2023-05-16 01:01:16
He doesn’t like throwing a string of dry facts at the public. Neither cite bombastic names that make him seem like a Pythagorean, nor velvety paragraphs about, let’s say, the influence of Latin schools in the literacy process of Spanish societies of the 16th century. Jose Carlos Gracecreator and director of the podcast ‘Memories of a Drum’ With hundreds of thousands of downloads, it advocates telling the history of Spain with simple, frank and honest words.
In the book ‘Spain and its invisible heritage’ (Espasa), one of the most renowned voices in Spanish popularisation, once again addresses his legion of unconditional fans in an intimate tone, alternating his life experiences with history, to warn them of the many links that unite the present with the past. “We are one of the richest territories in the world in terms of the coexistence of civilizations and culture, which makes us different and, although not better, fortunate,” Gracia warns about a book that narrates the Hispanic adventure from the first hominids, passing by the desperate sailors who discovered the New World, to the sharp present day.
–What do you think is the secret to connecting so closely with your listeners and now readers?
–I imagine that it is about mixing the narration in the most human way with a little emotion, passion. I do not do it on purpose, obviously, because that cannot be imposed. I give my personal touch to tell things and that’s where the shots go. What I do know is that I have very loyal followers. I have listeners who send me emails, thank you… I’m a bit used to it, but there was a moment when so many emails overwhelmed me.
I don’t know if the Spanish are a little lacking in understanding that their present connects with the past.
–What I try is for people to assume that history is not learning names, or battles, or reigns, but knowing that all the people who were before you really had sensations very similar to yours, uncertainties and fears, emotions … Comparing yourself with them helps to understand that there really aren’t that many changes. That we are a drop of water in the ocean.
It’s the inheritance.
Yes, I already said that in the book. Inheritance is a concept that can be negative, it can be debts, but it can also be something positive. Obviously we cannot take responsibility for everything that happened as something good, something glorious, far from it. You have to take what is coming, the good and the bad, and assimilate it, learn from it and, above all, transfer it to those who come to try to improve it, try to polish it. We have the responsibility to transfer it to those who come later.
Do you think that we live with our backs to that heritage?
–It is a lack that there is, obviously, but it is not something preconceived. I think that if people were taught history in this way and helped them associate all the events of the past with the present and recognize themselves in them, they would enjoy it more. My podcast, for example, is a clear example that people needed this. When I got into doing it, it was a bit casual, but suddenly I started to like it. I do it for them, because I don’t charge from any platform and I only receive money from those who want to make a donation. This gives me a point of legitimacy, of authenticity, and allows me to record when I want.
–How did the average Spaniard end up so hungry for his own history?
-It is clear that Spain in self-esteem or self-knowledge of its history is different. We have created a shell for ourselves that has made history something conservative or elitist, something smart or something I don’t know what… In schools it is obviously not being taught well; the children go on horseback from the Roman period to the 19th century, and history is seen as an ideological throwing weapon. There is a field there to exploit and that’s why I got into this eggplant. You can’t steal that from people. History cultivates, makes people happier and more fulfilled.
Photography by Jose Carlos Gracia
–How can you make the history of Spain claim it for all Spaniards, that everyone feel identified with it?
–Telling it normally. Look, I was always very hesitant to do a podcast about the Civil War and the processes leading up to 1936. I thought it was going to be a controversial issue, but today that audio has close to 400,000 downloads and I can assure you that I have received many emails and very few critics. I think people liked it because I really talk about the Civil War from a very human point of view, very personal, giving facts and talking about everything. Obviously I am talking about what the Republic was, which was not a bouquet of roses, far from it, and I explain that the war was not a story of good and bad, but quite the opposite. It was a conflict between two ideas of understanding life, two polarized societies within a Spain with very little education and an almost non-existent middle class. People, whether conservative or progressive, understand and convince him. After listening to me, people say, well, ‘hey, this man has told me things from a rational point of view’.
Does the history of Spain have something really special or exceptional?
–All countries have a national differential fact. The national heritage speaks of your ways of understanding things, your way of speaking… It’s an emotion. A cry, but, as in my book, against nationalism and populism. Nationalism seems to me an ideology that is impoverishing and leads the human being to the lowest point, to intellectual regression. Also Spanish, of course. Any kind of distinction based on place of birth seems absurd to me, but it is true that the history of Spain, pure carambola, has something special. We were born in a country that is located in a privileged place in the Mediterranean. All the traces we have from so many different civilizations have made us different. In addition, there is the fact of the Reconquest, which led to the liberation of the Peninsula from Muslim power and such a great inertia that leads us to America. We are one of the richest territories in the world in terms of the coexistence of civilizations and culture, which makes us different and, although not better, fortunate.
«Seeing today the Spanish conquistador as an aggressive element, simply, not a transmitter of culture, it seems to me that it is biasing everything else»
–What is needed to convince Latin America of the common legacy on both sides of the pond?
–People need to have a critical spirit, which is complicated, but we are not going to throw in the towel for that. The Hispanic, wherever he is from, will enjoy his story if he recognizes his Spanish origins. Seeing today the Spanish conqueror as an aggressive element, simply, not a transmitter of culture, it seems to me that it is biasing everything else, closing one’s own knowledge of him. It doesn’t matter if I was born in Spain or Bolivia, the origin doesn’t matter to me. The important thing is culturally how you are. How have you followed your life and your habits? And your inheritance? That mixture of cultures, that Reconquista, that Camino de Santiago, that influence of America. If people know that heritage, they will stop ideologies and prejudices and in the end they will enjoy their own history.
–Beyond the headlines about demolished statues or requests for forgiveness, do you think that a certain critical feeling is growing in Spanish America?
-I think so. When people realize that they are manipulating her or taking something that belongs to her, she wakes up. From my experience I have more and more testimonies from people from Latin America who are entering more into a knowledge of history in a critical way. What I am against is looking for blame. Spain had an almost minimal footprint for the problems they have there. I remember that the war of independence in Spanish America was a civil war between peninsular Spaniards and Creole Spaniards. A civil war for power taking advantage of Spain’s moment of weakness in the metropolis. That said, I don’t like to talk about a metropolis, but about a Crown with provinces where some dominant bourgeois elites took advantage of the opportunity. This is the case of Bolívar, for example, who was a bourgeois, a landowner who sought economic benefits from him. That’s clear. I do not hesitate to use any means at his disposal to enrich himself and not pay taxes. When people understand that Bolívar was just another Spaniard, the way they see it changes.
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