HERE are some snippets from history – football, racism and voice-overs – decide for yourself you think January 13 is an anniversary worth celebrating!
LIONEL MESSI
On Saturday, 13 January 2019, Barcelona beat Eibar 3-0.
So what?
Well, one of those goals was Messi’s 400th for his club.
Whether you love him, hate him, or are indifferent, you can’t deny the fact that Lionel Messi has made his mark on the world.
The 38-year-old has been playing football for 20 years, principally for Barcelona and his native Argentina.
To rattle off Messi’s achievements is to recite a list of superlatives. He captained club and country.
He was awarded eight ballons d’or, six golden boots and on eight occasions was voted FIFA’s world number one.
No club player, anywhere in the world, has won more trophies (46). Since records began, no striker has netted as many goals in a calendar year – Messi’s best tally was 91.
In his seventeen years with Barça, Messi found the opponents’ net 672 times – yet another record. Bobby Charlton, by comparison, did seventeen years at Old Trafford, but scored only 211 goals.
You could say, “different era”, or “Charlton wasn’t an out-and-out centre forward.” Okay, let’s pull up Harry Kane’s figures.
Kane played for Tottenham Hotspur for 13 years, and scored 213 goals (less than a third of Messi’s total).
Lionel Messi’s career began in 2004, when he made his debut for Barcelona, aged 17, and reached its climax in 2022, when he lifted the World Cup (Argentina beat France in a penalty shoot-out).
Messi is no stranger to controversy. In 2016, he and his father were convicted of an elaborate tax fraud, and received suspended prison sentences.
The player had to pay five million euros in tax arrears, and another three million in fines.
Somehow, we doubt that he’ll have to tighten his belt significantly!
THE GUANCHES
In the early years of the fifteenth century, Spain was not quite a country – its territory was divided in three (Castile in the west, Aragon in the east, and the Arabs in the south).
However, Spanish navigators were already dominating the Atlantic, and the ‘hispanic race’ was growing in confidence.
An obvious target for Spanish expansion was the collection of islands which we now call the Canaries.
The population of the islands were known as ‘Guanches’ – they are now extinct – and the invading Spaniards showed them little mercy.
The Pope felt he had to step in, and halt the aggression. On 13 January, 1435, he issued a Papal Bull (a Church law) which made it a sin to enslave the natives of the Canaries.
THE ‘INDIANS’
Christopher Columbus started it all.
Today, we know that it’s not quite ‘the done thing’ to call the indigenous peoples of the Americas “Indians”. They’re “native Americans” in the USA, and in Canada, “first citizens”.
But Columbus couldn’t get used to the idea that he HADN’T made it to Asia. In his diary, he referred to the inhabitants of the Caribbean as “Indians”, and the name stuck – even though India was nine thousand miles away!
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A concept that we find hard to grasp is that to your average Conquistador, the people of the Caribbean were worthless. Because they’d never heard of Jesus Christ, they were Pagans, outside God’s plan, and therefore no better than animals.
They could be worked to death. Also, to make escape impossible, they could have their Spanish ‘owner’s’ symbol burnt into their flesh.
Once more, the Pope had to intervene. On 13 January 1532, the Vatican made it illegal to brand ‘Indians’.
CONSTANTINO ROMERO
We have to be careful with this one, because while some sources give 13.1.2000 as the date of his death, others disagree (good old Spain!) .
Constantino is someone you may not have HEARD OF, but whom you’ve certainly HEARD. Spain loves to show Hollywood movies on TV, but they have to be dubbed into Spanish.
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Constantino, “voice actor”, did them all – he was John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and many others. Nothing if not versatile, he also did the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger!
Forgive us for being picky, but we at the Olive Press don’t quite savour the full John Wayne bouquet without that slow drawl … “I ain’t gonna punch you – the hell I ain’t!”
Not the same in Spanish, is it?
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