The most innocuous bit of the email got me into trouble. I had tapped out my usual signature in a hurry without thinking. The Portuguese official’s reprimand was swift and stern. “Please, don’t say ‘saludos’. It is a very Spanish word.”
Indeed it is. It’s Spanish for “regards” and my sign-off had hit a nerve, pulling me into the realm of Portugal-Spain psychodrama wrought by history, pride and the odd acerbic stereotype.
Sweeping generalisations about adjacent countries can be futile, if not offensive, but the Iberian neighbours? They almost invite you to lump them together. They cohabit on a peninsula separated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees and from the world by the sea. They share beaches and wine, bygone empires and dictators, small factories and tight families. They get called “brotherly nations”. Foreign multinationals treat them as a single market. Heck, I’m the FT’s Spain and Portugal correspondent. But caution on the commonalities is advised.