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I've been a tourist in Spain a couple of times (a very good friend of mine lives there). I've been to Catalonia. I've been to Europe several times.
I think something Americans MAY not fully appreciate is that those countries there that we're so familiar with are actually mixtures of very old and quite distinctive cultures - in which people take great pride. It's really true in most of Europe. Some of these countries we now know are not very old and are the result of some king marrying some queen - and not because of any "marriage" of culture or language. Spain today is a mixture of several such cultures - each with distinctive languages, foods, etc. and with considerable pride in such. I think we're seeing a great revival in such all over Europe - and it's beginning to overwhelm the POLITICAL stuff that held it together as one country. The dissolving of the Soviet Union and of Yugoslovia and Czekoslovakia may have been renewed vision of this. Witness the narrow vote of Scotland awhile back. And of course, with the EU and the Euro, with the decline in military treats, there's less reason to be united in nation states such as Spain.
I have no idea where this will go..... it might be the wave of the 21st century, we may see several nation/states built up since the middle ages all come unraveled and the rise of many new countries based on old cultures. Or this could be a passing thing and what seemed to be the tread before this - toward one Europe - come about. And maybe even some combo of the two. Hold on to your hats.
I think the USA is simply too young for anything like this (although witness our biggest crisis - about 100 years after our founding!). But as a southern Californian, I've been to Texas.... and folks, it's different there! It's just a different culture! I like the whole Texas thing..... it's a good culture.... but very different than it is on the southern, urban coast of The People's Republic of California. I've been to rural New England.... and it's different there - a bit of a different culture. But these a faint and slight compared to what often exists within countries in Europe. In spite of now most speak English.... all use their credit cards for money (let the banks work out the technicalities!) and wear jeans and Nike's. Under those SEEMING similarities.... there are deep, old, treasured differences. And people seeing there's nothing significant keeping them from once again being their own independent country (except the rest of that country which may feel rather like many in the USA did in 1861).
