Cádiz: Spain's Alabama?

Here in Barcelona, I recently learned that Cádiz, located on the southern tip of Spain, and where I spent the first month of my trip, is what Spaniards describe as the Spanish equivalent of Alabama. Apparently, for Spaniards, Alabama, ‘the cotton state,’ and self-proclaimed ‘heart of Dixie’ is the mirror-image of a 3000-year-old European ‘welcoming point’ sitting on a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean. Paradise, in the truest sense of the word that I have ever experienced, is equivalent to Alabama. This makes me a) want to see what the Spanish consider to be paradise, and b) stop telling Spaniards about my deep affection and month-long affair with Cádiz. I've made a quick compare/contrast list to hopefully help clarify this. 

Cádiz

- short for Cádiz de la frontera

- lined by cobblestone streets

- bordered by white sand beaches

- setting for Halle Berry’s divorce-inducing beach scene in “Tomorrow Never Dies.”          

Alabama 

- known for cotton

- the civil rights movement

- Evangelical Christians. 

- Setting for Rosa Park's civil rights inducing scene on a bus in 1955.

I think it's relatively easy to spot the differences between the two places. Last time I checked, Alabama didn’t have white sand beaches, or Halle Berry for that matter. However, Alabama did have Rosa Parks, who, in my book, is just as much of a babe as Halle Berry, if not more. What Cádiz and Alabama both have in common, and what I believe is the foundation of this comparison, is a thick accent, the people’s status as Spanish ‘red-necks,' and of course a mutual love for great hairstyles. Let's try comparing the people of the two places instead.

 Alabama

- They have southern drawls, accents only found in the deep, dirty south of the U.S.A.. 

-  Big fans of mullets and rat-tails

 Cádiz, 

- They have a huge accent, where they do not pronounce the ‘s’ in words. 

- They make Alabama look like they just found out about mullets and rat-tails this century.

In Spanish, it turns out that there are a lot of words with ‘s.’ For example, “We go to Spain, I am from Cádiz” translates to “Vamos a España, soy de Cádiz.” Apparently several states in Andalucía in addition to Cádiz, pronounce this like they don’t have toungues, i.e. “amoh ah Eh – paña, oy de Kah-dee.” While this accent makes it really hard to understand Spanish, it does help explain the comparison between the two states. Basically, a shared appreciation for the infamous ‘rat-tail’ and mullet, a southern accent, and a mutual love of a good time make these places disturbingly similar.

I would also just like to point out that in Cádiz, they say ‘picha,’ which translates to the equivalent of ‘dude.’ Recently, I found out that 'picha' means penis everywhere else in Spain. That was a fun conversation.

So basically, people in Cádiz are the equivalents of rednecks in America, and that is why Spaniards make this unexpected comparison. Personally, while I have never been to Alabama, I hear it’s lovely this time of year, and if it’s anything like Cádiz, it would make for a great trip. I think I might go just to try and bridge the distance created by the Atlantic Ocean in between mutual mullet lovers. 

Word of the Day: Sorreño - Southern. Los sorreños del sur del E.E.U.U y España tienen muchas semejanzas. The southerners of the south of the U.S.A and Spain have many similarities.