Spanish People, Recreation and Some Facts
and Figures
Introduction
 Spaniards or Spanish people, are a
Romance nation native to Spain. Within
Spain, there are a number of National and
regional ethnic identities that reflect the
country’s complex history and diverse
cultures, including a number of different
languages, among which Spanish is the
majority language and the only
one that is official throughout
the whole country.
 But today, Spanish people like to party and
Madrid is the place most known for it. There
are so many different clubs that you can go
to a different one every day of your
Erasmus + exchange and still have many
more to discover.
 What they drink is beer (lots of beer) and
tinto de verano (wine mixed with softs drinks
such as soda). Sangria is not something so
commonly drunk among young people, but
tourists normally do not leave Spain without
trying it at least once. Of course, they also
make stronger drinks.
 The Spaniards are friendly, kind and active,
really active! Especially if compared to the
majority of Europeans. They like to meet
friends for a drink, enjoy the good weather,
good food and parties. They are cheerful,
hospitable and very funny.
Facts and Other Figures in Spain
 Spain is known for its flamenco dance. In
Andalusia, in many towns and villages
people dance the flamenco for special
festivities. Some of the best flamenco
dancers are said to be the Romani people
(‘gitanos’ in Spanish). The gitanos arrived to
Spain in the XV century and still conserve
their own language and traditions. In the
image you can see girls performing the
flamenco at a fiesta in Seville.
Flamenco
 The Spanish are also known for their great
festivals, such as the ‘Tomatina’ and the
‘Running of the Bulls’.
 The ‘Tomatina’ festival in the small town of
Buñol, to the west of Valencia, is the world’s
biggest food fight, as the people throw
tomatoes at each other. The festival takes
place every year in August, but the event
only takes one hour, as the people throw
tomatoes at each other.
 Another famous spanish festival takes place
in the town of Pamplona in Northern Spain.
The highlight of the festival is the ‘Running
of the Bulls’. Six bulls are chasing people
who try to run away in front of the animals.
Bullfights also are popular events in the
arenas of several cities, but are banned in
others.
 The people of Tarragona gather every two
years at the Castells Festival in October to
build human towers.
 The competition includes four teams of
athletes from the city and in total more than
40 teams from all over Spain. Sometimes
the human towers reach up to 11 metres.
Facts About Spain that Few People Knows
 In Spanish New Year’s tradition, Spaniard
eating twelve green grapes at midnight, they
thought it can bring good luck.
 Spain officially remained neutral during
World War I and World War II
 Spain’s national anthem has no lyrics.
 According to Spanish legend, when children
lose a baby tooth, a mouse will exchange it
for present.
 The Spanish town Bunol hosts an annual
tomato-throwing festival called “La
Tomatina”.
 Rio Ebro is the longest river in Spain with
910km/566miles.
 El Teide on Tenerife (Canary Islands) is the
highest mountain of Spain with
3,718m/12,198 ft. El Tiede is a dormant
volcano.
 Mallorca is the largest island of Spain
(which is part of the Balearic Islands)
 Lake Sanabria is the Largest natural lake in
Spain
 Mar Menor is the largest saltwater Iagoon in
Spain, which is also considered as the
largest salt lake in Europe.
 Madrid is the largest city of Spain
 The five biggest cities in Spain are:
-Madrid with 3.3 million inhabitants
-Barcelona with 1.5 million inhabitants
-Valencia with roughly 800 000 inhabitants
-Sevilla with about 700 000 inhabitants
 -Zaragoza with more than 600 000
inhabitants
And here are some useful and basic Spanish
words:
*Buenos días: Good day
* ¡Hola! Hello
*¿Qué tal? How are you?
*adiós: bye bye
*gracias: thank you
*Te quiero: I love you
 As you can see the Spanish language uses
inverted question marks and exclamation
marks and letter which have symbols,
accents, on them, such as the n with an
accent called ‘tilde’ in: España
Famous and Well-Known Spanish Artist
1. Miguel de Cervantes – A Spanish author of
‘Don Quixote’
2. Manuel de Falla – Spanish composer
3. Joan Miró – A Spanish sculptur and painter
4. Salvador Dalí – Spanish painter who
created surrealist paintings such as this one
with the clock faces slipping down.
5. Pablo Picasso – Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25
October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish
painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and
theatre designer who spent most of his adult
life in France.
Endangered Species in Spain
1. Iberian Lynx
 The Iberian lynx is the world’s most
endangered feline species. There are real
fears that it may soon become the first cat
species to become extinct for at least 2,000
years. They are categorize as critically
endangered by many institutions,
including the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature. The Iberian lynx is
a rabbit specialist with a low ability to adapt
its diet. A sharp drop in the population of its
main food source, a result of two diseases,
contributed to the feline’s decline.
 The lynx was also affected by the loss of
scrubland, its main habitat, to human
development, including changes in land use
and the construction of roads and dams.
The Iberian lynx portrays many of the typical
characteristics of lynxes, such as tufted
ears, long legs, short tail, and a ruff of fur
that resembles a “beard”.
 Unlike its Eurasian relatives, the Iberia lynx
is tawny colored and spotted. The coat is
also noticeably shorter than in other lynxes,
which are typically adapted to colder
environments
2. Iberian Wolf
 The Iberian wolf differs from the more
common Eurasian wolf with its slighter
frame, white marks on the upper lips, the
dark marks on the tail and a pair of dark
marks in its front legs that give it its
subspecies name, Signatus (“marked”).
 Males can weigh up to 40 kilograms, with
females usually weighing between 20 and
30 kg. The Iberian wolf lives in small packs.
It is considered to be beneficial because it
keeps the population of wild boar stable.
 Until the 1900s the Iberian wolf inhabited
the majority of the Iberian Peninsula.
However, Spain’s Francoist government
started an extermination campaign during
the 1950s and 1960s that wiped out the
animals from all of Spain except the
northwestern part of the country, where
there is still a sizable population in Sierra de
la Culebra. Similar policies in Portugal
almost led to the extinction of the animal
south of the Douro River, where there are
still some surviving packs.
3. Cantabrian Brown bear
 Cantabrian brown bear refers to a
population of Eurasian brown bears (Ursus
arctos arctos) living in the Cantabrian
Mountains of Spain.
 Females weigh, on average, 85 kg but can
reach a weight of 150 kg. Males average
115 kg though can weigh as much as 200
kg. The bear measures between 1.6 – 2m in
length and between 0.90 -1m at shoulder
height.
 In Spain, it is known as the Oso pardo
cantábrico and, more locally, in Asturias as
Osu. It is timid and will avoid human contact
whenever possible. The Cantabrian brown
bear can live for around 25–30 years in the
wild.
  An ongoing project to clone the Pyrenean
subspecies resulted in one clone being born
alive in January 2009. This is the first taxon
to become “un-extinct”, although the clone
died a few minutes after birth due to
physical defects in lungs.
 The Iberian ibex Capra pyrenaica populates
the Iberian Peninsula and consisted
originally of four subspecies. However, with
recent extinctions occurring within the last
century, only two of the subspecies still
4. The Spanish Imperial Eagle
exist. These two subspecies of ibexes, the
 The Spanish imperial eagle or Iberian
Capra pyrenaica hispanica and the Capra
imperial eagle is a threatened species of
pyrenaica victoriae, can be found along the
eagle that only occurs in central and south-
Spanish Iberian Peninsula and have even
west Spain, adjacent areas of Portugal and
migrated and settled into the coast of
possibly northern Morocco [dubious –
Portugal.
discuss], although the latter is disputed.
 Formerly, the Iberian imperial eagle was
considered to be a subspecies of the
eastern imperial eagle, but is now widely
recognised as a separate species due to
differences in morphology, ecology, and
molecular characteristics.
 The Spanish imperial eagle averages
smaller, 2.5–3.5 kilograms (5.5–7.7 lb), 78–
82 centimetres (31– 32 in) in length and
180–210 centimetres (71–83 in) in
wingspan, and darker than its eastern
cousin, and is a resident species (eastern
imperial is partially migratory). 6. El Hierro giant lizard
 It feeds mainly on rabbits, but can prey on  About 200 giant lizards (Gallotia Simonyi)
many other animals, such as partridges, are estimated to live around the cliffs of El
rodents, hares, pigeons, crows, ducks and Hierro, one of the Canary Islands. Despite
even small dogs. being subject to reintroduction programmes
 The species is classified as Vulnerable by on other Canary Islands such as Tenerife,
IUCN. Threats include loss of habitat, poaching and predation from other animals,
human encroachment, collisions with pose a significant threat to the iconic
pylons, and illegal poisoning. There has species’ continued survival.
also been a decline in the rabbit
populations, as a result of myxomatosis and
other viral illnesses. The current population
is estimated at less than 500.

7. Mediterranean Monk Seal

 Pollution, over-fishing and discarded plastic
5. Spanish Ibex
 The Iberian ibex, Spanish ibex, Spanish wild
goat, or Iberian wild goat (Capra pyrenaica)
is a species of ibex with four subspecies.
 Of these, two can still be found on the
Iberian Peninsula, but the remaining two are
now extinct. The Portuguese subspecies
became extinct in 1892 and the Pyrenean
subspecies became extinct in 2000.
have all contributed to making the
Mediterranean Monk Seal (Monachus
Monachus) one of the world’s rarest
mammals, its population thought to have
been reduced by 60 percent since the mid-
twentieth century - there are around 400 left
in the Mediterranean.
Sports And Recreation in Spain
1. Soccer
 The most popular sport in Spain is soccer.
Homes and bars are filled with fans
cheering for their teams when there are
important games. Along with soccer, other
sports include basketball and car or
motorcycle racing. Soccer is mostly played
by men, but both men and women like
swimming, biking, and hiking. Hunting,
skiing, and fishing are also popular in
certain areas.
2. Pade
 The sport Pádel, made famous by former
president José María Aznar, is a tennis-like
sport played by 4 people in a small
racquetball court. Bull riding, considered
more of an art than a sport, is as well a
popular source of entertainment throughout
Spain.