Epilogue: My Fulbright Life Podcast and the New Reform of the LO 4/2000

As I sit here writing the epilogue to my experience in Spain, I have to first apologize for delaying putting up my episode of the "My Fulbright Life" podcast series published by the International Institute of Education. The process of writing a thesis, a short paper on the impact of the cases I've been analyzing on the development of immigration legislation, and finding a job has diverted my attention from realizing that IIE published this episode in October. I've now rectified the problem and you can now download and listen to the podcast through this link or look up "My Fulbright Life" on iTunes and download my interview to your podcast library.

The interview, which was carried out in May, covers my research, my interest in participating in the program, and advice for future applicants. Although I am now listening to this interview as a Fulbright alum in the States, the perspectives that I offer in the interview have not changed; I feel that I would give similar answers and replies if the host would have asked me the same questions a month, a week, or a day ago. That said, I feel the interview captures a sense of engagement in my work that has changed since I have returned to the US. After all, I was in the middle of preparing for the immigration conference in June, finishing interviews, finding important articles on my research topic, and planning trips to cities in Spain and Europe. Without that mental reference point, I do not feel that the interview could have evoked the focus and intensity that made my last months in Spain so productive and memorable at an academic and personal level. It certainly brings a smile to my face, even if I my performance on tape seems a little incoherent.

The interview aside, this post, which functions as an epilogue to my experiences in Spain, will focus on two things: the newest immigration law the LO 2/2009, which incorporates the decisions of the Tribunal Constitucional that overturns the provisions of the LO 8/2000 and my recent work on my research.

During the last months of my time in Spain, I began to grow more critical of the Spanish Government's efforts to reform the LO 4/2000 for a variety of reasons. Although I supported the government's efforts to incorporate the Tribunal Constitucional's decision in STC 236/2007 et al, the interviews that I carried out as well as my reading of various analysis of the drafts of the new law have made it clear that the Spanish Government has used this law to restrict of other rights of immigrants as a means to address the nation's economic problems. As the law's Exposition of Motivation notes, the Government seeks to “legally channel the migratory flows in such a manner that the [flows] are adjusted to our capacity to take in [immigrants] and the real demands of our labor market." The law also cites the Government’s obligation to adopt EU directives related to the expulsion of irregular immigrants, especially Directive 2008/115/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on common standards and procedures in Member States for returning illegally staying third-country nationals. Citing these reasons, the reform introduced the following measures:

• The reform extends the number of days an irregular immigrant can stay in detention centres for these individuals from 40 days to 60 days in order to respect the contents of EU Directive 2008/115/EC.

• The law allows the parent of a regularized immigrant to migrate to Spain only when they have reached the age of 65. The LO 4/2000 and its subsequent reforms did not place an age limit on this component of the right to family reunion.

• The reform also affects an immigrant’s access to education. The text states: “foreign residents over the age of 18 have the right to access post-obligatory levels of education, the obtainment of corresponding qualifications, and to the public system of scholarships in the same conditions as Spaniards." The reforms also do not explicitly state that an immigrant has access to infantile education.

• The law also stipulates that an irregular immigrant must re-file a petition with a given Court in administrative proceedings to access free legal assistance, even in situations where the State has deported the individual. In these instances, the individual must file with a Spanish consular office to exercise this right.

While I could devote an entire blog post to the critiques of these regulations, I want to quickly note the constitutional problems with the last two measures. Among other things, the provisions regulating the right to non-obligatory education and the right to free legal assistance create unequal conditions of exercise between Spaniards and immigrants. Given that the Tribunal Constitucional explicitly stated that legislators cannot create unequal conditions for the exercise of these rights between Spaniards and non-Spaniards, the law essentially undermines the Court's mandate by restricting the fundamental rights of immigrants. It is measures like these that have prompted El País, the nation's leading newspaper, to produce an editorial that labeled the law as the product of the political willingness to make "compatible a leftist discourse … with initiatives of the opposite mark."

The contents of this law and its complex relationship with the judicial antecedents in STC 236/2007 has formed the focus of my work since I returned from Spain. Specifically, I have been working on a thesis that uses the work of Gerald Rosenberg, a Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago (and an alum of the Fulbright Visiting Professor program), to analyze how Spanish legislators and the Tribunal Constitucional shape the capacity of the other to influence the regulation of the rights of immigrants.

The paper's central argument is a variation of my criticism of the new law: the LO 2/2009 demonstrates that the political will of Spanish legislators impacts their willingness to restrain or facilitate the Constitutional Court’s ability to shape the regulation of the rights of irregular immigrants beyond its judicial mandates. While legislators have fulfilled the Court’s mandate to overturn the provisions of the LO 8/2000 that regulate fundamental rights such as the right to association to all immigrants in Spain, the aforementioned political and economic "concerns" have muted legislators’ support for leveraging the Court’s authority to expand the rights of irregular immigrants. Instead, these factors have prompted the Spanish Government to produce the measures that I outlined earlier in this post. In this sense, the Court’s ability to expand the rights of immigrants beyond its judicial mandates rests heavily on the legislators’ decision to treat the regulation of these rights as a means to advance the Spanish Government’s political and economic goals.

Obviously this paper will continue to evolve as I work with my advisers to edit and revise its arguments over the next few months. It has been a very long process -- I started writing parts of this paper in January -- but I have found it to be fulfilling since it allows me to capture a year's worth of work in roughly 18 pages of arguments, references, an abstract, and a clever title to boot. While the end goal of this process is publishing the paper in an academic journal or presenting it at a conference, it is this fact -- my satisfaction with the writing process -- that confirms the obvious: the Fulbright experience wasn't simply a wonderful opportunity to travel; it was also an excellent opportunity to conduct interesting research. Hopefully the end product will reflect this sentiment.

Aside from writing this paper, I am preparing for my return to Washington, DC after receiving an offer to work for the Federal Trade Commission as a Paralegal with the Bureau of Competition. While it remains to be seen how my second stint in DC will shape me as a person, I feel content knowing that Spain is only an ocean away from Washington. To be sure, this little fact may not provide an extended respite from the daily grind of working in the District; last time I checked, reminiscing about the past does not allow one to finish their document review assignments or come up with ideas for a new blog. Nevertheless, it will give me a few moments to reengage with my the sense of enchantment that touched every day of my year abroad. With that in mind, I wish everyone a happy and peaceful 2010 and thank you all for reading this blog over the last year and a half!

My Last Blog Post and Photos from Istanbul

First, I've posted my photos from my last trip of the year, Istanbul. Aside from having one of the most incredible skylines I've ever seen, it was interesting to see a city where churches were turned into mosques and Christians built mosques in the style of Greek orthodox style churches from the Byzantine era, especially after spending time in numerous Spanish cities where the opposite occurred hundreds of years earlier. History has a strange way of reversing the fortunes of different political-religious groups over time. The pictures are available here.

Now onto the last blog post.

Two years ago I made the decision to follow in the steps of my friend Tiffany and apply for a Fulbright grant to conduct research in Spain while I was working in Washington. I was in the middle of switching jobs and was looking for a way to eventually get out of Washington and spend some time abroad; Fulbright seemed to fit the bill. Since the Fulbright Grant requires a professor to sponsor an applicant's proposal, however, I emailed every single law professor studying immigration issues in Madrid. After all, I had never studied in Spain while I was at Macalester or Northwestern and needed to find someone who might take an interest in my work.

As fate would have it, my adviser, Diego Blázquez-Martín, emailed me back expressing interest in my proposal. Diego had studied at Columbia, NYU, and Brown while getting his PhD at my host institution, la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, so he could related to someone from another country trying to conduct independent research in his country. It was a quality that would serve me well during my time in Spain. With Diego's support as well as the support of my professors at Macalester and a Spanish language professor at the Catholic University of America, I wrote and revised my application and finally turned it in late September 2007.

Although I had high hopes for my application, I did not realize I was about to embark on a two year journey that tested my patience, intuition, intellectual curiosity, and self awareness in a myriad of contexts and situations. All that mattered to me then was developing a sound proposal that would make it past the first round of cuts in February of 2008 before the Spanish Fulbright Commission and the J. William Fulbright Board in Washington, DC would make their final decision on whether I would receive the grant or not. I guess one could not fault me for thinking in short term steps, for the time being; the longer, more profound reflection on the implications of studying in Spain for a year only became a reality after I received word that I was a Fulbright Scholar in April 2008.

The question that emerged over time as I was preparing to leave for Europe revolved around the manner that I would document my experience in Spain and beyond. Naturally, I would post pictures on Facebook and continue to keep in touch with my friends through email, Gchat, and Skype. The idea of keeping a blog about my experiences, another idea that I borrowed from Tiffany, seemed to be a good format to discuss my experiences abroad. So in September 2008, I finally posted my first blog entry, stating that the purpose of the blog was to report and make observations on "Spanish society, politics, life, fashion, etc." with commentaries on "on issues related to my research on the history of immigration law and the rights of undocumented immigrants to join labor unions."

62 blog posts later, I have documented wide swaths of topics related to my time in Spain. Some of my posts have appeared in the forms of mini historical-sociology lessons that accompanied my photo albums on Facebook or my "Views from the City" series on Madrid. Other posts have been commentaries on developments on immigrant rights in Spain, especially on the development of the reform of the LO 8/2000. Finally, some posts have centered on my actual Fulbright experiences in Andorra, Berlin, and the preparation and execution of the Fulbright immigration conference in June. While my blog could have covered a wider range of contemporary topics, I feel that my work was fairly representative of my time in Spain, given that I only added one post per week when I had a free moment between research and travel. In this sense, it has met my goals and hopefully has maintained my readership, however few in number, interested and engaged in my work and life in Spain.

Of course, the blog could never completely communicate the different dimensions of my first experience in Europe. First, the blog could never capture the dynamics of the interviews with a diverse array of individuals from NGOs, labor unions, political parties, and lawyer's associations or the evolution of my knowledge the rights of undocumented immigrants in Spain. To be sure, this process will remain caught on tape or in a variety of notes, presentations, and drafts of my paper. But I believe that no form of communication will express the multifaceted nature of my work or the joy that it brought me over the course of ten months.

Second, no form of communication will reflect the full dynamics of my trips to other European and African cities this year. To say that this year has been nothing less than an adventure would be an understatement in every sense of the word. The task of documenting these journeys clearly fell to my camera, which ironically stopped working midway through my last trip in Istanbul. No photo, however, will be able to capture the moment when I stepped into another city, another country for the first time and felt the burst of excitement with the possibilities that existed within the next few days. Words fail to completely capture these moments as well, though that should never stop one from attempting to bring a little context to the memories captured in photographs of their journeys.

Thirdly, I do not think ten months worth of blogging would allow me to begin making observations of Spaniards and the immigrants who are rapidly changing Spain's social framework. I can say that the Spaniards who I have met have taken me into their work and their lives with joy and excitement without expecting anything in return. It was truly refreshing and invigorating, especially after the networking frenzy of egoism that seemingly drives the social interactions in Washington, DC. Though these people and the wonderful qualities of Spaniards will remain in my memories, I will certainly miss this quality of interaction when I return to the United States.

To be sure, many Spaniards need to come to terms with the changes that accompany the growth of immigrant populations in Spain. Simply blaming immigrants for every social problem, particularly those related to the economic crisis, is not a sound response to a permanent social change. After all, every social context is impermanent, giving way to another one through a process of conflict and/or cooperation between social actors. The question that remains unanswered for the moment is this one: can Spaniards, particularly the Spanish Government, focus on the latter during an economic crisis? I have made several observations on the potential responses to this question. For the moment, however, I will say that it remains to be seen whether a sound response can emerge in response to the challenges of the economic crisis gripping Spain.

Finally, no blog post will never be able to capture the transition between my life in Spain and my life in the United States, especially the feeling that accompany the move from the dizzying heights of the "Fulbright Experience" to those more routine, more familiar. As it stands, I will not blog about my experiences once I return to the States. I will post up a podcast that I recorded with the International Institute of Education in late May when it is available online. Aside from this update, however, I believe that my transition back to the United States will remain a private matter that will allow me to gain a greater understanding of the impact of living abroad on my personal, intellectual, and professional development.

I will say that living abroad has made me appreciate different aspects of American society while developing more insightful criticisms of its shortcomings; one cannot simply emerge from this process without developing a more nuanced perspective of one's own country. At the same time, the experience of living abroad has given me the encouragement to travel around the United States with a stronger sense of curiosity of understanding the different manifestations of the American character. The next few months will also see me bring these realizations into fruition as my search for a new job will take me to another part of the United States to begin my life anew.

And how will I begin this new life? With ten months of wonderful memories that will last a lifetime. Reflecting over these experiences, a few lines from a Czeslaw Milosz poem come to mind:

"That boy, does he already suspect
that beauty is always elsewhere and always delusive?
He sees what I see even now. Oh but he was clever,
Attentive, as if things were instantly changed by memory.
Riding in a cart, he looked back to retain as much as possible.
Which means he knew what was needed for some ultimate moment
When he would compose from fragments a world perfect at last."
- "From the Rising of the Sun"

I will not know the long term consequences of receiving this grant. But, for the time being, I can live with a quiet satisfaction that it has contributed to the creation of my own world perfect, one that will incorporate experiences beyond the boundaries of Spain and the United States as I continue to explore and understand a world that continues to present, in Fitzgerald's words, something commensurate to our capacities for wonder.

Views from my City: Madrid

As my time in Madrid comes to a close, I figure I would post up a few photos from some sites that have been regular haunts of mine over the last ten months:

The view from my window in my new apartment in the neighborhood of Moncloa and Argüelles.

A shot of the neighborhood Moncloa, from a country club due west of the city. The buildings include a the Ejercito de Aire (Airforce) building as well as a view of the park where I go running, el Parque del Oeste (Park of the West). The tall UFO style building was built in honor of the Barcelona 1992 Olympic games and features a panoramic view of the city.

Plaza of España, which has the city's own Cervantez Monument, was my old neighborhood for most of the year. It is a five minute walk from my new apartment and regularly hosts artisan fairs as well as the occasional concert or festival from time to time.

The Plaza also has Madrid's first skyscrapers, which were built in the 50s as Franco's reluctant nod to modern urban planning. Accordingly, these buildings are not that tall, especially in comparison to the major skyscrapers that dot north Madrid's skyline.

The Reina Sofia, Madrid's modern art museum, is my favorite gallery in the city. Picasso's denouncement of the fascist bombing of the town of Guernica -- Guernica -- is the centerpiece of the Museum's collection, which includes work by Miró, Dalí, Robert Capa, and, obviously, Picasso as well as works from 21st century Spanish artists. The museum is named after the current Queen of Spain who is major patron of the arts. Interesting note: the building was the city's first public hospital in the late 19th century.

La Casa de la Cerveza, an international beer house, is hands down one of my favorite bars in the city. Being a bit of a beer snob, there's only so much Spanish lager I can drink before I crave a Belgian Abbey beer. That said, the Spaniards do have a Abbey style beer, Legado de Yuste, which was first for Carlos I by Belgian monks to alleviate the symptoms of a fever that he contracted around 1516. It is very good, although hard to find in many Spanish Bars due to the popularity of other brands such as Cruz Campo and Mahou, which are lagers.

Photos from London and Another Piece from the BBC on Immigration in Spain

First, here are my photos from my second to last trip during my time as a Fulbrighter: London. I visited a few friends there from Northwestern and had the opportunity to check out the traditional tourist sites before wandering around the city to observe the incredible amounts of diversity that exists within its demographics and the composition of its neighborhoods. Given that London has had a longer history of immigration and counter-cultural movements (and an incredible roster of rock musicians, DJs, and grime rappers), it is no suprise that I found myself feeling a little more at home when walking around the city. The photos are available here.

I also have come across another BBC piece about the decreasing number of irregular immigrants coming to Spain. In this case, the article discusses the falling number of Sub Saharan African migrants who come across the Atlantic to Spain's Canary Islands on pateras, small boats with a single engine that should accomodate only a small number of people but frequently transport large numbers of migrants, much to their own peril.

From the interviews that I carried out, I can say that the first patera came to the Canary islands in the mid 1990s; the numbers began to grow slowly over the course of the rest of the decade until the numbers exploded after the year 2002. That said, lawmakers and the Spanish media usually treat this form of migration as the greatest problem facing Spain in regards to the irregular flows of immigrants to Spain.

In reality, the largest number of irregular immigrants come through Barajas airport in Madrid from South America; pateras account for only 10% of irregular immigration. Still the patera and Sub-Saharan immigrant continue to remain the boogey-man in the mainstream discourse on immigration to Spain due to a mix of xenophobia, lack of education, and the lack of effective government policies to address this issue in a manner that respects their human rights while regulating movement into and out of Spanish territory.

The last item deserves some attention. Often times, the immigrants who survive the trip and arrive to the island's shore will receive treatment from NGOs before being transported to detention centers run by the Spanish national police and FRONTEX, the EU's border patrol. In these centers, where detention can last up to 40 days (60 days in the proposed reform of the LO 4/2000), the authorities review the documentation of the immigrants and process their deportation.

The problem arises when the migrant lacks documentation. In these cases, the authorities round up these individuals and ship them out to Madrid with an order of expulsion without a specific destination. The immigrants subsequently remain in Spain without any way to return home. At the same time, the requirements to gain a work contract and residency under the LO 14/2003, which requires irregular immigrants to stay in Spain for three years without being deported to gain access to residency, makes it difficult for these individuals to find viable work in the labor market. Often times, one will see these men selling bootleg copies of DVDs and CDs, fake name brand glasses and purses, or newspapers to make their living; I am unsure where women from these countries work in the underground economy. In short, these individuals have no way of finding a settled existence in Spain or abroad.

The inability of Spanish lawmakers to develop ways to regulate movement into and out of Spain and promote the integration of individuals has compounded the problem, especially due to the fact that they have refused to touch the LO 14/2003. Although the law states that all immigrant's will have a viable work contract even if no such document exists, it has created enormous administrative barriers to entry into the formal labor market as well as obstacles to the access of residency authorizations.

Further, the Spanish Government's decision to send immigrants with an order of expulsion to Madrid clearly demonstrates its refusal to develop a robust means to return immigrants to their countries of origins that respects their human rights and remains effective in regulation of the flows of irregular immigration. Sending immigrants to Madrid is not a longterm solution; neither is keeping them confined within detention centers with questionable humanitarian conditions.

Finally, although lawmakers have begun to create and fund co-development programs with the countries that emit the highest number of immigrants to Spain, these efforts have barely begun to fully address the source of the pateras: poverty and economic and political instability in Africa. Although the poor economic situation has reduced the number of pateras arriving on Spain's shores, only a comprehensive solution that addresses these three issues will truly address the problems of the pateras into Spain in the long term.

Views from the City: Orgullo 2009

First and foremost, happy 4th of July to everyone back at home! Although my 4th of July festivities were centered on another major event here in Madrid that will form the subject of this post. Madrid, like many other Western European capitals, has a vibrant gay scene that serves as a source of community for GLBT individuals and a launching pad for activism over their rights. As an GLBT ally, most of my observations of this community have emerged from my GLBT friends who hang out in the city's gay district, Chueca, as well as the work of my adviser on equality and human rights issues in Spain. Given that I have been mostly focused on the issues of immigrant rights within my volunteer work and research, however, my direct experiences with this community and its efforts to solidify their rights in Spain has been limited.

Fortunately, this past weekend marked the annual gay pride week - Orgullo 2009 - that gave me a chance to attend the city's gay pride parade, the largest in all of Europe. The Parade, which is the climax of the week's festivities in Chueca and other parts of Madrid, is considered the largest outdoor party in Europe after beating out beat out the Berlin Love Parade for that distinction. Having attended the gay pride parade in DC, I was expecting a fun, boisterous event that engaged the audience in minor ways. I clearly underestimate the scope and scale of the event.


Part protest, part carnival, and all spectacle, the Parade went through the heart of Madrid -- from the Puerta de Alcala through Grand Vía before finally ending at Plaza de España -- and laid waste to my conceptions of parades and outdoor festivals. With people drinking and dancing in the streets to the beats blasting out of huge trucks and buses -- included some buses sponsored by Spanish leftist political parties and the nation's two major labor unions -- the parade crept along the streets of downtown Madrid in a spectacular fashion as the decorations and the sheer locura of each bus and float topped each other off. The sheer number of people watching the parade was staggering; the only other time I've seen the city that full was on Noche Vieja, New Year's Eve and that could not compare with the sight of looking down Grand Vía to see masses of people flooding the streets and plazas of the city, cheering on the individuals and performers on the floats and buses.



Of course, the parade had its more sober aspects as well. The theme of the parade was Escuelas Sin Armarios - Schools without Closets - and advocated for the rights of GLBT teachers in Spain. Numerous NGOs that support gay rights spearheaded this component of the parade marched first before the party floats, especially those organizations formed by GLBT teachers as well as organizations that centere on one particular aspect of the struggle for GLBT rights (e.g various lesbian organizations, groups that supported gay families, etc). Throughout this section of the parade one could see the flags of the 17 Communidades Autonomas that represented the unified effort of all Spaniards and non-Spaniards in the efforts to solidify the rights of GLBT individuals throughout all of Spain.


The subject of gay rights in Spain has been a point of friction these recent years. Although the rights of GLBT individuals essentially remained within the boundaries of the Spanish Constitution (freedom of privacy, for instance), the government of Jose Luis Zapatero, took the steps to introduce legislation after the PSOE defeated the PP in 2004 to legalize gay marriage in 2005. That year, the Congreso de Diputados, which was dominated by center left parties, approved Ley 13/2005, de 1 de julio, por la que se modifica el Código Civil en materia de derecho a contraer matrimonio, after overriding the vote in Senate, where center right parties had a plurality, and made Spain the third nations on Earth to recognize same sex marriages and grant these unions the same privileges and benefits as heterosexual couples. (As someone who is studying immigration, I should note that this law recognizes marriage between Spanish nationals and third country/non EU citizens in Spain despite the fact that most countries do not recognize or ban same sex marriage.)


Despite the fact that nearly 66% percent of Spaniards approved of the law before it was introduced into effect (and 61% approved of the law after the fact), however, the Catholic Church and the political right in the country have mobilized against these legislative efforts to recognize same sex marriage and adoption of children. At the social level, it is hard for me to communicate whether Spaniards support gay rights in practice; it appears to me that they are tolerant of GLBT individuals. As one of my friends noted at the parade, however, it did not seem that there were many GLBT families that were participating in the parade compared to the Pride Parade in Brooklyn, New York. The fact that this observation may reflect some sectors of Spanish society's ambivalent feelings about the growing presence of GLBT life in Spain that influences the decisions of GLBT couples remains unclear. The observation does demonstrate the fact that many GLBT couples are beginning to establish their lives within a legal context that will continue to change perceptions and attitudes over the nature of human rights within Spain.

More information is available at the wikipedia page about the topic, including the statistics regarding support for same sex marriage.

Photos from San Sebastián and Zaragoza

Over the last few weeks I've taken two trips to cities located in the northern regions of Spain: Donostia-San Sabastián and Zaragoza. Each city represents a unique aspect of Spanish history and culture, especially in regards to their relationship with the Muslim reign over Spain in the medival ages and the broader Spanish political and cultural community in the 20th century.

In the case of Zaragoza, the city has a unique place in the development of medieval Spanish history: it is an excellent case of the impact of the reconquista by Christian forces, which began in the 10th and 11th centuries and took full force in the 13th and 14th centuries, on the city's architecture. The city's history, however, extends much further back into the times of the Roman Empire. The city, which was founded between 24 and 12 BCE, was a major Roman urban center in Roman Hispania notable for its name: Caesar Augustus. The city's settlers named the city in honor the Roman Empire's first emperor, a gesture that has stood the test of time: Saraugustus in Latin; Saraqusta in Arabic; Zaragoza in Castellano.

The Roman Forum in the City

As the Arabic name indicates, the city was conquered by Muslim forces in the 7th century and became one of the northern regions of the Islamic Caliphate after Charles Martel defeated these forces in the Battle of Tours in 732 and pushed them back to the northern regions of the Iberian peninsula. After the Islamic Caliphate dissolved in the 10th century, the taifa of Saraqusta emerged as an independent kingdom until the end of the 11th century when Christian forces retook the city and established it as the center of the independent kingdom of Aragon.

Given that the new rulers of the city did not expel all Muslims from the city limits, the steady presence of Muslim culture influenced the development of the architecture at the time. Many of the churches in the city were built in the mudejar -- literally those who were allowed to stay, e.g Muslims -- style of architecture by Muslim architects and builders. As a result, many of the churches that exist in the city have a marked similarity to mosques. One only needs to look at the bell towers of these churches to notice their superficial appearance to the minarets of mosques in a country such as Morocco or Syria.

One of several Mudejar churches in the city

One of my Fulbright colleagues once explained to me that the style was very much in vogue in Christian cities during the 11th through 14th centuries even though it was associated with the rival Muslim forces due to the fact that it had permeated the aesthetic sensibility of individuals in the Iberian peninsula over the course of several centuries of Muslim rule. In other words, the style is a distinct product of a fusion of cultures and sensibilities that marked the dynamic interchange of ideas in medieval Spain.

Furthermore, the city's Christian rulers -- namely the famed Prince Ferdinand of Aragon who united Spain with Queen Isabella de Castilla and supported Columbus' trip to the Americas -- took the city's palace, the Aljafería, the place of joy, and continued to use it as the center of administration until the early modern period. The palace, which is now the center of administration for the Communidad Autonoma de Aragon's legislators, represents another example of the prevalence of Islamic and Mudejar style architecture in post-Muslim Zaragoza. In fact, one can rank the palace as one of the three best examples of Islamic architecture in Spain; the other two sites are the Catedral de la Mezquita in Cordoba and the Alhambra in Granada.


This history aside, I should also note that the city was the center of the world expo in 2008, which focused on water preservation and environmental awareness as its theme. This theme wouldn't surprise a Zaragozan: the city has a number of wind farms outside of its city limits to produce renewable energy for consumption throughout the metropolitan area. Zaragoza is also a centrally located city: it is equidistant from Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Velencia, and Toulouse, France.



Given Zaragoza's place in the development of medieval Spanish history, San Sebastián, which is found in the País Vasco or Euskana Hereria in Basque, represents a different component of Spanish history and culture: its regionalism. Spain, as I have noted previously, recognizes four official languages: Castellano, 'Español' in the rest of the world; Catalán, which is the official language of the Communidad Autonoma de Catalunya as well as Valencia, where it is known as Valenciano; Gallego, which is the official language of Galicia; and Vasco, which is the official language of the Communidad Autonoma de el País Vasco.

Within these four languages, Vasco has a unique place in the hearts of linguists everywhere for a special reason. Whereas the other languages are related to Western Romance languages that emerged from Latin, the source of the Basque language is unknown. Most linguists agree that Basque is a form of a pre Indo-European language that managed to survive the arrival of the Romans, who named these tribes 'Vascones,' throughout the southern regions of Roman Gaul (France) and the northwest portions of Roman Hispania (Spain).

One can attribute the persistence of the language into modern times to the Basque people themselves. Much like their language, the Basque people do not have any cultural or genetic connections to other Indo-European peoples. In a certain way, this unique trait reflects the amount of self rule that the Basque people have enjoyed for centuries, mostly in the medieval ages; many Basques have proudly proclaimed that their people have never fallen to invaders to other lands, including the famed Charlemagne, whose rear guard troops were slaughtered in the battle of Ronvevaux Pass after retreating from a failed conquest of Zaragoza in 778.

Although the suppression of Basque self-rule has occurred throughout history, the most recent suppression of Basque culture emerged under the Franco regime. Franco imposed Spanish as the only official language over the Basque country as well as Catalunya and Galicia. Basque cultural traditions were informally banned informally, if officially outlawed. Within this legal and political context, a modern form of Basque nationalism heralded by ETA - 'Euskadi Ta Askatasuna,' Basque Homeland and Country - in the 1960s as a Marxist-Leninist movement dedicated the creation of an independent Basque homeland based on language. (One must remember that this period of time is marked by several national liberation movements throughout the colonies of European powers, a clear inspiration to the founding members of ETA).

Although the terrorist organization does not represent the full range of Basque views of self rule, it demonstrates the complex relationship that exists between Madrid and the Basque Country, even after the Spanish Government granted the Communidad Autonoma del País Vasco a great deal of independence after the transition to democracy in the late 70s. The Basque nationalist position that a historic community with no ties to the wider Spanish culture should remain independent of Spain clashes with the perspective that the Basque Country should preserve its ties with Spain while maintaining its autonomy under the Spanish Constitution. Given that the Basque people had the highest number of abstention rates during the referendum to approve the Constitution in 1977 and 1978, however, these positions can come into direct clashes and demonstrate the intense regionalism that continues impacts the development of Spanish politics.

Of course, this history cannot overshadow the incredible food that is prepared in the city. San Sebastián, which has the third best restaurant in the world according to the Michelin guide (and the highest number of Michelin starred restaurants outside of Paris), is incredible. One of the unique aspects of cuisine in the city and the Basque country in general are pintxos. Although tapas were invented in Andalucía, the Basques took the form and perfected it. The sheer diversity of pintxos that exist in bars throughout the city is absolutely astonishing to someone used to plain tapas from Madrid.


Part of this elaborate presentation of a simple bar food emerges from the all male eating societies that exist in the Basque country. Typically men will gather at a restaurant with fresh ingredients and wine to cook and socialize for hours on end with spectacular culinary results. Of course, the innovation of food does not emerge solely from these societies given that the tradition of preparing excellent food, whether 12 course tasting menus or simple pintxos, extends throughout the Basque culture. Whether this affinity for culinary artistry is related to the region's proximity to France or its defiant independence from Madrid, I am unsure. However, the results are spectacular and have made me incredibly fond of the city, its food, and its beaches, which are among the most beautiful in Europe.


Finally, the País Vasco and the Communidad Autonoma de Aragon, which has Zaragoza as its capital, have a special connection to my research: the parliaments of both Communidades Autonomas filed appeals of unconstitionality against the LO 8/2000. Both Communidades Autonomas maintain progressive positions on the rights of immigrants and continue to advocate for the integration of these individuals within their own borders and throughout Spain as well.

The photos of Zaragoza can be viewed here. The photos of San Sebastián can be viewed here.

A Few Interesting News Stories from the BBC and the NYTimes

While I am preparing the post on my trips to San Sebastián and Zaragoza, three interesting stories from the BBC and the NYTimes:

First, here is a BBC story on the Congreso de Diputados decision to pass a law to curtail the universal jurisdiction of one of Spain's high court, the Audencia Nacional, which can pursue war crime cases against individuals or organizations in other countries.

Second, another piece from the BBC on the exodus of British expats from Spain back to the UK:

Finally, two pieces: an older piece from the NYTimes about the exodus of immigrants from various EU countries including Spain to their countries of origin and a piece from the BBC that focuses on the same phenomenon in Spain.

A few thoughts: Spain's Audencia Nacional has frequently been the forum for individuals living in Spain to lodge complaints against various institutions and laws. Although the nation's Tribunal Supremo also receives complaints from individuals living in Spain, its jurisdiction does not extend to international human rights violation cases. (The Tribunal Constitucional, which issues the sentences that form the foundation of my research, can only rule on constitutional matters based on appeals filed by diputados, the parliaments of the nation's 17 autonomous communities, or the ombudsman, the Defensor del Pueblo.) In this sense, the Congreso's decision to pass this law has undermined the legal framework for the prosecution of human rights violation cases because it undermined a legal body's ability to push forward cases of war crimes without any temporal restrictions. (The ICC can only prosecute cases from the date of its inception, 2002. The arrest warrant against the president of Sudan, Omar Al-Bashir, emerged from war crimes committed during 2004-2005.)

Although I have been critical of the Spanish government's decisions to curtail the rights of immigrants and refugees vis a vis the reforms of the laws regulating these two trends, I am quite surprised to see the Congreso taking steps to limit the country's ability to promote the protection of human rights abroad. Diplomatic pressures aside, I think it demonstrates another manner that the Spanish Government has begun to capitulate its dedication to human rights, especially after it managed to pass through major legislation on gay rights (gay marriage is legal in Spain) and a massive regularization of undocumented immigrants in 2005.

As for the three pieces related to immigration, a few things to note: immigrants from EU member countries excluding Eastern European nations tends to come from the UK and other wealthier nations. The reason is simple: the weather is great, the cost of living is low, and the economy, until 2008, was booming. As a result, Spain saw a major increase in the number of UK expats and retirees coming to live on the coasts of Andalucía and other Communidades Autonomas with beachfront properties. Spain, in other words, functions as the Florida of the EU (without the sketchy dealings of Floridian politics).

Ironically, these same factors also drew immigrants from poorer nations including Eastern European EU member states to Spain even as the Spanish Government under the PP enacted laws that completely restricted the rights of undocumented immigrants and created major adminsitrative to gain residency and work contracts. In fact, the number of immigrants increased during the year 2000 to 2004 under the vigilence of the restrictionist LO 8/2000 and the LO 14/2003, laws that sought to discourage irregular immigration and promote the importation of 'desirable' migrant workers to feed the construction boom that was driving Spain's economic growth.

Given the disparate differences between the origins and laws regulating the movement of these two groups of immigrants, it is interesting but unsurprising to see that economic factors pull them into Spain during a boom and drive them out during a bust. In this sense, the laws of the labor market rather than Spanish immigration laws clearly have a larger impact on the fluctuations of immigrants. From a legal perspective that promotes the rights of immigrants, then, the idea that restricting the rights of immigrants to dissuade them from entering a country is absurd. Instead, the laws must work with the immediate demands of the labor market while preserving the rights of individuals who enter Spain to live and work for an indeterminate amount of time. Whether or not these types of policies come into existence during an economic crisis, however, remains to be seen as the Spanish Government takes on the task of restricting the rights of immigrants as part of a plan to "deal with the recession."