NFS 079 - The Spanish Revolution Continues

Hello and welcome to Notes from Spain number 79. Marina, how are you today?

Very well, Ben. How are you today?

Very, very well. Thank you. A little bit hot. The heat is arriving in Madrid.

Yes.

You know, you wake up in the morning and you're like, what happened to the cool weather?

It's horribly hot still.

It's the end of May and it hasn't been really that hot, so it's the weather that really we should be having at this time of the year.

Yep.

Can't complain at all.

Not yet. And when people do complain, I say, you wait.

Because they say, wait till it's July and then you can complain.

OK, thank you so much for everyone who left comments on last week's podcast saying, yes, carry on, do 100.

And some people who said, yes, do 200. Well, I don't know. We'll have to see about that.

But at least we're on our way to 100.

And it's been an extremely interesting couple of weeks in Madrid, in Spain in general,

particularly due to what they're calling in the press the Spanish Revolution.

Marina.

Is there a revolution going on in the streets around us?

There is actually, yes. A pacific revolution, which is great that it's like that.

And well, on May the 15th, there were local elections in some...

No, no, no. That's the... That was the 22nd.

Oh, sorry. Sorry, you're right.

The 15th was the first March.

Sorry, you're right. On May the 22nd, I got the dates confused.

There were elections for...

For local...

Local government.

Local government, both in the case of Madrid, Madrid town and Madrid region, both of those.

But in other provinces, every town and then the province or community, community more than province,

the community governor.

And then...

Community meaning kind of the autonomous region.

The region, the autonomous.

A bit like in the UK we'd say county.

County, for example, or maybe state in the US.

Yeah, something like that.

Well, it's every few provinces form a community and then a comunidad autónoma.

And then the election was for the leader of each of these communities.

In any case, the week before, there was a march, a manifestación.

How do you say that?

A demonstration.

Mostly of young people complaining about the work situation.

And...

It was under the label of...

I think it was democracia realia, D-R-Y, dry, real democracy now.

And yeah, basically, they marched on the Sunday before the elections.

And there was a very big turnout and it ended in some violence, some clashes with the police.

And a lot of people, it seems that after the march on Sunday, felt that still something hadn't been resolved.

And they went back to Seoul.

Sorry, do you mind me taking over?

No, no, no, take over.

They went back to Seoul in the center of Madrid and there was still a few people milling around.

And they started chatting and they said, you know, we really got to carry this movement on.

And they basically more or less decided to stay in Seoul.

It was very much supported by social networks.

And the big turnout was due to...

Yeah.

Due to e-mail and Facebook and Twitter and Twitter.

Yeah.

And so they stayed on the Sunday night.

I think on the Monday, you know, there were more and more people gathering.

And on the Monday, I think the police came along and said, off you go.

And they got rid of them again.

And this caused even more kind of activity on the social networks.

And on, I think, the Tuesday, which must have been like the 17th of May,

Seoul really started to fill up with people who decided to stay there.

That's the Puerta del Sol, a big plaza right in the middle of Madrid.

And they started bringing their sleeping bags and their tents.

And they said, we're here to stay.

And we're going to stay here right up until the elections to demonstrate that we're not happy with the gap

between the politicians and their rich lives and the real needs of the people on the street.

And, OK, I still haven't been down to Seoul.

It's now a week after the elections or eight days after the elections.

People are still camping there.

Marina, you saw it last week.

What did you see?

I saw it last Tuesday that the elections were...

On Sunday the 22nd.

So on Tuesday the 24th, I was down to Seoul.

And obviously it was in the late morning.

And it wasn't, as you see it in the newspaper pictures, completely full up.

But there were lots of activity.

They had their sleeping tents on one side.

And then the stalls in the other side where they have all this.

They have...

Lots of things established like a canteen and a lawyer's corner.

And I didn't see this area very, very well.

And I didn't get to see this end of the plaza very well.

But what was for me more surprising was to read all of the messages that they were written around,

both in the scaffolding.

And covers in carboards hanging up from here and there.

In the metro station entrance.

It was very, very impressive to see all of these.

All of the slogans people have written by hand there.

All basically.

The basic messages were not being represented by a government.

Exactly.

Because the day I went, it wasn't one of the big days as there were people.

But it wasn't as impressive maybe as you see it in the paper.

But it was still very...

You could feel the presence of that people, even if they were not there, if you see what I mean.

I still haven't been down there, but I've seen a lot of videos that have been taken in Sol.

And, you know, they've set up great awnings over much of the plaza underneath the awnings.

They've got, like you say, all these committees, like the Committee for Giving Legal Advice.

And, you know, all just volunteer, citizen run.

They've got a playgroup in there.

Ah, yes.

They've got a playgroup too.

Yeah.

I was thinking, you know, well, we'll get on in a minute.

I'll mention it now.

In Barcelona on Friday, they were still camping.

So that would have been six days after the elections last Friday.

And the police came along to try and help get some cleaners into the square to clear it up ahead of the celebrations for the potential Barcelona World Cup, European Cup football win.

And there were some very bad clashes between the people in the Plaza de Catalunya in Barcelona and the police.

With, like, 130 people injured or something.

And, you know, you can see videos on the internet of police really lashing out at peaceful people sitting down on the floor with their batons.

It's horrendous.

Mainly, the movement has really taken care that it's a very pacific thing.

Absolutely.

No alcohol is involved.

Everything is really, they want to be taken seriously.

Absolutely.

And there's lots of signs in Sol saying,

Eso no es un boteón.

This is not a drinking party.

You know, and they've been going around.

They have a committee of respect, which keeps the road clear for the cars and goes around making sure people aren't drinking and turning it into a boteón.

But, yeah, going back briefly to the Guadalilla, the kindergarten they've got set up.

Apparently, it's right in the middle.

I was saying to a friend, it's like a strategic move, isn't it?

It's like the human shield in Baghdad or something, you know, but the kid's in the middle.

But it did make me think, I'm not sure I'd leave my child in a sort of makeshift kindergarten in the middle of a boteón.

I'm not sure I'd leave my child in a sort of makeshift town in the middle of Sol when you're surrounded by policemen who might charge in with batons at any moment.

But anyway, pretty incredible, no?

Very, very incredible.

It's very moving to see how they've organized things and to see how people from all age groups turn up and bring food to the protesters.

Yeah, there's grannies turning up with shopping trolleys full of food to support them.

You know, and like you say, you know, it's not just young people with dreadlocks, which is some of the idea that the politicians have, I think.

There's a lot of people of all ages and people with, you know, like I saw one bloke in the newspaper saying, you know, I'm not some hippie.

I've got two degrees, you know, and here I am.

And although it seems from what I'm reading that the focus is shifting a bit now, that it was very much politically focused.

You know, we're not represented properly.

The politicians in power now.

But now there's a lot of actually, that's a lot of sort of not infighting, but there's a bit of back and forth on the websites, which talk a lot about what's going on.

And on the tomalaplaza.net website for Madrid, people are upset because they think it's losing the spirit of the original protest.

Like, for example, there's a comité de espiritualidad, a spirituality committee that's been set up and they do meditation.

And many times a day and things like that.

And which I think is fine.

You know, they're all about plurality and accepting everyone.

And there's nothing wrong with meditation.

But some people have got very angry about it, saying, you know, it's just turning into a hippie festival.

It's like WOMAD or something.

We're losing our power.

And, you know, for me, it's definitely the beginning of something.

I expect it will morph many times.

But the fact that thousands of people have been out into plazas.

There's all over Spain, but with solace, the central focus, saying we're not happy with what's going on in this country.

There'll be a change.

If nothing else, there'll be a change in consciousness, even for the next generation.

One thing that comes to my mind is that this generation, the generation that is finishing their degrees now or have finished their degrees over the past few years,

were considered like a lazy generation.

They were not very, they really, their labels they had were really, really bad.

And they've demonstrated that they can organise themselves.

They can be pacific.

They don't need to party all day long.

They've demonstrated a lot to the society and against those labels that they had.

And I think that's been very, yeah.

What I've been most surprised about is that the police haven't charged in and got rid of them yet because they've been, you know, OK, up until the elections,

they obviously.

weren't going to go and charge in and get rid of them because it would have made uh you know no

political party because well the pp the party of particular that wanted to do popular that wanted

to do so well in the national elections well in the elections all over the country i mean

to really make the most of how badly the psoa the socialists have apparently been doing things in

the last few years yes they they are the ones that change the uh the labor system no it's not

labor for you it's no sistema laboral meaning working system yeah labor you can say labor

system yeah i mean people you know the ppe really wanted to make sure that nothing tainted their

image before the elections and they are the ruling local government here so they weren't going to go

and charge in before the elections on the 22nd and clear out the people in seoul but then the people

in seoul decided to stay another week and i think they're still there well they were going to decide

last night whether they're going to stay another week or not i'm not sure yet but i've got a feeling

they will

um

and it's pretty surprising that the police haven't come along and said off you go yet and

i don't know what that means i think i think the politician's idea is just let them stay there

they're going to end up complaining to each other and getting in a real mix-up and it'll all fizzle

out and it'll come to nothing but if we go in there and start hitting them with batons then

then we'll never hear the end of it this election has been like a preparation for the election this

next year for general elections general elections

so

so the really the movement has been much bigger i think that the politicians expected

in when it started so really i think they have to be very very careful of every move they make

because it will affect the general election i think that's the that's what's happening there

i also think that's true on the one hand but i think for other politicians they probably think

yeah this is just youth this is just a bunch of hippies uh this doesn't bother us at all

it may be that that kind of um negligent attitude doesn't do them any good in the long run either no

no no because there's something growing there's no doubt there's something growing but you know

what do you expect in a country which has currently got 20 unemployment is uh economically a real mess

might be on the verge of a bailout uh is not paying attention to its young people is not

doing anything to stimulate growth again as far as i can see although maybe there's nothing they can

do um yeah something was going to happen and some people say i'm surprised it took so long to do it

yeah these people what they are is studying the whole situation as well and proposing other ways

of of um stimulating the economy and maybe reducing the salaries of the politicians and

the diputados and everyone and remove their pensiones vitalicias the lifetime pension

and all of these things which if you put all of those things together

you wouldn't have to reduce the salaries of the funcionarios or do other things for normal people

instead of so they're saying the politicians should live by the same rules as us on the street

as you say that one of the best things was all of the uh the posters that people had put up around

handmade posters and slogans and so on and the best one i saw was on uh was a photo taken on

the website south of watford.blogspot.com

which

he's had great coverage of all of this because he's been down there almost every day

um and it was a it was like a road sign a red triangle and then and around the red triangle

on each side there was a word which said caution politician at work and in the middle there was a

picture there was like a stick man of a guy lying back asleep with his head on a pillow

and two bubbles out coming you know z's zeds coming out of his head shows asleep

and then a bubble a dream bubble uh with a euro sign in the middle

the politician at work was a guy lying on his back dreaming of euros and it kind of

i thought that was pretty much summed up what everyone thinks basically also they complain

about the which is appalling really the the idea that the the politicians that have been accused

about corruption and they've been presented again to the elections by their own parties that's

it's appalling how can you do that i read something on twitter something like 700 there's something a

bit ridiculous like of the 700 politicians in spain who have somehow been implicated in some kind of

corruption scandal at some point 70 of them have been presented as candidates again by their

political party and spanish people always complain about this how is it possible that we keep

re-electing corrupt people and you know because in the uk if somebody gets caught out for corruption

that's the end of their political career some of them are still in the process they haven't been

charged charged tried or yes the the process is still open for them so it hasn't been proved that

they are guilty but even so you you have to put yourself on the side while that's proof i mean

i find it really incredible and some of these people like the camps in valencia it's

for really a very big amount of campus is the name of the politician isn't it in community

valencian and the people involved is a lot of people involved in this in this drama in this

corruption and they're still they're still supported by the party headquarters here in

madrid it's incredible incredible are you one of the indignados

about that i feel i feel it's appalling really i'm not in the nada and but it really i it doesn't

i i might it doesn't

fit into my mind i don't know if i can say that yeah it's yeah it's something spain needs to sort

out yeah absolutely it also the image of spain to the exterior that we are still putting corrupt

people in power what what is the image of spain what is is incredible it could be worse

it's not berlusconi but it's it but it is it's just one level lower that's the thing

the importantly spain the berlusconis don't get to run the country i don't think zapatero is corrupt

for example as far as you can tell because it would be found out by now and rajoy is probably

clean you know perhaps that's why they put them at the top because they're the only clean ones

but i mean at the level below yes it's usually at the lower level at the town hall town hall level

but in this case it's a community autonomy the comes one which is a really big case in there and

he's still and uh yeah i think that uh it's the only creative in the world that's available to the

Everyone still votes for him, so whose fault is it?

Yeah, no, no, it's like that.

Well, the thing is that what happened to me this time that I was going to vote is there's no real alternative.

Well, you see, this is the thing.

Basically, what happened in the elections, the PP won across the whole country.

They won nearly all of the town halls and autonomous regions.

If you looked at the map after the election, it was blue.

It used to be red and blue, more or less half and half.

And this time it was just almost completely blue, except for a couple of, for example, in the San Sebastian region, Bildu, the new pro-Bast nationalism party won there.

But in general, the PP, they swept the country in the local elections.

And, you know, the people thought, well, the thing in Seoul, you know, the protests in Seoul, the people camping out in Seoul didn't do any good then, did it?

Yeah.

But that's not the point.

The people in Seoul don't care because they say none of them represent us.

And that's really what you're saying.

It's like, well, I didn't know who to vote for because none of them are any good.

Yeah.

And that's the whole point of the whole of what's happening now in Spain on the street.

Yeah, that's there, yeah.

That's it.

And, well, and in a way, this is good that's happened now because parties now have to make a big attitude change towards the general elections.

And also.

Well, I bet nothing changes.

There's this party that was created not long ago, like before the last general elections.

And it was this lady who separated from the PSOE and formed her own party.

And it's getting a lot of strength and it's just a very new party.

Do you know what it's called?

No sé qué y democracia.

I can't remember.

Do you know what her name is?

Yes, Rosa Diez.

Rosa Diez.

And I think she's getting lots of attention now.

So alternatives may come.

Hopefully.

Okay.

Right.

For somebody as unpolitical as I am, that's about as much politics as I can go with for a week.

So I think we'll see what happens.

Well, as unpolitical as you are, you've been reading the paper.

Well, I've been glued to the papers.

And the blogs and the videos nonstop.

I haven't.

I basically had a couple of years off the news.

I haven't been reading a lot of news for a couple of years because I found it all such depressing and nonsense and just sensationalist and just trying to, you know, whatever.

There's lots of reasons.

Manipulative.

And I kind of went through an anti-news phase.

But this has caught my interest massively.

Yeah, I've been buying the newspaper while we were out of Madrid, reading it online nonstop since.

I mean, this is fascinating.

It is fascinating.

Yes.

Right.

How about a quick word, Marina, on some travel?

Yes.

We went to, I've posted on the blog about this.

What?

A quick word about traveling.

No, it's from Spain after the political.

After the heavy political analysis from the scene.

Yes.

Well, this was all kicking off in Seoul just before the elections.

We went, we escaped to Cazorla, which is about five hours.

Four and a half hours.

Four and a half hours south of Madrid and a little bit east.

Well, it's kind of, it's in the top of Andalusia.

Hardly anyone knows where it is.

But it's, if you go down the A4 towards Córdoba and you basically.

After the Despeña Perros, you can.

After the Puerta de Despeña Perros, which is a very famous high mountain pass where the motorway.

We had a video from there.

Yeah.

The motorway starts winding around hairpin bends and everyone has to slow down a lot.

Not for long because the big bridges are nearly finished now.

They've just put some monstrous big bridges across the whole mountain range to make sure everyone can go faster in a straight line.

Which is a real shame.

But after that, you turn left, drive for another couple of hours.

You basically turn left at Bailén or Linares, drive for a couple of hours to the east.

And you cross 10 million olive trees and you arrive at this magical little mountain range called La Sierra de Cazorla.

Well, little compared to the Pyrenees.

Yeah, but it's.

Pretty big.

Yeah.

Okay.

It is pretty extensive, but it's not the Pyrenees or the Picos de Europa.

And it is a magical place.

It is a magical place with beautiful peaks and waterfalls, pine trees everywhere.

And what were the highlights for you, Marina?

There's a post on the blog about it with some photos, but.

We have been there a couple of times before and we did a couple of routes and one of them we had already done in the winter, completely covered in snow, which was beautiful.

It was beautiful to do it now.

But I really was very, very, very.

Impressed or touched by the Cerrada de Leas one, which is the one I think you have in the pictures in the blog.

Right, so that's basically this walk where you walk, park the car next to a fish farm, which has got the best name in Spanish.

My new favourite Spanish word.

Marina, how do you say fish farm in Spanish?

Pisti factoría.

I don't know, pisti factoría is just such a good word.

Pisti, like for fish, factoría, fish factory.

Yeah, which wasn't working.

Well, I know there were a few.

A few fish there, yeah.

Not very much, but most of the tanks were there.

So a slightly run down pisti factoría, you park the car near there and then you walk like three kilometres along a forest path along the river.

Which was beautiful, but then we park our pushchair behind the tree because we knew it was a very long route.

And then we walk through a canyon, a gorge.

A gorge.

Next to the river and it was absolutely breathtaking.

Yeah, the river was sparkling clear, mountain water, full of trout.

There were a few fly fishermen there, up to their waist in the river.

It was a stream river, you know, this is not a big river.

Very home.

Fig trees everywhere, overhanging the river, giving it shade.

An immense quantity of wildflowers.

Natural fountains out here and there.

What do you call it, where you drink your water from?

Wells.

No.

Springs.

Yeah, to drink from.

High, yeah, just green, lush, amazing.

But there's something about somewhere where figs grow wild is always magical, especially when the trees are full of figs.

Not quite ripe yet, annoyingly, because I'd have been stuffing myself.

But stunning, yeah?

Stunning, yes.

La Cerrada de Elías.

It's very far from the, not very far in kilometres, but it takes quite a while from the main big road.

Up to Cazorla, and then back to the Sierra, which is behind Cazorla town.

It takes a while, but that makes it more special, because it's not crowded.

Yeah.

It's not really.

And, yeah, so that's that for me, for both of us, was the highlight, I think.

Apart from that, seeing wild boars in the wild.

Ah, yes.

I said to Marina on the way down, I'd love to see some wild boars.

I've never seen one in the wild in Spain, and they're meant to be all over the place.

And as soon as we arrived, we were just walking around.

Around, after parking the car, we just went for a very little walk before having our supper.

And I said, Ben, look there.

And there were three wild adult boars, and six little ones.

Yeah.

Very, very sweet.

Yeah, very sweet.

And then...

As we were looking at these sweet wild boars, Marina commented to me,

my sister says that the El Secreto Ibérico is delicious at this hotel.

El Secreto Ibérico is basically...

I'm not sure if it's...

It's basically a cut of pig, and I'm not sure if it's wild boar.

I think it might be, like, hunted wild boar.

And I said, Marina, I'm trying to enjoy the wild boars, not thinking about eating them.

Anyway, whether it was delicious or not, I'm not going to say.

I didn't have it.

We're very vegetarian these days.

Occasionally in Spain, it's still very difficult to be vegetarian,

especially if you're staying at a hotel where they've got a set menu.

And occasionally, one has to...

We eat slightly un-vegetarianly, and, well...

We do.

We are quite flexible with our vegetarian diet.

Somos vegetarianos elásticos.

Elásticos.

Elastic vegetarians, as they say here.

And we do have a bit of meat and a bit of fish, so we are not fully vegetarians.

It's only a...

Yeah.

We're elastic.

Anyway.

Okay.

Anything else to add about Cazorla?

It is a magical place.

Yes.

It's hugely ignored, and I really recommend...

It's formed by three sierras.

La Sierra de las Villas,

La Sierra de María, I think it is, no?

Las Marías, or something like that.

And La Sierra de Cazorla.

Yeah, we're not talking about Cazorla town.

That's right on the edge of olive country.

It's on the edge of the sierra.

You have to go deeper into it.

You really need a car.

And then you can stay in Cazorla town,

or you can stay in the hotel we stayed in,

which I put a link to on the blog.

The blog post about Cazorla.

You can stay in Arroyo.

Arroyo, which is a little town.

Full of...

Very touristy little town, right in the middle.

...to rent, or little houses, or huts.

Which we'll stay there, too.

But, yeah, you need to go and get up onto any one of these walks.

There's a huge network of walks,

and it is all quite stunning.

Okay.

The only other thing I can think of,

if you're a Spanish learner,

check out Notes in Spanish this week.

Check it out whatever week you're listening to this.

But this week, we're making some new...

We've got two new videos going out.

One all the way up.

Spanish Table Manners, and the other one...

Well, you'll have to see.

A secret place in Madrid that we love.

So do check out notesinspanish.com.

And, yeah, we did put out a video today on there

about Spanish Table Manners, as I say.

And somebody left a comment,

which we'll have to reply to there as well,

in case they don't listen to this,

saying when he was in Asturias,

they set his table with a teaspoon,

and they put it just above the fork.

And he found that a bit strange,

that they put the teaspoon above the fork.

But it reminds...

It reminded me how in my upbringing in the UK,

when we set the table,

your pudding spoon was always a big spoon.

Not like in Spain, which is a small spoon.

And in Spain, the pudding spoon always has to be a small one.

And I still sometimes set the table

with a big spoon for pudding or dessert.

Like a soup one.

And Marina says,

no, you're getting a chiquitina.

I want a little one.

My friends laugh.

And she can only eat her dessert with a teaspoon.

Is that a normal Spanish thing?

Of course, yes.

My friends laugh at you when you put the big one.

Oh, they laugh at me?

Yes.

Well, you know, this is a...

This is just difference.

It doesn't matter, really.

We're a bicultural household.

Yes.

We have to mix things up a bit.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

I'll put some links and so on,

related to this podcast.

I hope I remember somebody I saw recently

put an album up of 150 photos of slogans and posters from Seoul.

So if I remember, I'll put a link to that.

That could be interesting to look at.

And to the Cazorla post and notes in Spanish and so on.

So come over to notesfromspain.com.

We'll see you there.

Hasta luego.

Bye-bye.

Adios.