SPANISH CULTURE IN SK8 THE INFINITY
As a Spanish girl, it’s been shocking to realize that not everyone who watched SK8 made the connection between Adam and Spanish culture. It was so obvious to me that it didn’t cross my mind that some people might not get the references, so I’m gonna point them all out in case someone is interested :)
Adam’s character is wholly based on Spanish culture, starting on his clothes. His costume is in reality a bullfigther’s suit (its name is “Traje de luces”, which translates to Lights Suit because it’s shiny). He even wears in one episode a “capote”, that cloak that hangs from one shoulder. Everything is the same from the shirt and tie to the tight pants. The mask, the boots and the horns on the shoulder pads are the only things that difffer.
Not to mention the main two colours of his suit are red and yellow, which happen to be the colours of the Spanish flag. And let’s not forget his skateboard, that literally has bull horns attached as to symbolize a bull. Then there’s his nickname, “Matador of love”. Matador is the Spanish word for killer, so it translates to Killer of Love, but it also happens to be a word used to call bullfighters.
Now the dancing. Every post that I’ve read that mentions the dancing refers to it as “tap-dancing”. I had to look it up because I didn’t know what tap-dancing meant, but now I’m 100% sure.
He’s dancing “flamenco”, a typical Spanish dance (I’d dare say the most famous). Flamenco involves a lot of arm movements and “taconeo”, that clacking you make with your heels. Here’s a short video that shows it better than I could describe with words.
You can check this one out, too (it only lasts 40 secs).
As you can see, it’s very similar if not the same dance Adam makes when he’s riding his skateboard or when he’s excited (btw Spanish people don’t just randomly dance when we’re happy, although it’s a funny implication).
And the last thing worth mentioning is the passion. This isn’t as obvious but Spain, especially the south of Spain, is associated with passion. We’re very extroverted people and the steoreotypes picture us as flirty. The flowers, the intensity, the "burning love" of Adam can easily be traced to that idea. Although this last part is just a speculation, so don't mind me.
So yeah, Adam's design is straight up based on Spanish culture, specifically bullfighters. I think it would have make more sense to say that Ainosuke went to Spain when he was young instead of USA, because he clearly got the inspiration for his skater self "Adam" from here.
And before I stop my rant I’m gonna share this info with you because I think it's hilarious. In both tik tok and twitter a lot of Spanish people have been joking non-stop about how Adam is actually our current president, Pedro Sánchez, in disguise (since he’s a young politician with references from Spain and all that). They look kinda alike tbh, especially when our president was young. If you’re bored go check it out, you won’t regret it.
So that’s it. Nobody asked for this but if felt like I would go mad if I saw another person saying Adam is tap dancing
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