Irritating foreigners

A BIT like wasps around a jam pot, the British me‐dia is buzzing with sto ‐ries about a so‐called se‐cret Spanish word for irritating foreigners which is Guiri.

This writer has owned a property in Spain for more than 20 years and neighbours have been calling him a Guiri for all that time, when they can’t think of anything more appropriate.

flict, a claim that the Spanish government has denied.

In response, the Spanish For‐eign Minister demanded that the embassy remove the post, which they did. The ambas‐sador was subsequently sum‐moned where he received a warning.

Despite this incident, Spain continues to play an active role in supporting Ukraine. The country has already provided tanks, missiles, and other sup‐plies and plans to train more Ukrainian troops soon.

To the Spanish it im ‐mediately explains something about the person who may like to think of themselves as ei‐ther an expat or a holi ‐day maker, but in fact is a just a foreigner.

It isn’t always insult ‐ing, just describes who the person is and is prob‐ably less offensive than the British word Dago or Chilean word Godo (and there is another but that is too rude to repeat in a family newspaper) to a Spaniard.

There are at least two songs which spell out the meaning of the word, Guiris (go home) by La Maquineria del Fango and Guiris by Los Ra ‐tones, but if you are British or Irish, don’t worry, it’s aimed at any foreigner who gets into a Spaniard’s sights.

So emotive is the word that various Spanish newspapers have picked up on the ‘storm in a tea cup’ as can be seen from an article in La Van ‐guardia.

In this woke atmo ‐sphere we live in today, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me’ may no longer be the case, but at least we stiff upper lip Guiris can learn to live with it.