few languages whose written form does so.

Written Spanish also marks unequivocally stress though a series of othographic rules.

Spanish is nicknamed la lengua de Cervantes (the language of Cervantes, the author of the Quixote).

• Spanish: castellano /kaste'Lano/ (kass-ta-LYA-naw); español /espa'Jol/ (ess-pahn-YOHL)
• hello: hola /'ola/ (OH-la)
• good-bye: adiós [a'Djos] (ah-THYOHS)
• please: por favor [por fa'Bor] (pour fah-VOAR)
• thank you: gracias /'graTjas/ (GRAHSS-yahss)
• sorry: perdon [per'Don]
• that one: ése /'ese/ (EH-seh) (masculine); ésa /'esa/ (EH-sah) (feminine)
• how much?: cuánto /'kwanto/ (KWAHN-taw)
• English: inglés [iN'gles] (ing-GLESS)
• yes: sí /'si/ (see)
• no: no /'no/ (no)
• I don't understand: No comprendo [nokom'prendo]
• where's the bathroom?: ¿Donde está el baño? ['dondes'tael'BaJo] (DON day esTAH el BA-nyaw)
• generic toast: salud [sa'luD] (sah-LOOTHE)
• Do you speak English?: ¿Habla usted inglés? ['aBlaws'teDiN'gles] (AH blah OOS ted ing-GLESS)

See also:

• Spanish in the United States
• Spanish proverbs
• Spanish language poets
• Common phrases in different languages
• Papiamento, Chabacano, Spanglish
• Rock en español

External links