A true story I owe to my late Spanish mother, a post-war immigrant to the UK , involves a state visit of the the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, to the UK in October 1954.
I was a young child then and with one my first life-time passions that of watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. The precision of the proud British soldiers in red coats and the uplifting music of their band stirred my imagination, making me feel one of them, as if I’ve stepped into a Winnie-the-Pooh fairy tale with Christopher Robin. So it was huge excitement to be told by my mother one morning that we were not only going to Buckingham Palace but we were also going to see an Emperor.
A large crowd had already gathered along the main avenue leading to the palace when we got there but somehow my mother managed to steer my push-chair into a front row position. We found ourselves in a line of rather stern looking elderly English nannies standing to attention with their young upper-crust charges. They looked at us – my dark Latino mother and her son-as if flying ants had descended on them, but my mother thought nothing more of it- at least until the Emperor passed by in the Royal carriage. At that point, my mother and I broke into spontaneous applause, to the nannies’ apparent horror. “Oh, she must be one of them!’, my mother heard one say to the other. The comment evidently was based on the similarity in skin colour between her and the Emperor, and the Spanish she spoke to me in , the two foreigners in their midst.
Thankfully the days when Spaniards like other immigrants were looked down on in this way has ceased to be usual practice in the UK- although Brexit has, as a cross-party group of MEPs warns in today’s Guardian, “cast a dark shadow of vagueness and uncertainty over millions of Europeans”.
Hopefully the state visit of King Felipe and Queen Letizia to the UK this week will serve as a reminder not just of how Spain owes its democracy to Europe, but how the strong bilateral relationship between the two countries has been made possible by their membership of the EU.
Freedom of movement is enjoyed by millions of tourists every year, with more British visiting Spain than any other nationality, and many British have Spanish homes and investments. The UK’s economy has been similarly strengthened by the investment of major Spanish companies, like Santander, Iberdrola, Ferrovial, and Telefonica, all major international players in their sectors.
Meanwhile Spanish students and workers have helped make British society a better place , cooperating in research, working as doctors and nurses in the NHS, and enriching cultural life, with a growing cross-fertilisation of the English and Spanish language.
Hopefully this State visit will help contribute to reinforcing a European bridge that best serves the interests not just of both countries but the democratic world, in a spirit of openness, without prejudice.
