Spanish disquisition: or, how a bookish Gringa learned to stop worrying and love el idioma

Washington Monthly, Oct, 2002 by Liesl Schillinger

Last summer I went to Spain, but I made the mistake of going with a British friend who is still caught in the grip of the Edmund/Aslan anti-Espanol spell. Tapas distressed her; sangria struck her as "naff." And when, at two in the morning at a disco in Alicante, we found ourselves talking to the son of a bullfighter and his entourage--she finally took me aside and exploded, "WHY must we keep talking to all these ... Spanish people!" I looked at her sympathetically, remembering what it had been like. "Because, we are in Spain," I responded. What else could I say? One day, like Edmund and Aslan, she'll come around. She will have to do it on her own. It will be gradual, but once it starts, it won't stop. And I say ... arriba.

LIESL SCHILLINGER is writer based in New York City.