"Old olive trees thirsty
under the clear sun of the day,
dusty olive groves
of the Andalusian countryside,"
Antonio Machado
The southern part of Spain, the "Newest Castile", as it was called after the Reconquista in the Middle Ages, is a very old land. The main river, the Guadalquivir, is an old river that flows wearily into the Atlantic Ocean, crossing the lowlands of western Andalusia. Historically, this part of the world is also one of the oldest. The city of Cádiz is three thousand years old; Málaga, Seville, have existed for more than two millennia; Andalusia was highly civilized long before the Christian era.
I don't think Andalusia can be understood merely as a Mediterranean country. On the one hand, it extends on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar, belonging to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. On the other hand, Andalusia leans on Castile, the gentle plains are a softer version of the harsher plateaus, below Sierra Morena or the snow-capped peaks of Sierra Nevada, a few kilometers from the custard apple fields or cotton plantations.
The main feature of the Andalusian landscape is what is usually called the "olive grove", where this is an adequate word for the botanical and scenic reality. In other places in the Mediterranean basin, olive trees grow in small forests; here, vast expanses of land - plains, hills, the Guadalquivir valley - are covered with olive trees; you can travel for hours among them. The olive grove is not exactly a forest, nor is it "mountain". The olive trees are small, never densely planted; they are individual trees, neatly upright, apart, without intermingling their branches. There is no confusion among the olive trees, the most classic trees in the world. They give only a scant shade; their leaves are small, pale green, grayish, the sunlight makes them shine like silver; under the moon they seem even more silvery, with a mysterious halo that they will lose at dawn, when the owls interrupt their silent flights and the diurnal birds wake up, sing and look for almost ripe olives.
The Andalusian landscape has a vibrant quality, a sensual atmosphere that envelops everything, the natural and the human alike. It is the most pleasant region of Spain, and so it has been felt by all the peoples who have lived on its soil for about thirty centuries: Tartessians, Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Jews, Castilian settlers, that unique mixture of races and cultures that has made the Andalusian style possible.
Andalusia has exerted, century after century, a fascinating charm on visitors from all countries; it has fascinated, and this is even more surprising, its own natives of all races, languages and cultures. Everyone who approaches Andalusia seems to fall in love with it. Why?
Beauty is not enough. There are many beautiful places in the world, more impressive than anything that can be found in this old land of the South. There is an element of charm, of seduction, which cannot be reduced to forms, to anything strictly pictorial. When you are in Andalusia, you have the impression that your own possibilities increase; the outline is not only beautiful, it is promising, seductive, friendly, inciting: the right setting for a happy life. Andalusia is the natural feast of the Iberian Peninsula.
What is the current situation? How much is nature modified by human action? How much of the beauty of this old land is still preserved?
Recently, many beautiful places by the sea have been desecrated by urbanization: ugly houses, skyscrapers, department stores hide the most beautiful views; old trees have been cut down for profit. The same could be said of the vicinity of large cities. However, Andalusia as a whole is still little affected.
Some changes in the social and economic structure have strong consequences for the physical appearance of Andalusia. The big cities attract many people, the small towns are abandoned; there are fewer and fewer farmers; in places where the soil is poor, the rain is scarce, traditional agriculture yields too little, the peasants emigrate. A vast space will perhaps be sparsely populated in the near future, while other spaces are beginning to be overpopulated.
Let's hope that the Andalusians take care of the amazing beauty of their land, of the value of expression, diversity, surprise, as remedies against monotony, homogeneity, depression, boredom, the worst threat against the search for happiness in our time. And it is that as the poet said. "If I get lost in the world, look for me in Andalusia".
Francisco Arias Solis