Why Gibraltar is not Spanish


Be surrounded by lots of British people in New Zealand, from time to time the hijos de la G Bretaña come up with questions about Gibraltar.

Few things touches more our Spanish balls than seeing those monkeys that never die in the rock and the Royal Quilt waived by the gibraltareños, those guys that are able to speak the English of the King and the worst Spanish with Andalusian accent.

Well… the origin of this situation is situated in another King Charles.

Charles II was the last Habsburg king of Spain.

His health was notoriously poor, and he was considered mentally and physically unfit to rule.

This is what happens when his family had been marrying cousins for generations….

The guy was so ugly that not even Carreño, the best student of Velazquez, could paint him “right”.

People believed he was cursed or "bewitched"—hence the nickname "El Hechizado."

Despite his clear inability to govern effectively, no one in his court dared to tell him the truth.

His advisors, ministers, and even doctors concocted absurd treatments to "cure" him.

They claimed he was cursed by witches, subjected him to bizarre rituals, and wasted vast resources trying to "heal" him with potions and prayers….

What made it worse was that his court was in constant chaos, plagued by factions and internal power struggles. The beauty was easier to manipulate than a kid with ice cream.

Despite the dysfunction, the court maintained a facade of control, and nobody questioned the absurdity of what was happening.

Of course, such a “Hechizado”, could not procreate and when Charles II died without an heir, the Spanish War of Succession broke out, plunging Europe into conflict.

It was a kind of France against Germany in Europe, with the British on the German side, this time. The Spaniards decided to kill each others in preparation for better times.

When the British saw that they were going to lose, let the Habsburgs at the bottom of the culvert… To say thank you, Spain gave just a rock… until today.

Not being able to tell the truth brings many problems to your life. Consequences for generations.

You won’t make much progress, and you’ll always have a rock in your shoes.

I’m building something to remove rocks.

You can tell me if you are interested, below.

​Click here. ​

PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day.

PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com

PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below.

Vicente Valencia

Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇

Read more from Vicente Valencia

A PPP somewhere in Canada. Mid 2010s. Saturday night. Concrete poring of a key structure in the critical path of the project. Everything looked perfect on paper. Full closure approved Concrete plant booked Pumps lined up Crew ready Weather… “acceptable” 22:00 : Go time First trucks arrive. Pumps start. Concrete flowing. Then… rain. Not heavy. Not dramatic. Just enough to start messing with the surface. The kind of rain that kills quality slowly. The dangerous one. 23:30: First tension Quality...

Unless you want a horror story. Or an “insípida” story that says nothing. You don’t put on the market an unconnected series of projects. That’s not a vision. It’s election time in New Zealand. And every time I’m invited to a forum, I repeat the same message. Infrastructure needs a long-term story. A real one. What do we want to become in 30 years? Because it cannot change every time the government changes. That’s not strategy. That’s improvisation. Or shooting yourself in your foot. If a...

There is always another offer. You have to approach real estate investment with that mindset. It’s a trick many agents use. “There is another offer.” Aka: urgency. Bring your top price if you want it. Not sure if it’s legal or illegal… but it’s everywhere. Now. If the property is good. If the price is good. People should be bidding. That’s a good sign. Be careful with properties that look great… but nobody wants. Are you missing something? So, when an agent calls me and says there’s another...