Son of a nice fishy tapas… and nepotism in Spain
by Ben Curtis
Hijo de puta (son of a ‘prostitute’), is up there with the worst swear words in Spanish. It’s even worse than the ‘C’ word, which is actually bandied about freely in bars, at more relaxed dinner tables, and on television. So I was quite surprised to find a tapas called ‘Japuta‘, pictured above, that is blatantly a shortened version of Spain’s most violent phrase.
Japuta itself is basically a white fish, served here fried in a herby batter. We ate it in Cordoba, and it comes highly recommended even by someone not too keen on fish: me.
Anyway, this reminded me once more of a conversation I had with my sister-in-law about my own sister, when she had just got a great job as a reporter at Reuters in London, purely on her own merits (mentioned in a previous post on the enchufe). My sister-in-law said ‘That job in Spain would only be for el hijo de‘ - for the son of… not meaning ‘hijo de puta‘, but rather that any job that good in Spain only goes to people with connections. ‘The son of’ someone important gets a better job. I’m sure this is true, but what I wonder is, how much does this still go on in places like the UK, where everyone is so sure that the stain of nepotism was removed from society years ago?
Posted: September 22nd, 2007 under Spanish Culture and News, Spanish Food and Drink, Tapas of the week.
Comments: 8
Comments
Comment from Frank
Time: September 22, 2007, 11:30 pm
Japuta is a fish!
f. Pez osteíctio perciforme de unos 65 cm de longitud, de color plomizo, con escamas regulares y romboidales, cola en forma de media luna y aleta pectoral muy larga; habita en el Atlántico y el Mediterráneo y su carne es apreciada como alimento.
Comment from Frank
Time: September 22, 2007, 11:34 pm
Antes de nada quiero aclarar que una japuta es un pez también conocido como palometa negra, que sois muy malpensados vosotros, ¿eh?
Comment from MrMark
Time: September 23, 2007, 2:21 pm
Mmm, I’ve even had 1 or 2 of those as free aperitivos in Madrid bars. I didn’t realise what their name was, nor that they were a pun for that expletive.
Muchas gracias Frank por tu aclaracion.
As for nepotism, of course it still exists in the UK (and everywhere where families live of course). More prevalent is the “old-school tie” syndrome. End of the day it’s normal for people to prefer to take on a worker they already know about (and can trust).
Comment from Frank
Time: September 23, 2007, 8:24 pm
One of the biggest examples of “enchufismo” in UK are the Freemasons!! Nobody quite as bent as them!
Comment from Gary
Time: September 23, 2007, 11:36 pm
I miss tapa of the week…
Comment from Edith
Time: September 24, 2007, 8:19 am
Oh yes, ‘enchufismo’ exists in Holand, too. Why is it that CEOs and politicians - to name but a few - hardly ever find themselves out of a job for a very long time?
Comment from luke
Time: September 24, 2007, 12:52 pm
When I considered working as a university lecturer in Madrid, I was told by Spanish friends not to bother since that kind of job was taken up by people in the right families. As an occasional university lecturer in London I can see that there is an element of nepotism here too but this is outweighed by a strong element of ‘positive discrimination’. Institutions want to tick the right boxes when it comes to having enough ethnic minorities or females working for them. In the end both of these systems leave many deserving people out of the loop. I think that the working classes of whatever gender or race are the biggest losers in the UK. Most companies would prefer to take on a woman of Afro-Caribbean descent with a middle class accent to a woman of the same ethnicity with a working class accent. As someone with a middle class accent I can see that I have an unfair advantage; this distinction seems not to exist in Spain.
Comment from ignacio
Time: December 16, 2007, 7:05 am
I find your web due to “10 annoying things about spain” I think this web is really good.
Ok, the japuta is the same than palometa, they are a types of fishes.
usually japuta is only used in the north of spain.
For example the unique place that i know that people calls it japuta is in cantabria.
Sorry for my english.
Maybe the numer 10 annoying thing is “The spanish people is unable the learn english or another language”.
Sorry for my english an be fine in spain.
Write a comment
(No Anonymous Comments Accepted - Valid Email Required)