In no circumstances, apart from war, do we see patriotic feeling more exalted than during a World Cup. In Spain, where the most recent war was civil, the issue is complicated. As was confirmed again in the general elections in July, there are two Spains.
Which of the two Spain is the world women’s soccer champion? Will it be what the academic Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca calls “the plurinational or “the mononational”? Will it be the one that defends the rights of autonomy, immigrants, women and homosexuals or the one that longs for an old Spain, purged of the social and political currents of the 21st century?
It is assumed that all of Spain, except for the pro-independence minority, celebrated the victory against Perfida Albió. But one has to wonder if those who say they are fighting for “the real Spain” will have done it with the same passion, those who in recent years have seized the Spanish flag as an exclusive emblem of the ideas they represent.
It must be asked for the simple reason that the women who made up the squad of the champion team were not exactly a mirror of “real Spain”. They would be, rather, the image of what some call “Frankenstein Spain”. Among them are several lesbians, proud gays who do not hesitate to display photos with their partners on social networks. There are also several Catalans, for example, the one who was voted the best player of the World Cup, Aitana Bonmatí. And to complete the mosaic we have Salma Paralluelo, elected best young player of the tournament, whose mother is of African origin.
We can assume that all of them – regardless of sexual, regional or racial orientation – are more or less feminists, since they have been fighting in a field dominated by men for a century and a half, and that they would not be in favor of abolishing it, like many of the faithful of the “Spain for real” propose the Ministry of Equality.
What we must not assume, because it is a fact, is that the Spanish women’s national team embodies a pluriEspaña that has nothing to do with what the caste of nostalgia wishes to restore. The two Spains continue, but the wave of modernity that Bonmatí, Paralluelo and company represent will contribute to putting an end to the sandcastle of extreme Spanish nationalism and will accelerate the numerical trend in favor of one over the other. For those who don’t know, or don’t want to know, those female world champions are the Spain of the real world, of today and of the future.
The blindness of many is expressed in the inability to see beyond borders. They do not understand the value of the Spanish victory for Marca España. Reviewing newspapers such as The New York Times , The Guardian and The Times of London , I see the admiration that aroused not only the quality of play of the women in the red shirts, another leap forward for women’s football in the world, but , in addition, their salt, expressed, among other things, with the spontaneity with which they all embraced Queen Letícia. The London newspapers, in particular, noted the difference with the rigid English monarchy, none of whose representatives bothered to travel to the final in Australia to support their Lionesses.
What did not go down so well, and unfortunately generated many headlines in the international press, was the excessive enthusiasm of the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales. He was happy, man, so much so that the famous question of the American actress Mae West to an admirer comes to mind: “Do you have a gun in your pocket or are you glad to see me?”. I am referring, of course, to the kiss he gave the player Jenni Hermoso on the mouth, interpreted by many in Spain and abroad as a kind of sexual abuse or masculinist daring. Rubiales’ defense of himself on the radio only added fuel to the fire. The criticisms were “stunning”, he said; those who criticized him were “blessed del càbas”, “idiots” and “truly stupid”. It would be interesting to know which of the two Rubiales Spains. He seems to be confused. But of what there is little doubt, and half the world saw it, is that an orangutan has more class.
