Spanish Art: Broadening your cultural horizons

Although stereotypically associated with sun, sea and sand, Spain offers much more than just a summer glow. From Velázquez to Dalí, Ribera to Miró and El Greco to Picasso, Spain has produced some of history’s most influential, revolutionary and highly-esteemed artists. So why not mix things up this year during your holiday to Spain and replace a day of soaking up the rays with a day of cultural enrichment!? In alphabetical rather than preferential order, the featured Top Ten Spanish Museums below will simply give you a taster of a country proud to exhibit and celebrate the enduring talents of its internationally-acclaimed artists.

Rural tourism on the Costa Blanca

Besides the sol y playa tourism, quality, rural & nature tourism plays an increasing role within tourism in Spain. The interior of the Costa Blanca is still partly undiscovered and offers many opportunities for vacations that are more exploratory and more focused on the experience of an authentic Spanish environment.

Furthermore, it seems that tourists are also increasingly looking at the sustainability of a destination and this is where Spain could excel. For example, in the use of solar energy and the use of water-saving techniques. Two aspects that are right up Spain's alley. After all, there is a lot of sun and little water. This makes sustainability a logical concept that suits the country and climate! Furthermore, concepts such as Glamping (glamorous camping) etc. are easier to realize due to the climate than in other countries.

La Comunidad Autonoma Valenciana has an estimated 9,000 beds in Casas Rurales and similar enterprises in 2012. A Casa Rural is a general description of private and business properties that are generally rural and operated as tourist properties. The Costa Blanca that lies within La Comunidad Autonoma Valenciana and accounts for 5.3 million tourists. The climate here is described as the best and healthiest in Europe by the World Health Organization.

So an ideal vacation climate with very long seasons. When the Dutch roads are actually constantly glistening with drizzle, rain, hail or later covered with a white layer, it is spring here. In January and February the almonds are in bloom and the winter wheat is sown, the cycling teams from Belgium and the Netherlands come here to train and this Spanish state hosts many hikers, sports climbers and golfers from northern Europe. Above all, come and enjoy this beautiful part of Spain and its vast nature.

Spanish actors

Many internationally known actors and actresses are of Spanish descent. For example, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Fernando Rey, among others, are from Spain. Antonio Banderas is also one of many well-known Spanish actors. In addition to being an actor, Antonio Banderas is also a reggisseur, producer and singer.

José Antonio Dominguez Banderas was born on August 10, 1960 in Benalmádena, Malaga. In his younger years, Antonio always wanted to become a professional soccer player. However, this dream fell apart when Banderas broke his foot at the age of 14. At that time, he went to see the theater show "Hair" with his parents and thus his interest in theater was awakened. Soon after, Antonio started taking drama classes. He then joined a theater group and toured the whole country with this group. In this theater group, he caught the attention of some big names in the Spanish theater industry. As a result, he managed to secure a place in the National Theater of Spain. From the theater, he rolled into the film industry and frequently starred in Spanish films.

Fame with "The mask of Zorro"

His breakthrough came in 1990 with his role in the film "Tie me up! Tie me down!", a Spanish romantic comedy. Until 1992, Antonio Banderas barely spoke English but still managed to attract the attention of the film industry in America. In 1993, he broke through in America with his role in the film "Philadelphia. This was followed by many roles in well-known films including Desperado, Evita, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. The 1990s in particular were good years for Banderas; his roles in Evita in 1996 and "The Mask of Zorro" in 1998 brought him great fame. And even led him to take on the role of Zorro again in 'The Legend of Zorro' in 2005.

In 2003, Antonio Banderas returned to the theater with his role in the musical "Nine. Banderas has also voiced many voices for various animated films. His best-known voice role can be found in "Shrek 2," "Shrek the Third" and "Shrek Forever After. In these films, he voiced the role of the Puss in Boots. This cat became so popular that the Puss in Boots was even given its own movie for which Antonio Banderas once again contributed the voice.

His input in various films has also earned Antiono Banderas several awards. In 2005, for example, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2006, Antonio Banderas won the "Gabi Lifetime Achievement Award" at the Los Angeles International Film festival. He was also nominated for 3 Golden Globe Awards and presented the 69th version of the Golden Globe Awards ceremony with Salma Hayek in 2012.

Besides Spain’s Royal Spanish Academy, there are 21 other official Spanish academies around the world that promote and regulate the Spanish language, including the US’s misleadingly named North American Academy of Spanish (Academia Norteamericana de la lengua española, known by its initials ANLE).  

The Spanish Language in the US

The ANLE admits in its website that it should be called the “United States Academy of the Spanish Language”, then goes on to explain that it didn’t take that name when the academy was established in 1973 because the state of New York would not accept it, as it sounded too much like the name of a governmental institution. The website also includes articles that cover topics of interest such as whether or not Spanish should be considered a foreign language in the US.

From June 6 - 8, the ANLE will be holding its first conference in the organization’s 40 year history. Under the motto “unidad en la diversidad” (unity in diversity), the conference will be held at the Library of Congress in Washington DC , where participants will explore and discuss Spanish use in the United States and the presence of Hispanic cultures in American economics, politics, history, etc.  

The ANLE has made great efforts to standardize US Spanish. The academy’s latest book, entitled Hablando bien se entiende la gente, touches on common errors and alternatives to popular English loan words that are often false friends, such as the use of the word “aplicar” to refer to applying for a job. The ANLE also airs on Univision 41 (in New York, California and Washington DC) a program called “digalo bien” which uses everyday examples, accessible language and a bit of humor to offer short pieces of advice on Spanish language usage. Episodes are also available for view on Univision’s website.  

In a recent interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais, the director of the academy expressed optimism when asked about the state of the Spanish language in the US, mentioning the 50 million speakers that live there, but going on to point out that the ANLE is more interested in the quality than the quantity of Spanish being used. He also described Spanish in the US as a language that is greatly influenced by English. When asked how Spanglish affected the academy’s mission of promoting quality Spanish use, he explained that while the ANLE pays attention to the phenomenon because it’s an interesting topic, they don’t “lose any sleep over it […] Spanglish will never become the language of the US”.

The ANLE is the youngest member of the Association of Spanish Language Academies. Member academies meet every four years. The Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language is the only other member not based in a country or region in which Spanish is the most spoken language. Although Spanish is the second most spoken language in the US, it is expected to become the country with the most Spanish speakers in the world by the year 2050.

Spain is home to many internationally known museums. These include the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, the Guggenheim Museum and the Dalí Theatre Museum in Figueras. However, the most famous museums in Spain can be found in Madrid, including the Prado Museum.

The Prado Museum in Madrid

The Prado Museum is one of the world's most famous museums. Together with the Museum Thyssen - Bornemisza and the Museum Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the Prado Museum is part of Madrid's Golden Triangle.

The building of the Prado Museum was designed in 1785 and the museum was open to the public in November 1819. In 2007, the museum was remodeled and expanded by 50%. The renovation added the former Jeronimos Monastery to the museum. The new section includes a restaurant, a restoration studio and the temporary exhibitions are located here.

The museum contains works dating from the 14th to 19th centuries. The collection includes 5,000 drawings, 2,000 applied art objects, 2,000 prints and 700 sculptures. Besides the masterpieces, don't miss the fine art with Greek works and the beautiful Roman murals.

In the 16th century, the Netherlands fell under Spanish rule, causing the works of a number of Dutch and Flemish artists to be exhibited at the Prado Museum. This collection includes works by Bosch, Pieter Brughel and Rubens, among others.

To visit the museum, it is recommended to take at least one day. For those who only have a few hours or half a day, the Prado Museum has outlined 3 routes to visit the museum's masterpieces. The shortest route takes about 1 hour and takes you past 15 works of art. To see 30 works, it is recommended to take the 2-hour route. Should you have 3 hours, it is also possible to follow the longest route that takes you past 50 works. Among others, "The Annunciation" by Fra Angelico, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch and "The Three Graces" by Rubens are visited during these routes. In addition to international works, Spanish works are also incorporated into the routes. For example, one passes Velázquez's "Las Meninas" and Ribera's "Jacob's Dream.

Spanish Language Rules

The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española or RAE in Spanish) was created in Spain in 1713 to regulate the Spanish language. The academy’s existence today, still based in Spain, often seems to generate more questions than answers.  Should Spanish speakers outside of Spain adhere to the language rules dictated by the Spanish academy? How do academicians decide what words and grammar rules to accept? Why have only 8 women been elected to seats in its 300 year history?

The RAE’s dictionary (DRAE) currently includes over 88,000 entries of accepted words, and its members continue accepting, often outraging Spanish speakers around the world. The REA recently approved the word Cederrón as the accepted Spanish translation of CD Rom, a move that has received heavy criticism and lead many observers to wonder if the Spanish Academy’s royal members have run out of relevant matters to tend to. They also decided to guillotine the letters ch and ll from the Spanish alphabet and oust accent marks from certain words like solo and este. Other recent additions to the dictionary include friki, which refers to a strange or eccentric person, presumably from the English “freak”, peñazo meaning a person or thing that is boring or annoying, and pepero, a member of the PP (Spain’s main conservative party).

Although often criticized for being overly conservative, the RAE has made progressive changes to the definitions of certain words like matrimonio (marriage), which is now not only defined as a union between a man and a woman, but one that can also be between two people of the same sex. They’ve also updated their entry for the word memoria to not only include meanings related to human memory, but also electronic devices designed to store information. Tableta is now not only a “flat, rectangular piece of chocolate”, but also “a multi-beneficial, touch screen portable electronic device”. 

The DREA also allows a number of curious alternatives to common words. The royal preservers of proper Castilian have given the nod to Murciégalo instead of the more standard murciélago for bat, almóndiga instead of albóndiga to refer to meatballs, and toballa instead of toalla for towel. Perhaps more surprisingly is agora, an acceptable alternative to ahora to mean “now” and dotor instead of doctor.

Properly expressed onomatopoeia

Ox according to the DREA means “a sound to scare away chickens”. Za means a sound to scare off dogs "and other animals". These words, along with ño and lle are valuable to know during Spanish language Scrabble competition, but probably not during everyday conversation. The Fundéu BBVA’s style book, created in collaboration with the RAE, offers 95 onomatopoeias, which detail appropriate ways to describe sounds as specific as those made by the springs of a mattress (¡ñeeec, ñeeec!), silk being rubbed on silk (frufrú), wind (sss sss sss), and buzzing bees (zzzzzzzz [8 z's, one more or one less and I think it would technically be a spelling error]).

The DRAE and the The Fundéu BBVA’s style book are not the only reference resources for standardized Spanish. The Associated Press’ Spanish language style book considers language in the DRAE, but it also accepts a more liberal helping of English loan words, such as picop for pick-up truck.

Besides the Royal Spanish Academy, there are 21 other Spanish language academies around the world including the US’s Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (although called North American, it is a US institution, Mexico has its own academy of language), and the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española. 

Spanish Music

Several Latin Awards are presented each year in the United States. The Latin Grammy Awards and the Billboard Latin Music Awards are two of the four annual American music shows.

Latin Music Awards

The Billboard Latin Music Awards have been presented since 1990. These awards are presented in honor of the international Billboard. Billboard is a magazine with news and charts based on the number of songs downloaded over the Internet, radio exposure and the number of albums and singles sold. Since 1999, the Billboard Latin Music Awards have been broadcast by U.S. television station Telemundo. The most recent ceremony took place on April 25, 2013, in Miami.

Some Spanish artists won awards at the latest ceremony. For example, Enrique Iglesias (along with Jennifer Lopez) won the award for "Tour of the Year. Enrique has received 26 Billboard Latin Music Awards in recent years. For example, in 1996 he won his very first Billboard Latin Music Award for "Album of the Year," he won the award for "Artist of the Year" 3 times and he won a total of no less than 4 awards for album of the year. David Bisbal is another Spanish singer who took home an award at the Billboard Latin Music Awards ceremony in 2003, the award for Best New Artist'. Bisbal became famous in 2001 when he placed second in Operación Triumfo, the Spanish version of X-Factor.

Latin Grammy Awards

The other major Latin Awards presented each year are the Latin Grammy Awards. The fourteenth time these awards will be presented will be on Nov. 21, 2013 in Las Vegas. During the Latin Grammy Awards, awards are presented in 47 different categories. Spanish music is also doing very well at this award show.

In addition to his Billboard Latin Music Award for best new artist in 2003, David Bisbal received the award for "Best Traditional Pop Album" at the 2012 Latin Grammy Awards. However, Bisbal is not the only Spanish artist to receive a Latin Grammy Award in the past. For example, Rosario Flores won the award for "Best Female Artist" in 2002 and 2004. In 2003, Enrique Iglesias received the award for "Best Male Pop Artist. Alejandro Sanz, however, takes the crown. Sanz won the award for Best Male Pop Artist' in 2001, 2003 and 2010. This is not all, as Alejandro Sanz also received three Latin Grammy Awards for "Best Album of the Year. However, this is not yet his complete Latin Grammy Award collection. He may also add no less than five awards for `Best record of the year.

Photos by Prisa Radio and Jose Antonio Blaya Garcia

One of the most famous cultures from Central America is the culture of the Maya. Who does not know the Mayan calendar or Chitzen Itza. These are just a few of the impressive structures from the Mayan civilization. The Mayan empire stretched from southern Mexico to northern Central America.

Mayan culture originated around 2000 BC. The peak of Mayan culture was from 250 to 900 AD. However, after this period, the empire continued to grow. It was not until the 9th century that Mayan culture in the central lowlands went into decline. This was caused by wars and because agriculture could no longer handle the required yield due to the prevailing drought. Because of these conditions, Maya culture moved to the edges of the Maya empire. In the north of the Mayan Empire, cities continued to flourish until the 15th century. In 1450, the Mayan empire disintegrated and the city-states were then conquered in 1520 by the Spanish who took advantage of the rivalry between the Mayan cities.

The Maya civilization consisted of 8 to 9 million Maya. Although Maya culture has changed a lot, Maya people still live in Central America. Today, they live mostly in Guatemala. One of the characteristics of Maya culture is the clothing they wear. People almost always wear brightly colored clothing whose fabric is woven by the people themselves. The woven capes and dresses are also a nice souvenir for tourists and thus generate money for the Mayans.

The Mayan calendar

The Mayan calendar is perhaps the best known part of Mayan culture. The Mayan calendar consists of three parts; the Haab, the Tzolken and the Long Count. These three are used together and make up the entire Mayan calendar. The Haab consists of 365 days, and 19 months. 18 Months consist of 20 days and 1 month consists of 5 days. The Haab is similar to the calendar as we know it. To determine religious days, the Maya use another part of the calendar, the Tzolkin. The Tzolkin consists of 260 days divided into 20 periods consisting of 13 days. Even though the Tzolkin does not run concurrently with the Haab, this calendar begins again after the calendar is completed. The last part of the Mayan calendar is the Long Count. It is used for longer periods of time. The Long Count consists of 2,880,000 days, which is equivalent to 7885 solar years. The Long Count is also the part of the Mayan calendar that predicted the world would end in December 2012.

Mexico is a popular country with travelers curious about South American life. It has an ancient history and beautiful nature which means there is plenty to see. Especially if you go backpacking in Mexico you will see the country as it really is. Choose your own route and be enchanted by all that Mexico has to offer.

Experience backpacking in Mexico

The great advantage of backpacking is experiencing real Mexican life. As a traveler, you are much closer to the locals than when you view the country as an average hotel tourist. In addition, you also easily connect with other backpackers. Even if you travel alone, you will never feel alone, and that while also learning about the country's culture and history. In fact, the various sights in Mexico are real historical attractions.

Discover the country's ancient peoples

Mexico is a very diverse travel destination. Especially for lovers of culture and history, there is much to discover. The remains of ancient cultures are still visible there. For example, visit the world-famous city of Cobá. Here you will find various ruins of the Mayan culture. In addition, there are more attractions in Mexico where the Maya play a role. For example, consider the temple Kukulkan, which has the shape of a pyramid. You will get a good idea of what the classic Mayan culture produced.

Just enjoy and relax

Although Mayan culture is important to Mexico, there is much more to see and do in this South American country. If you want to soak up even more culture, you can visit the capital city of Mexico City. Want to see some nature? Then El Pieco de Orizaba, the highest mountain in the country, is highly recommended. Finally, to completely unwind, Mexico has several beach resorts for true relaxation. Discover the variety of this beautiful country while backpacking.

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The Spanish sporting calendar: Top Ten Annual Events

Here's our top ten annual sporting events in Spain, a full calendar of sports action that we think may come in handy for anyone planning on being in Spain. These events could coincide with a weekend city break, an interrailing traveling adventure, or an extensive family holiday. Organized by date rather than preferential order, we therefore bring you Spain's Top Ten Annual Sporting Events... ready, steady, go!