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I have been learning Spanish all my life. I joined a Mexican religious order in my teens and it was incumbent on all of us to speak the language of Mexico and indeed Latin America.

Since those early days, I have had a romance with Spain and everything Spanish. I can find definitely find where Spain is on the map and it's diverse history, it's location in Europe both historically and geographically has always captivated me.

However, I have visited the Spanish state only once and that was a trip to Barcelona with my daughter. Having read Orwell and Hemingway and lots of material on the Spanish Civil War, the separateness of Catalunya impressed me greatly. There were so many sights and delights in the Catalan capital - La Sagradia Familia and it's ongoing state of construction, Las Ramblas with it's wide and sweeping boulevard and of course the Nou Camp, scene of so many great Catalan triumphs throughout it's troubled and colourful history.

This can be replicated again and again throughout the varied cultures of the Spanish Republic. Because of this diversity with it's array of language and culture, maybe the Castillian language was destined to unite the Spanish state to enable communication?

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