Europa, atrapada en sus muros

In the Spanish city of Ceuta and Melilla, where 80,000 individuals crossed the sea, the term "Spanish" was used as a superlative, as explained by Margarita Robles from Ceuta and Melilla. This overstatement serves to create and reinforce a sense of sanctity, intensity, and emotional impact, especially when the national body has been divided.

"Spanish" does not affirm what we already know. No one calls Cuenca "Spanish," for the superlative does not adorn something certain, but rather something we fear to be uncertain. To call Ceuta and Melilla "Spanish" is to acknowledge a vulnerability in the very act of denying it. However, rather than acknowledging this vulnerability, it is transfigured, and the superlative ends up doing more than intensifying our sense of belonging; it also redistributes roles, purifying "us" as innocent victims of an external aggression and giving the newcomer a new label as an "invader."

Yet, while we imagine our national body violated, it is real bodies that remain in the water. We do this to avoid facing the reality that would make the innocence of our relationship with Spain and Europe unsustainable: the dependence we have subcontracted for the control of the flow of people between our two nations.