Are all great artists nationalists of their country?

September, 19; 2024. By Arscodex

Today we are going to touch on a subject that may be tricky, perhaps not so much; it is that after a brief review of the lives of great artists throughout history we can see that many of them were "nationalists" of their country, that is, they liked their homeland very much, so to speak.

Thus, in a not very exhaustive list we can see that the creator of Tintin, yes, the Belgian Hergé, was, according to many sources, a "nationalist" of his country, Belgium. The same occurs with Dante Alighieri, yes, the writer of the Divine Comedy, who helped shape the nation known as Italy today. In the same way, Walt Disney, yes, the US film producer, promoted the "American lifestyle" of the 20th century with his films.

The reader will have noticed that the one who writes (yes, Pedro Alonso Pablos), is also... let's say... a little "nationalist" of his country, Spain. In this case I would call it, more than "Spanish nationalist", "Spanish imperialist", ha, ha, ha; let us remember that Spain was an empire thanks to the fact that it was under its crown that America was discovered. Anyway, the reader will be able, I hope, to empathize with this humorous and mischievous tone that the writer is using.

Well, here we have several examples from various parts of the world in different times, outlining what we have commented, that artists tend to be very conservative and be very "nationalistic".

In the case of Spain, let us remember that this publication is posted on the internet and can be read by anyone in the world, the writer considers that we have many good things but of course, "not everything that glitters is gold". As good things we can mention the "Spanish lifestyle", perhaps uncomplicated and relaxed; This style is accentuated as we move southwards and has its peak in Andalusia, that land of dreams, where, as they say, and as was captured in the film El embrujo del sur by Juanba Berasategi, "nobody feels like a foreigner". Without a doubt this lifestyle, in the present and in the future of humanity, is a "winning horse", because people want to have no complications of any kind and enjoy themselves.

But let no one be fooled, behind that good humour and friendliness, we have some flaws here in Spain, among which are envy, a rather national sentiment, and some others such as a certain depressing halo that is manifested in that realistic literature and cinema (Don Quijote, El lazarillo de Tormes...).

But listen, isn't it appropriate to focus mainly on the good things in each thing? That's it.

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