#not to mention i know TWO spanish dialects: cuban and colombian because of the people i grew up with

[aceforwhatevenisthis]

being a native spanish speaker who only engages with spanish in her hometown is so funny to me cuz like

do i know any real grammar rules? nope

do i know how to use tildes? absolutely not

did i ever have any formal spanish classes? eh

do i know-? no

“but how do you know spanish then” i dunno man, it’s a feeling and the words just come out and somehow they make enough sense

[hadesisqueer]

As a Spaniard, I fucking hate when other Spaniards (Madrilians, mostly, though not all of them of course) make fun of my accent. Just so people know, Spain has many regions of course, and I'm from Andalusia, the South, and from Andalusia come most of the stereotypes people outside the country has from Spain; Flamenco, siesta, sun, bullfighting (though it's also practiced in the rest of Spain but apparently some people forget that and just think we're the barbarians who invented it. Luckily most of us Spaniards are against it nowadays and it's disappearing. We also barely sleep siesta because we're busy WORKING AND STUDYING LIKE THE REST OF THE WORLD but whatever enforces the “lazy” stereotype, you know. Also, people love taking naps so why is it even considered as bad?). That's because Franco the dictator internationalized Andalusian culture and sold it as just Spanish, which means that people think Spain is just like that everywhere, which is not. Don't go to Galicia and expect everyone to know flamenco because they won't. Same happens with Valencians and paella; don't come to Andalusia expecting a good paella because you won't find it. Any paella outside Valencia isn't paella, it's “arroz con cosas”, as my Valencians friends always say.

(In case you don't know, Franco was a dick; he was friends with Mussolini and Hitler, and just as bad as them. The only difference was that while the rest of the world got rid of those two, we had to deal with Franco for fourty years. He killed like half of the country in the Civil War -which is why Spain didn't take part in WWII, because the country was fucking devastated-, basically used the republican prisoners as slaves to build his stupid Valle de los Caídos, banned Catalans, Basques and Galicians from speaking their other languages, and so many more things that I don't even want to mention. Spanish Civil War and dictatorship is a very sensitive topic).

The thing is, besides being basically the exterior image of Spain to other countries, we also happen to be, alongside Extremadura, the poorest region of Spain. That's because Franco also happened to industrialise the north and exploited the south. Let's say, Catalonia had textile factories while Andalusians were the ones who worked in the fields collecting cotton for these factories. Still happens nowadays: Andalusia and Extremadura basically provide the raw material and feeds the rest of Spain (and part of Northern Europe) while we're still seen as the lazy ones.

Because of this, Andalusians are rarely seen as much more than the funny, uncultured guys in movies and TV shows. Because our accent = uncultured, poor, brute. How can I, an Andalusian girl (half romani, even, my god a GYPSY) with an Andalusian accent, be more than just funny and poor and uncultured? How can I be cultured, and win poetry contests, and liking to read, and get amazing grades in Language if I am Andalusian? How can my best friend get the highest score in an exam and study Medicine in Seville (yeah, Madrid isn't the only place in Spain with universities, we have universities too, and so does the rest of the country: stop thinking the rest of Spaniards are dying to go to live to Madrid because that is definetely not true lmao) if she's Andalusian? Andalusians are dumb and can't barely speak. It's not like Andalusia has had any poets, or Nobel Prizes, or artists (spoiler, it has. Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Pablo Picasso, Velázquez... All pretty smart and talented and with Andalusian accents lmao). But no. Though most people are chill and completely aware that we Andalusians are like everybody else (dumber, smarter, kinder, meaner, tolerant, intolerant... depends of the person, not the accent), there are still a few dickheads who make fun of a politician because “they can't understand her”. As they say, “we need to learn how to speak”.

No, Cayetana (In Spain we don't say Karen, we say Cayetana/Cayetano and I think it's beautiful), I am not speaking a “wrong” Spanish, it's my dialect. Just like (and it fucking bothers me a lot when people start insulting latino accents) Argentinians aren't speaking a wrong Spanish either, it's their dialect. Mexicans, Cubans, Chileans, Colombians, etc... they are NOT speaking a wrong Spanish, it's their DIALECTS. You know, when a language is spoken in many places, it varies from place to place, and because of fucking colonialism (I will never stop feeling ashamed for it even if it was 500 hundred years before my birth), Spanish is spoken in MAAANYY places. A dialect does not define how smart and cultured you are (as if you were any smarter than me or any other person lmao). Like, stop being so full of yourself and basically thinking that Andalusians are dumb for speaking the way we do and that latino dialects are “wrong” in any sort of way because you are fucking annoying, and you're just showing how classist and xenophobic you are. Like, you say “¿Qué la pasa?” and write “aber” and you dare to fucking tell me to learn how to speak?

Okay I'll stop but a guy was a dick on Instagram and I needed to rant somewhere.