The Spain of Yore

Sometimes, despite the fact that everyone around me is speaking Spanish or Galician and has a certain European flair, I forget where I am. Probably because at this rate, Spanish life is the norm for me. But the other day as I was watching the Spain-Germany friendly (we lost...I don't wanna talk about it) at a bar, I got distracted observing the waiter delicately slice jamón off the cured pig leg. A few years ago I probably would've been disgusted. But now hanging pig legs are a common sight, although I don't always get to see them being sliced in action. Good ol' life in España.

And since Lugo is by now just so "homey," I signed up for a craft course. Not only do I miss crafting at home, but it was a chance to practice my Spanish outside school/my apartment without it being an actual "Spanish class." It turned out to be an excellent decision firstly, because I love upcycling (the topic) and we made 3 projects which I can remake again and again. My favorite to make was the helix vase made out of rolled up magazines, because the weaving process was addictive. I also really liked the finish product of a candy dish made of newspapers. You would never know that it was made of just glue and newspapers!

Secondly the class was a success because of the women there. There were just two other "students" plus the teacher. All middle-aged women who were very nice to me. One insisted that I didn't have an accent, and they referred to me as "la chica," not as "the foreigner." At the end of the 4 day course, we arranged to go out for wine. Since I hadn't really explored the neighborhood the class was in, they wanted to show me the best place for tapas. At first the evening was uncomfortably quiet, but once we found a good topic, I was surprised by their stories of growing up in a Galician pueblo.

Although these women are as old as my parents, their stories seemed even more antiquated than those of my grandpa! The 1960s in rural Spain was similar to the 1920s in urban America. They said most of their food was homemade or homegrown, and for things such as sugar and flour, they basically traded what extra products they had such as eggs or crops. One woman remembered the day that electricity was installed in their house--it was such a novelty! Before that they used gas for lights, and town would be completely dark after a certain hour. So they walked home for miles with only the stars to light their way, crossing through woods and bridges in the dark. On the one hand that sounds idyllic, but on the other hand scary! Obviously they didn't even have a radio for the longest time, not to mention a television. And Lugo/Galicia was even more poorly connected back then. Barely anyone had a car, so they would walk an hour just to catch a bus to a big city. Or to get to Madrid...12 hours. But let's be realistic, now on a bus it takes you 9--not too much improvement there. Their tales also included stories of poverty, but they said they didn't notice because everyone was on the same level. Nobody had electricity, it's not like it was reserved for the rich people in the village. One woman recalled saving up to buy 4 walnuts and figs--one for each member of her family. And that they each had one was such a treat. She also remembered how she and her brother cried when the pig they were going to kill within 3 days died on its own, meaning they wouldn't be able to eat meat for months, because that pig was their one chance. Another said how all winter long they would have the chestnuts they had collected with milk for dinner every night. Hard to believe that all this happened in the second half of the 1900s, in a country we consider "developed." Evidently life during Franco's dictatorship wasn't as swell as he wanted people to believe.