In the past month and a half that I’ve been in Spain, I’ve come to notice the huge influence the United States and much of the Americas have on current Spanish culture. Before coming to Spain, I had studied theories of globalization but I never thought it would have this strong of a presence in Spain.
Globalization has been defined as “the increasing global integration of economies, information technology, the spread of global popular culture, and other forms of human interaction (Lieber & Weisberg, 2002, p. 274).” Basically, the theory of globalization has been used to describe the global exchanges that occur between countries. While Lieber and Weisberg’s (2002) definition does include “the spreading of global popular culture and other forms of human interaction”, this phenomenon has been historically associated with global commerce and business trade (Poon, 2008). Even in the realm of cultural globalization, the concentration has been on the spreading of cultures from first world countries (such as the United States and Western Europe) to third world countries (such as Africa and parts of Asia) or from the west to the rest. But before now, I had never really thought of the globalization exchange that occurs when the west, meets the west.
Being in Spain has really cemented for me how large of an influence the exchange of culture has on globalization rather than simply geography and economics. Everything from the music, the clothing, the movies and the food has all been influenced in some shape or form by American culture. In fact, the presence of American culture within this country is so strong that I, in all honesty, could travel to Spain as a U.S. tourist for about two weeks and (if I actively tried) rarely if ever come in contact with Spanish culture. For example, on my way to my hotel from the airport, I could stop by the mall and pick me up a new outfit from one of the several of U.S. stores in the mall. After my trip to the mall I could stop at Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds or Tony Roma (one of the most popular restaurants in Spain) and pick me up a good old American cheeseburger with bacon and French fries (which are now American too, in case you weren’t aware). Then I could go to my hotel, speak to the desk clerk in English, pull some money from the ATM with ease because it too is in English (I’ve been to 3 ATMs and you have to actively change the language to Spanish because the default is English even when you use your Spanish banking account) and sit on the couch and enjoy all of my favorite sitcoms from the States.
Yes, as you probably have already guessed, the majority of the sitcoms on television in Spain are U.S. American imports (such as Scrubs, The Simpsons, The Office, Family Guy, American Dad, etc.) that have been dubbed in Spanish. This means that as someone who speaks English, I can change the audio settings on the television with a click of a button and be right back in Texas. In fact the only time that I’ve actually watched television in Spanish is when I watch novellas (or Spanish soap operas) during the day and from what I’ve been told many of them are Latin American imports.
This issue goes beyond the language, food and television and filters into all of Spain’s media. In the month and a half that I’ve been in Spain, I’ve only heard Spanish music from Spanish artists on maybe five occasions. It’s important to note that each of those times I was in the company of someone over the age of 35. All of my younger friends listen to top 40’s music from the U.S., much of which they have downloaded off the internet. I think the thing that amazes me most is that even though they know all of the words to the songs, none of them actually know what the song is about. Every time I’m in the car with someone, they ask me to translate the music for them. I think one of the most shocking incidents for me was when I was in the car with some of my friends and they were asking me to tell them what the song lyrics meant to an Eminem song. I knew the song but didn’t know all of the lyrics and they were feeding each line of the song to me word for word for me to translate. They had made it a point to memorize every word that this man had said because someone on MTV told them it was cool but they had no earthly clue what he was saying.
I am in no way making fun of or condemning my friends (and other Spaniards) for their attraction to American culture. After watching the television, listening to the radio and seeing some of the movies imported from the U.S., I can understand their attraction. Not only is U.S. culture being plastered all over Spain, but it’s very one sided. The media’s presentation of U.S. culture is sweeter than candy from the Willy Wonka factory.
With the exception of the occasional bad press in the news, U.S. culture is painted within Spanish media as a place of dreams where everyone is rich, blonde and happy. The American dream is alive and well in Spain and almost every young person I’ve come in contact with dreams of one day going to California and living the life they see on television. They have no idea that the odds of that happening are slim to none because everything they see in the media tells them that they have just as much of a chance as Miley Cyrus. One of my co-workers explained it best when he said that for Spaniards, (U.S.) America is like one big movie that they watch over and over again because U.S. culture is constantly being presented to them through the media.
No, there is nothing wrong with the exchange of cultures. In fact, cultural exchange and intergroup dialogue (especially on the interpersonal level) can be imperative to cultural understanding, the decrease of prejudice and alliance building (DeTurk, 2006). Yet, in this case the exchange of American culture with Spanish culture isn’t an exchange at all: It’s more of a takeover. I mean, when was the last time any of us in the U.S. actually experienced something that could be identified as uniquely (non-Mexican/Latin American) Spanish?
