Because You Never Asked

(This essay was written in 1997)

     My modest proposal in writing these essays is to discuss and define the universal state of our existence from the dawn of time to the end of eternity.  I am not a sports writer. However, in bringing the above stated goal to fruition, the road can lead most anywhere.

     The sport of tennis has never been a stranger in the land of Quijote. The Spanish culture has managed to produce an odd champion or two, most notably Manuel Santana and Manuel Orantes, Wimbledon and US Open champions respectively. These isolated examples of racquet success seem trivial compared to the explosion of talent now being developed on the sunny side of the Pyrenees. Though I am not sure of the current rankings, just a few months ago there were more Spanish players in the top 100 than any other nation. This success, as personified by Sergi Bruguera's two French titles in '93-'94, was once confined to the red clay habitat on which the Spaniards first learn to play. It is now being felt on all surfaces.

     The most compelling match of the '96 season was protagonized by the Spaniard Alex Corretja and the world's unquestioned #1 player, Pete Sampras, played on the latter's home field hard courts at the US Open. It took Pete five exhausting, torturous, upchucking sets of tennis to finally subdue his opponent. At the end of this epic struggle, Corretja looked as if he could go out and get a bit more exercise, while Sampras had all the bounce of a German soldier surrendering at Stalingrad. At the recently completed Australian Championships, remarkably enough, 3 of the 8-quarter finalists were from Spain. The latest revelation, the Antonio Banderas-like Carlos Moya, conquered the legendary Boris Becker and the world's most stubborn athlete, Michael Chang, before falling in the final to the incomparable Sampras.

     This is not an isolated player or two. This is a wave of talent welling up from the Spanish innards. How did this happen?

     The Iberian Peninsula has always been a high quality quarry of athletic talent waiting to be exploited. It took a change in the socio-political landscape of the country to bring it out.

     This rising tide of tennis talent in Spain could never have happened under a regime like Francisco Franco's, and not because of its dictatorial, undemocratic personality, but more because it was not an "inclusive" regime. The ideas "democracy" and "totalitarian", as given to us through our mainstream media outlets, can be very misleading. No matter how totalitarian a government might be, the popular will, with varying degrees of pain and suffering, will eventually become relevant. Conversely, even in the most democratic regimes, there are always back stage power brokers shaping the status quo to their own self-serving concepts of acceptability. We are operating in very gray areas here, with the concepts "democracy" and "totalitarian" generally being defined subjectively for selfish reasons.

     An "inclusive" society is one where every person is considered a potential source of positive achievement and given the chance to fully develop his or her talents. Obviously, this is a somewhat utopian concept, with the creation of a perfectly level playing field being as elusive as trying to catch a butterfly without a net. But it is a goal we can shoot for and some societies come closer than others.

     Many "inclusive" societies have developed under regimes western "spin" would not deem democratic. The ex-Soviet style countries were inclusive societies and Hitler's brand of fascism, if we set aside the various and sundry racial dogmas, neglected none of its citizens' potential talents. On the contrary, there are governments western ga ga would put forth as "democratic" that are far more exclusive than inclusive. Almost all the states of Latin America fall into this category, with majority chunks of each nation's population not being considered for the upper spheres of the country's material-intellectual life.

     Franco failed Spain not for his dictatorial qualities, but more for his instinctive tendency towards "exclusion". He faithfully adhered to an archaic, antiquated social structure that excluded the vast majority of Spain's people from access to a more fulfilling, enlightening experience. It was not until 1982, with the election of Felipe Gonzalez and his left of center political party, that Spain finally found itself living under a regime that was truly inclusive. (Felipe and his people are the spiritual heirs to the government overthrown by Franco militarily in the Spanish Civil War.)

     Gonzalez led his party in power for 13 years and although it has moved to the political center and succumbed to the kind of corruption such longevity almost always gives rise to, it has forever changed the mentality of the Spanish nation. Certainly, in Spain as in other places, there are privileged and disadvantaged people with some being dealt a stronger hand than others. But there is no longer a systematic exclusion of anyone from whatever opportunity Spanish society might offer. Like high quality Spanish tennis, it is here to stay.

     Undoubtedly, Felipe Gonzalez and his party did not contemplate an improvement in Spanish tennis as a part of their political agenda, but it is a logical by-product of their inclusive philosophy. Such a nation is privy to better nutrition, better housing, is better clothed, and, most importantly, will be better educated. An impoverished, materially deprived child is not going to excel in the classroom. One cannot reach the kind of athletic level we are now discussing without a decent educational formation. The athlete-pupil must be able to take good coaching, to pay attention, to concentrate, to discipline oneself, etc. Those lacking a basic educational foundation will find a training environment more difficult to adjust to. Spain's recently established "inclusivity" has swollen the pool of available talent, not just in tennis, but in all athletic endeavors. This improvement in athletic accomplishment is no more than a pleasant surprise in the more fundamental improvement of the Spanish condition on all levels.

     There can be no democracy without inclusivity. When somebody tries to convince you that such and such a country is a "democracy", you must first examine its social laminations. If there is still a well-defined class structure whose borders are difficult to cross, it cannot be considered a democratic country, regardless of its political institutions.

     Relevant Material:  The author describes what it was like when Franco's soldiers arrived to his native town shortly after the conclusion of the Spanish Civil War and closed the public school that had been instituted by the defeated regime of the republic: "When they had carelessly finished loading the contents of the school, the two trucks drove off to who knows where. What had taken so many centuries to accomplish was undone in an hour ." From the collection of short stories, "Cuentos II" (Stories, II), by the Spaniard, F. Garcia Pavon.

     "The only fundamentalism that frightens me is the North American one. (.) . it believes it can impose anything in the name of democracy. That is the new fascism, the new interventionism." From the novel, "La Prueba del Laberinto" (The Test of the Labyrinth), by the Spaniard, Fernando Sanchez Drago.