I've been living in Zaragoza since March 2006, leaving a few times to either NY, Amsterdam or Santo Domingo. The city has been generous to me, I have a life here and if I choose to stay, it will feel like home. But the truth is that after spending 3 years in Huecco's band as guitar player and traveling all over Spain, I've come to realize that I'm not amazed anymore, nor intrigued by much that I see here. Perhaps it's sad that I stopped writing about my experiences and impressions of Europe, I could have seen the progression of my feelings, how I've become a bit jaded, perhaps even bored. Maybe it's because of the economic downturn, or maybe it's because I chose to live in Spain.
Spain. My impression of it, after being here for 4 years is that, in a lot of ways, this country is very much a divided country. It's people constantly find ways to trip themselves up. Little wonder that until this summer, when the Spanish National Soccer team won the world, failure was expected in international competition. Alberto Contandor's recent troubles aside, Spain is currently at the top of most sports. Spanish athletes are bringing glory and passion, taking minds a bit off of all the economic problems.
What the numbers don't usually reveal is that there's a double economy here. Living here has made me, incredibly, understand the arguments against so much gov't intervention in the US. People here feel entitled to everything, is the impression that I get. People may be on unemployment and have a second job that is off the books, meaning that they are receiving unemployment benefits illegally. Yes, some will argue, but unemployment is not free, it comes from the high taxes everyone pays. That's true to a point, but people here find a way to game the system.
And I won't get into the subsidies. I can't believe how much crap gets subsidized.
The one thing I always wondered when I first got here, was how people managed to make ends meet earning a measly 1000 euros a month. Well, little by little I found out. I'm 42 and can say that I left my home in NY when I was 17, 18 and went to live with relatives in Santo Domingo, but I was pretty much on my own. In fact, where I come from people look forward to leaving home at 18.
Well, I was surprised to find out how many of the people who were in my new circle of friends still lived with their parents, people in their mid to late 20's, some in their early 30's.
Then there were those who shared a flat with others. I later joined that group and currently belong to it. I tried to live on my own, but frankly couldn't make ends meet. My options were get a smaller aparment in shittier neighborhood or keep it and share it. I chose option 2. It hasn't been a bad thing, but it's made me understand how people manage.
The thing with Spaniards, at least the sense I get, is that conformity is rampant. People are content to have their jobs, be able to take a vacation, maybe pay off a mortgage ( not so easy anymore, but a couple of years ago, before the real estate bubble burst, everyone was buying with almost nothing down).
Kids today say they are more prepared but that they're parents had it easier to get a house or apartment, which is true. In Franco's Spain most everyone was afforded, what is now a luxury, the possibility of OWNING their home. Or so I'm told. The truth is that young Spaniards are finding it tough to get good jobs for which they've prepared themselves, few get married young or have kids, simply because they can't afford it.
Still I feel that too many people rely on the government to solve everything. They place blame for the lack of jobs, the lack of financial support for certain institutions, the subsidy for this or that. I think a lot of money gets wasted here. Even at local levels. One just has to look to see the things the government of Zaragoza spends money on.
And the amount of regulations for everything, cutting both ways.
Say the Tobacco law. Smoking is prohibited indoors in many European countries since at least 3 or 4 years ago. Not Spain! They gave businesses the choice: You can either be smoking or non-smoking if your bar meets this certain criteria for space. Now if you exceed that criteria, you have to divide the bar into a smoking and non smoking section. That meant dividers, independent air conditioning, filtration etc. Now that smoking will be banned next year, the people that invested in dividing up their business are up in arms. Those half-measures hurt them. So it's an indecisiveness that has hurt.
That indecisiveness permeates a lot of Spanish society. People get caught up in crap about who's sleeping with whom, where someone got their fortune, etc.
The one thing I can say about Spain is that they know how to party, how to enjoy life. Friends and family are important, people like to talk face to face, go out for a night on the town, socialize.
It's what keeps a city like Zaragoza alive, with so many bars, and rarely do you see one empty.
More on this in my next post.
