Figure 1.--Many school children on Grand Canary Islands wear smocks as in some other sections of Spain.
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Figure 1.--Many school children on Grand Canary Islands wear smocks as in some other sections of Spain. |
There are several important regions of Spain. We have only begun to collect information on these regions. There were important differences between those regions, but since World War II these differences have declined significantly. Some of the major regions are Andulucia, the Basque country, Castille, Catalonia, and Galicia. There is also the Canary Islands. We have very limited information on clothing differences at this time. We note that school scghool smocks are especially common in Catalonia. They also seem common in the Canary Islands.
Spain under the 1978 constitution following the death of Franco has 17 autonomous regions. These regions are based on the historical refions of Spain. These regions have their own parliament, president, government, administration and Supreme Court (plus its own flag and capital city). The regions are not, however, independent of the central government. The regions are funded by the central government. The different regions vary as to their authority and responsibilites. The Basque Lands, Catalonia, Galicia and Andalucia are responsible for matters such as economic development, education, health, environment, police, public works, tourism, culture, local language and social security. Other regions have, however, substantially less autonomy and more limited responsibilities. The people of the Basque country, Catalonia and Galicia are recognized as separate ethnic groups with the right to use their own languages in education and administration. These rights were granted by the the Statute of Autonomy which was approved in a national referendum (1983). The issue of regional power and autonomy is an important issue in modern Spanish politics.
Each Spanish region is divided into provinces, rather like counties in American government. There are about 50 provinces.
The various regions of Spain are the result of past invasions that gave birth to several languages, of social and political history, of
the existence of natural barriers such as mountains and rivers etc etc.
Phenicians, Greeks, Carthaginese, Romans successively invaded Spain, followed by some German tribes after the fll of Rome. Among the German tribes, the most important ws the Visigoths. They finally were replaced by the Arabs.
During these periods several languages developed. The official Spanish language is the Castillian, three other are officially
recognised by the central government: Catalano, Galiciano and Vascuence (Basque). Some other such as Valenciano (very near to
Catalano) are very vivid.
There is no such thing than an official list of regions but one could proceed here in two ways, the tourist approach and the historical way.
Tourists, mainly coming from northern Europe, will invade the coasts that, starting from the French boarder are: Costa Brava, Costa Dorada (golden), Costa del Azahar (orange blossoms), Costa Blanca (white), Costa del Sol (sun), all these on the Mediterranean Sea, then past Gibraltar on the Atlantic the Costa de La Luz (light) and
back to north between Portugal and France the Costa Verde (green). Inside the country tourists would know only some old famous towns such as Cadiz, Granada, Toledo or Salamanca with their marvellous old
architectural treasuries.
Taking the historical way the regions of Spain would include first the former kingdoms of Aragona, Castilla, Leon, Murcia and Navarra. Castilla as such is divided into the new (la Nueva) and the old (la Vieja). The other regions are along the french boarder:
Asturias, El Pais Vasco (Basque) and Cataluna, then down to south Galicia and Andalucia. On top of these regions from the peninsula Espaņa one must add the two groups of islands, Las Islas Baleares ( Mediterrannean) and Las Canarias in the Atlantic.
21st century images show relatively little differences between boys' clothing in different Spanish regions. Images from Majorca, for example shows mot boys "T" shits and polo shirts with jeans ans sneakers. [Hammer] This has infact become almost a pan-European style.
Hammer, Ute Edda. ed. Majorca". Culture and Life (Edited by Koenemann, Cologne, English ed. 2000).
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