We were intrigued to read about the recent paleontological discovery in Teruel. Teruel, you may recall, is a town in eastern Spain that felt itself so neglected by government that in 1999 residents formed their own political party, called rather desperately ‘Teruel existe’ (Teruel exists), and got themselves elected to Parliament in Madrid. It now transpires that Teruel can actually boast of its prominence on an epochal time-scale, since it has been identified as a haunt for Diplodocus, a giant dinosaur hitherto only found in North America. The Teruel find dates back some 150 million years. No other community in Spain can claim to have been inhabited as long ago as that. Should the town’s slogan now become ‘Teruel pre-existe’?
The BAS/UoG Sixth Form Spanish Essay Competition is always a good start to the academic year, reminding us how many aspects of the Spanish-speaking world there are to inspire each successive generation. It’s also reassuring to be reminded that quality essay-writing is still appreciated in the era of AI. (In case anyone is wondering, we do use software to check AI stylistic overlap and plagiarism – no issues to date.) For what it’s worth, this year a majority of contestants were female – confirming a trend across the five years of the Competition. It is good to see that some entrants were again from outside the UK, reflecting the international readership of the Bulletin.
In recent years we have offered translations into English of one or two articles in each edition – principally Clara Riveros’ reporting from the Americas, reflecting the high number of readers we have in the United States to whom we wish that reporting to be accessible irrespective of each reader’s linguistic skills. In this edition we decided to make the winning entry in our Essay Competition available not just in Spanish (the language in which it was submitted) but also in English. When we first offered translations we did them ourselves, so unreliable was the translation software. Now the software is far better. Proof-reading and sub-editing is still essential, but the improved quality of online tools prompts reflection for those among us who have studied and practised the art of translation.
Heading into this Autumn edition we were struck by the way that during 2026 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez set out to make Spanish foreign policy a referente (marker) in terms of morality and reason in a troubled world. We were due to interview The Economist’s Madrid correspondent Michael Reid along these lines, only for the political landscape in Spain to be upended in the days leading up to the launch of this edition. Given the risk of our original questions being overtaken by events, we decided to delay our analysis of the Spanish political scene until 2027. Little danger that Spanish politics will have lost its news-worthiness by then. Meanwhile, readers seeking political subject matter will find plenty to chew over in Clara’s report on the 2026 elections in Colombia – a country that often seems to function as a bell-weather for the entire region.
It was heartening to hear Mr Sánchez remark in September that the UK would be welcomed back into the EU fold if it were to re-apply for membership. Other European leaders adopted a similarly benevolent tone – admirably magnanimous of them given the nuisance inflicted by UK politicians on their EU counterparts over the past decade. Recent opinion polls have indicated that roughly 60% of the UK electorate would be in favour of rejoining. One would have to be an optimist, though, to think that rationality would prevail if EU membership were put to the test in another UK referendum.
Legislation over assisted dying has been in the spotlight in the UK, with new proposals falling foul of parliamentary scruples. Compare this with Spanish legislation, where euthanasia is not dependent on a medical assessment of death within a certain time-frame, but rather on the degree of suffering of the individual.
We would welcome your feedback on these, as indeed any other topics, via the Contact Us button on the menu bar.
