Abercrombie and Fitch and the Yankees. Pure American traditions, right?

Well, despite the different culture that Spain has developed over centuries, something still makes it look abroad for more.

And the place it looks? The United States.

Yet another surprise that came from being in Spain is the stranglehold that American culture seems to hold on so many aspects of Spanish life. Here are just a few things that are far more prevalent in Spain that you would ever guess:

1. Clothing brands. Here, Abercrombie and Fitch and Ralph Lauren are the things to own. If you can show you’ve been to the US, you instantly gain 20 coolness points.

2. TV shows. At least a quarter of the shows with the highest ratings every night are imported from the United States and redone in Spanish. Think “Dancing with the Stars” (”¡Mira quién baila!”), “Big Brother” (”Gran hermano”), and “CSI Miami” — consistently some of the most-viewed shows every week.

3. Hollywood. I would argue that not only have many Spaniards seen the same movies as we have in the United States, but that they know more about our movie stars than we do. For God’s sakes, I watched a game show that involved matching habits to US movie stars and I knew nothing while the contestants got every question right. Every question.

4. Sports teams. While I am no aficionado of any sport in the US, I have a general idea of which team plays which sport. However, in Madrid, Yankees hats run rampant and people don jerseys appropriate for the World Series, which I was unaware was even going on at the time (I know, I know, sue me). The World Series, as far as I know, is for baseball, which is not, by and large, a European sport.

I was entirely unprepared for the onslaught of familiarity that besieges me daily on the streets of Madrid. The idea that a large portion of the population here consumes American culture — perhaps without even realizing it — is quite mind boggling.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to stare as I see a guy walk by with a Yankees hat and Phillies jersey (woo!) and I’ll keep in mind that Gran hermano is just as bad in Spanish as its English equivalent.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.