Hispanic Heritage: Celebrating Cultural Identity Through Spanish

I was meant to be writing about Spanish verb conjugations today. Instead, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of how the language acts as a living archive for entire civilisations. Whoops.

Spanish as a cultural time capsule

Every time someone says Ojalá (hopefully), they’re accidentally speaking medieval Arabic. The word comes from insha'Allah, preserved during 800 years of Moorish rule in Spain. There are hundreds of these linguistic fossils:

• Azúcar (sugar) from as-sukkar
• Aceituna (olive) from az-zaytūnah
• Even hasta (until) comes from Arabic hatta

When food becomes grammar

The Argentinian habit of using che as a filler word (like “mate” or “dude”) comes from Mapuche indigenous language. Meanwhile, Caribbean Spanish absorbed Taino words for local flora/fauna:

Regional dialects as cultural rebellion

In Chile, the rapid-fire, consonant-dropping accent developed partly as a class marker against colonial elites. Meanwhile, Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina/Uruguay) adopted Italian cadences from 19th century immigrants – listen to tango lyrics for proof. For more on musical influences, see our guide to learning Spanish through music.

Some regionalisms are shockingly recent: Mexican Spanish only adopted tú (informal “you”) nationwide in the 20th century, previously using vos like Argentina does today.

Idioms that reveal worldviews

Spanish idioms often reflect cultural priorities:

• Más se perdió en Cuba (“More was lost in Cuba”) – A Spanish shrug about minor misfortunes, referencing the 1898 colonial loss
• Salir al inglés (“To leave like an Englishman”) – Argentinian phrase for leaving without saying goodbye
• No hay mal que por bien no venga – Literally “No bad from which good doesn’t come”, showing cultural optimism

This linguistic time-travelling explains why learning Spanish properly requires understanding its cultural contexts. Now, back to those verb conjugations I was meant to be studying...