Asturian Epic Moments

In the last years my understanding of the world, identity and politics has evolved quite a lot, but I still have a certain feeling of being Asturian. So when talking to people here in France I will often talk about Asturies, for the good and for the bad, for the funny and for the depressive... On some occasions I have told them that though we have a cross in our flag and you'll see this cross everywhere, Asturies happens to be one of the less catholic areas of Spain. I explained that celtic pagan traditions had persisted quite longer than in other places, and that this cross is the symbol of the victory of the Astures against Muslims, and that not having been ruled by the Arabs (well, except some villages for a few years) was one of the basis of our identity (unruly, crazy and rebelious Asturians...). A non religious person explaining this to 2 really nice (and devote) Muslims is a quite funny situation.

The other day I wondered what impression would someone get from Asturies if out of curiosity searched on wikipedia for some info about that misterious/exotic place that the freak in the office talks about (once someone at work said to my amused ears "hey, that Asturies thing sounds like pretty exotic, those people you talk about must be almost like aliens"). So, reading some English entries you get quite an epic vision!

From the Battle of Covadonga:

The battle was followed by the creation of an independent Christian principality in the mountains of the northwestern region of the Iberian peninsula that grew into the Kingdom of Asturias and became a bastion of Christian resistance to the expansion of Muslim rule.
...
and soon founded the Kingdom of Asturias, which became a Christian stronghold against further Muslim expansion.

From the Kingdom of Asturies:

The Kingdom of Asturias was, in its infancy, an indigenous reaction of Astures and Cantabri to a foreign invasion. These people had already fought the Romans in the Cantabrian Wars, and initially resisted Romanisation. Although they preserved many characteristics of their pre-Roman culture, their Celtic languages were later lost in favor of Latin.
This kingdom is the birthplace of an influential European medieval architectural style: Asturian pre-Romanesque.

From the Cantabrian and Asturian Wars:

Moreover, there was a tradition among the Cantabri of preferring suicide to slavery. They did this by sword, by fire, or, primarily, by poisoning themselves with potions made for the purpose. According to Silius Italicus they used a concoction made from the seeds of the yew tree, a plant with mythic significance for the Celts. Strabo said that they belittled death and pain, to the point of singing hymns of victory while being crucified.

Note: It talks about the Cantabri, but that applies also to Astures (in the end that difference of Cantabri vs Asturies is rather meaningless

From the Astures:

The Astures were subdued by the Romans but were never fully conquered, and their tribal way of life changed very little.

Those are pretty nice parts. You combine that history with the beautiful landscapes and for sure you get an interesting place. Shame is that when you add to it other facts: one of the most aged societies in the world, the lack of decent public transport, high rate of drugs consumption, the isolation from the rest of the world, the permanent economical crisis having created a totally depressed population (I had to be out for a good while to fully realize that the permanent state of complain, sadness, distrust and self-destructive criticism of good part of the population, me among them when living there, is not at all normal)... the overall picture changes too much...

By the way, it's pretty interesting for someone that calls both places home too read about the possible relation between the battle of Toulouse (quite unknown when compared to Poitiers, but for some historians almost so important) and that of Covadonga.

On July 9, 721, a Muslim force that had crossed the Pyrenees and invaded the Kingdom of the Franks was defeated by them in the Battle of Toulouse, in present-day France. This was the first serious setback in the Muslim campaign in southwestern Europe. Reluctant to return to Cordoba with such unalloyed bad news, the Ummayad wāli, Anbasa ibn Suhaym Al-Kalbi, decided that putting down the rebellion in Asturias on his way home would afford his troops an easy victory and raise their flagging morale.