versión original sin diálogo

Just went with a friend to see a new animated film by a filmmaker from Galicia named Miguelanxo Prado called De Profundis, apparently named after a play by Oscar Wilde. I'd read about it this weekend in El Pais and figured it was worth a try. There wasn't any dialogue, so it was more like an extended visual depiction of a sailor/mermaid love story set to music by Nani García, which was performed by the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia. I'm not sure, but based on my memories from my class called "Culturas de España" that I took freshman year, the themes of the movie were rooted in Galician mythology. All the characters had long blue lines drawn down their faces (which I'm pretty sure is some of kind of Galician symbol) and the whole story is based around the sea, which has particular significance for the people of the northwestern coastal province. Though the movie sometimes dragged, it was interesting visually, as was the music.

Yesterday I was eating with my host mother and I asked her about her political views. I'd spoked with a friend of mine on the program who told me that her host mother had expressed grave doubts about the involvement of Al-Qaeda in the March 11, 2004 bombings at the Atocha train station in Madrid. Given this previous conversation, I was not entirely surprised when my host mother said she thought that the bombings were done by a mix of people of from the Basque separatist group ETA and people from Al-Qaeda. This may seem laughable (and to be honest, I find it somewhat ridiculous myself), but there still appears to be a lot of mystery surrounding those bombings for many Spaniards. Directly after the bombings, the Partido Popular, then the ruling party, declared that ETA was responsible. It soon became clear that this was highly unlikely and that Al-Qaeda was more likely involved. The PP was voted out in large part due to frustrations with its lies about the 11-M bombings, as well as frustration with Spain's involvement in the war in Iraq, which was perceived to have been a direct cause for Al-Qaeda's targeting of Spain. The socialist party, which had been trailing slightly in the polls then won the election in the wake of the bombings. Needless to say, my host mother, who expressed her sympathies for the PP, is still skeptical. However, she is clearly not the only one. In looking through a few bookstores the past couple of days, a book called something like "Truths about the 11-M Bombings" seems to be a best seller.

The current political climate is unlikely to heal the wounds of that time. Now the PP and PSOE are constantly sniping at each other after new bombings by ETA at the Madrid airport a few weeks ago. The PSOE had signed a cease-fire with ETA, which was broken after these new bombings. While the PP is calling for cutting off dialogue with ETA, the PSOE is trying to maneuver to keep the lines of communication open. My host mother declared, "All we want is to live in peace." It's hard for me to see how peace will come from no dialogue, even though the current dialogue doesn't seem to be working well. Of course, this kind of debate is not unique to Spain, but it is interesting to see it play out in what is in many ways a more economically developed and philosophically peace-time oriented country. This is in contrast to countries like Israel or the United States that are relatively militarized and don't have as much of a feel of peace-time prosperity as Spain (or at least that's my general sense now).