Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Is He Still a Canadian?

I know it's an old gambit, "Don't say you're an American, just say you're Canadian and avoid the hassle while you are in Europe", etc., But do the Spanish do it to us also? Not wanting to mention if we are Americans?

In this El Pais article they describe Architect Frank Gehry, designer of Bilbao's Guggenheim, as the "Canadian Architect". I guess that is technically correct since he was born in Canada, but he has lived and practiced in Los Angeles since 1947.

You would think that 62 years in the United States would at least get a mention.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

El País...there they go ahead, distorting the truth to suit their own purposes.

Dear El País:
Frank Gehry is A U.S. CITIZEN!!!! He was born in Canada but moved to L.A. when he was a teenager. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen with a U.S. passport. How do I know this? GOOGLE! Google is your friend. Try using it sometime. That's how public and widely available this info is about Gehry. But nooooooo. El País can't admit, even in the most indirect and round about way, that it was an ESTADOUNIDENSE who was single-handedly responsible for putting Bilbao on the map with his design for the Guggenheim. Actually, I'm surprised that El País, in keeping with its predictable bias, didn't mention in passing that Gehry was also Jewish.

I'm not saying that Gehry's religion is important, it's not, but I recall another El País story about a LA businessman that you blogged about a while back where El País made a point of identifying the guy as "Jewish Canadian" as though that were somehow relevant.

Carl said...

They like Gehry. That's why they didn't mention he is Jewish and why they can't bring themselves to admit he's an American.