In the earliest phase of the conquest of America – the Antillean stage – more than a third of the Spaniards who embarked to those wrong and cursed Yndias, as the great Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio wrote, came from Andalusia. They came, above all, from the old (Castilian) kingdom of Seville, which extended from the great southern capital, gate and port of America on the Iberian Peninsula, to the current provinces of Huelva and Cádiz.
Almost half of those who crossed the Atlantic voluntarily or by force in those centuries were Andalusians and Extremadurans. Some desperate, others hopeful. Insecure all. The canaries began as a minority, favored by the (forced) stopover of the ships in their archipelago, but they soon joined the new genetics of the New World.
Hence, the birth of the Spanish of America, which is a variant of the Castilian that from the coasts of Hispaniola and Cuba traveled to Veracruz and Mexico, and progressively spread to the rest of the continent, is intertwined, almost fused, with the way of speak the language of Cervantes that the men had – the women were counted – from the South.
Andalusia and that American Spain were alike like two drops of water. Everything was similar: clothing, beliefs and vices. This equivalence, however, did not mean absolute fidelity. Spanish, like colonial urbanism, came from a tradition but evolved autonomously in America. The elites of the viceroyalties of Mexico and Lima imitated the courtly speech of Toledo and Madrid; On the streets and in the ports, people spoke like they did in Seville.
That Cádiz has hosted the IX Congress of the Spanish Language this week, replacing Arequipa, due to the political instability in Peru, is a consequence of this historical heritage and the will of the Government, after closing the Ibero-American Summit in Santo Domingo, to take care of the American diplomatic front. Andalusia was present at the conclave, but with a secondary role: five activities in a program designed from Madrid where the only concession has been local, in correspondence with the Cádiz City Council.
The different political sign of Moncloa and San Telmo seems to have influenced much more than the question of jurisdiction, given that language policies, except in specific matters corresponding to the State, are an autonomous task. Andalusia does not exercise them in any way. It opens its own interest offices in Brussels, Madrid or Barcelona but lacks a differential policy in relation to Latin America, although it explains a good part of its past. The Junta takes more care of its relations with Morocco than with the Ibero-American nations.
The usual excuse that diplomatic relations are a state competence no longer works. Cultural and commercial links can be channeled, without incurring in any institutional disloyalty, through the action of the autonomous governments. San Telmo, however, has not wanted to move in this direction. Moreno Bonilla, so to speak, lacks a foreign policy. And America is not on your chart.
The absence is striking. Not so much in historical terms as economic. The economy of the South is supported, in addition to tourism and agri-food, by exports, the source of 22% of regional income. The official thesis of San Telmo – Andalusia is already a pole of attraction for investments superior to Catalonia – does not correspond at all with the facts.
Madrid, at a great distance, continues to be the great magnet for companies and investors. In the first half of 2022, the capital of Spain and its area of influence accounted for seven out of every ten foreign euros (10,927 million euros). Andalusia only disputed a scant 1.2% (barely 210 million). If we put these figures in liabilities –through business disinvestments– the South lost twice as much foreign capital (834 million) as Catalonia.
Andalusian companies go abroad non-stop, among other destinations to America, but they have to do it at their own risk. Its sales add up to 42,958 million euros, a figure that is far from Madrid and Catalonia. Its overall share does not exceed 11%. They receive more money due to higher prices and the increase in the cost of transportation and raw materials, but their economic activities abroad are stagnant.
Only 22% of the southern business fabric works in foreign trade. Andalusia exports olive oil, food, furniture, fuel, ships and aeronautics. Germany, France and the United Kingdom are its best clients. It is promoted in Asian markets and is growing in the North American sphere, but it does not work with the same intensity and dedication in Latin American commercial destinations, as if its obvious links with the capitals of the old Spanish empire were a thing of the past or a useless cultural heritage.
In commercial terms, Brazil and Canada are more important for Andalusia than Mexico, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru or Argentina, whose importance in the balance of commercial exchanges, in general lines, is testimonial. The Board has limited its relations with Latin American organizations to international cooperation.
And it is that culture, for San Telmo, is an ornament. In the second cabinet of Moreno Bonilla, it was displaced to a secondary place. She does not have her own council, but she quotes it in all institutional speeches. The Cádiz Congress has not served to change this trend and show that culture is the main ambassador of the economy. His best return trip.
