Do you feel truly Spanish?

“Some people say it is possible to become truly Spanish if one makes an effort. Others, on the contrary, think that to be truly Spanish one must have been born Spanish. Which of these opinions do you agree with more?”.

It is not the start of a bad joke. Nor is it an entrance test to an academy of patriots. It is a real question from a real survey by the CIS, the Sociological Research Centre of Spain, which recently kindly invited me to respond about the country's social reality.

There were a lot of questions. Some, predictable. Others, disturbing. But the section dedicated to the pride of being Spanish deserved a chapter of its own: “Would the world be a better place if people from other countries were like Spaniards?”, they asked. Among the options, from totally agree to totally disagree, there was a modest “I wouldn’t know what to say”, surely intended for people who, at that moment, were staring at the screen, hallucinating.

They also wanted to know: “Would you prefer to have Spanish nationality over any other?”, “In general, is Spain better than most other countries?”, “Should people support their country, even when it is wrong?”. I found the latter to be beautiful. Blind love, romantic love, turned into official statistics. Divine.

And when it seemed that things couldn't go any further, the big question arrived: if I feel truly Spanish. Truly. Not just Spanish. Not legally. Not administratively. Not according to the ID card. By the way, who has the card? Where is it collected? Does it expire? Does it give points? No, it's not a card, they want to know if you truly feel it. Truly, the word is magnificent, dramatic, dense. Truly. As if there were a secret essence, a kind of designation of origin that some have incorporated and others have to earn through effort – let's remember that one of the possible answers was “A person can become truly Spanish if they make an effort”.

But what effort, exactly? Eat more croquettes? Or more potato omelette? Know all the verses of a song without lyrics? Celebrate the national team's goals? Endure the heat in August without complaining? Queue without complaining? Defend Eurovision with fervor? Or shout “viva!” loudly at specific moments?

I don't know if the far-right has entered the CIS to redecorate offices or if, on the contrary, someone very, very clever has decided to hold up a mirror to society to see how many exclusionary, racist, supremacist ideas continue to run rampant so calmly. Because in this survey – the first one the CIS has invited me to in my life – I only see two options: either institutional frivolity or a precise radiography of a big problem. What I do know is that the survey left me perplexed. And that's a lot, because at this point I assure you that I myself have seen things.