18 June 10-World Cup

I have never been a fan of football, never understood the beautiful game and didn't hesitate to change the channel every time I saw a football pitch in the TV screen. I can't understand what's the big deal with watching a bunch of guys chasing a ball and trying to get it in the net, unless it was to do with the footballers legs!!!; but something happened to me last Wednesday when Spain was playing their first match in the world cup. There I was sitting at my desk in my office surrounded by all my English work colleagues and most of them were making comments about the match and how Spain was one down. All of the sudden I found myself wanting, willing Spain to win the match, to score, to show those Swiss what a good Spanish "matador" can do!!...it wasn't to be, Spain lost and i got a few jokes from my colleagues.

This make me think about what I was feeling and ask myself a question: Why was it so important for Spain to win?

I know it wasn't about the football but more to do with been Spanish in a foreign country. I got a few friends spread around the globe and I was reading their comments on the match on facebook. All around the world there were people rooting for Spain to win. Isn't that amazing??, a football match uniting all Spanish people around the world, leaving behind distance, and all glued to the TV, radio or computer.

I think, at least it is for me, we are looking for identity. I have been in the UK now for over 13 years and even that I have adapted to their culture and "way" of doing things, I still feel my chest expand when i say "I'm Spanish".

I still don't understand football and still don't see what is all about, but in a world cup we are there, our country is there, Spain identity is in those players chasing that ball, our culture is in every goal, our pride in every try, in every occasion that the ball hit the post.

Doesn't matter where life take us, how many frontiers we cross, how many languages we learn, we are Spanish, we are a bit of siesta and a bit of Spanish omelets!!

We are our grandfathers and their insistence that life was better when Franco was "caudillo" of Spain, we are our parents when they told us off for been a bit naughty, or those fights we had with them when we were young and we knew better than anyone, we are those "verbenas" in the park on our neighbourhood "fiesta", we are our brothers and sisters and the laugh, and the fights, Christmas at home and the New Years eve when we got dress with that outfit we bought months before, and went to those parties that always started after having the grapes at our parents house. We are sun and "corrida de Toros", we are "los encierros de Pamplona", we are red and yellow, Cervantes y Don Quijote, Perez Galdos y Trafalgar, Sangria and good gazpacho.

I don't know about football, or the world cup, but this year I will be cheering every time Spain scores and for a bit just feel proud to be Spanish.

So..."SE NOTA, SE SIENTE, ESPANA ESTA PRESENTE!!!".