My son is Spanish

Having a teenager tests your ability to respect freedom of thought and expression, especially when one of the intrinsic qualities of this stage of life is to do the opposite of your parents. So, since my concept of Spain is that of a chaotic and disorganized foreign country, filled with fascist seeds that are growing at a worrying rate, my pup has decided to be proud of being Spanish. Furthermore, he's developed a curious philosophical theory about his Spanishness: "You can say 'Long live Spain!' and hate bullfighting," he said the other day—he was very happy because he'd met a very pretty young woman who thinks exactly like him.

I was part of the conversation more as a spectator than a participant and listened to his reflections with interest. I also hoped with all my might that this would be a phase and that when he grows up, he'd do what's necessary: think like his mother, who has tried to manipulate him all his life. What luxury is this, to think differently from the one life has given you after 48 hours of pain, having never lost the 20 kilos he gained with you in the womb and almost not enough?

He insisted a lot that "we are Spanish" – sometimes he recommends I look at what it says on my ID. And I told him that I couldn't care less about Spain, on par with Luxembourg or Transnistria – I think Transnistria interests me more than Spain, in fact. So the child in him came out – that's the wonderful thing about teenagers: they still have a little child inside – and he got angry. He didn't care that I didn't get mad at him for thinking differently. He wanted to make me feel Spanish, and there was no way. And he got even angrier when I started laughing, because it was so funny I wanted to give him a giant hug.

The most reasonable argument my Spanish son put forward to reawaken my Spanishness was that we have social security and schools, while in countries like the United States you can die of diarrhea without anyone caring for you. Here I saw a glimmer of hope: if my puppy is supposed to love Spain for the importance of the public element, to give us all a minimum, to guarantee opportunities for the maximum number of people, I still see an undercurrent, which is the only thing he asks of anyone, whether they think differently or the same as me.