On a different post here (regarding the Spanish, as well as Italian, view of the French), I had written a follow-up comment, in response to the sentence "We have no issues with Portugal, we often forget they are there (...)", which I will now quote in full: "I've always been bemused by the apparent indifference the Spanish show towards the Portuguese. I know that Unamuno was a Lusophile, and I had also done some research on the (again somewhat understated) relationship between the two regimes from the 1930s to the 1970s (I know the earlier history but it is somewhat beside the point, I'm talking about contemporary attitudes), and that there is this stereotype of cheap towels coming from Portugal or something (hahaha), but that's about it. Maybe I should make a new post?" And I've decided to do just that, since this truly is a question that has been of not a little interest to me for many years, especially since I've received similarly vague answers from the few Spaniards I have met and from Hispanophone people who know the country. The other user, u/flipflop9 wrote something interesting at the end of his response "somehow they always look kind of sad" which reminded me of a rather more poetic sentence I had once heard making an analogy with the Sun and the Moon, with the point of Portugal being kind of melancholic (which, as someone very much in love with fado from a young age, I can appreciate).