Escolta, Espanya – la veu d’un fill
que parla en llengua – no castellana:
parlo en la llengua – que m’ha donat
la terra aspra.
En ‘questa llengua – pocs t’han parlat;
en altra, massa.
I must teach the Peninsular survey – another course in a field about which I know not enough, and which is not on my personal list of things I want to know more about. But I can entertain myself by thinking about Spain and otherness, Spain the Other of Europe and Spain and its Others. We can study the idea of the Hispanic “race” as it was formed in this period, and I can try to think back through the Inquisition on this matter.
Race and grammar would actually be a good title for something; I should work out the ideas to go with the phrase.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
Always the mystery. So you feel that even though Spanish is your language.
Ah, but I can speak Portuguese and Catalan, and understand galego and provenzal more or less, and Ladino, and I’ve studied Arabic and Latin.
Seriously, though, my Spanish is good but English is my language, and I am not a Peninsular specialist. And Spain is a multilingual and multilayered place, and it is in the Mediterranean.