Nosotros somos rojos.
Spain, and let’s be quite frank, is a bit of a bummer. The worst food in Europe, way to many plains, a Spanish dialect, in Barcelona, that is downright laughable and no real surf outside Mundaka, which breaks once every seven years. It also has a brutal colonial history and saw fit to develop its very own brand of fascism.
Come Sunday, though (Monday in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil), the world, all, will furiously red.
The cause of this wild coming together to love up Spain comes from an unlikely place. Argentina. For it was they who, yesterday, beat England in the World Cup semifinals and they who will face Spain in the finals and they who have proven so odious, as a team, to have not one fan outside its borders.
I watched the game, yesterday, in a crowded hotel bar. It was a mixed crowd, business and pleasure, young and old, domestic and foreign and folk were quiet during the first half and so it was difficult to tell if there might be some Argentine supporters mixed in (I didn’t know, yet, the loathe the world feels for the team). When England scored at the 55 minute mark, though, the place absolutely erupted, people absolutely cursing Messi, the color blue, cursing the ghost of Maradona.
Exactly 30 minutes later, the same room moaned after Argentina equalized, people cursing the dirty way and cheap way that Argentina loves to play. A few minutes after that, heads were hung in misery. The crowd was not necessarily pro-England, it was anti-Argentina and watching the little men dance with joy was difficult for everyone to take.
On the way out the door, a young boy tried to cheer me up. “You can cheer for Spain, now.” And I thought, “You know, fella, you’re right. For the first time in my life, I can and will cheer Spain.”
I walked back to my apartment, buoyed, and was able to share the joy with a fuming Chinese man on the elevator. He was mumbling about the victory by the “dirty (expletive deleted) midgets” and I said, “Don’t worry, friend. Today until Sunday, we are all Spanish.
He cheered up too.