Vota con Todas tus Fuerzas, con Cabeza y Corazón

[Mac]

You may have noticed that there is an election upcoming in Spain
(March 9th). Within living memory mainstream politics in Spain have
moved from completely murderous through non-existent to boringly
polite. A few days ago I watched some of the much-heralded Great
Debate between the two main party leaders, Zapatero and Rajoy, and
although I could understand only about half, even I could see that it
wasn't particularly exciting: nobody interrupted, nobody got agitated,
nobody strayed into the controversial. And until now little in the
way of election fever has been evident, except of course in the media.

But here in Yeste, where we are staying for a couple of days, there
seems to be a bit of a battleground. The town is festooned with
banners and plastered with posters. It appears to be a Socialist area
(both the mayoress and the Castilla la Mancha deputy are Socialist),
and last night I went to a political meeting (my first ever!) on
behalf of that party. It was well-attended for the size of the
pueblo, but very few people were under 50 years old besides the young
woman candidate. Again, not much controversy. No heckling. Does
heckling happen in Spain? Does the memory of political repression
still keep people's heads down, or is there just not much worth
heckling over?

But perhaps this lack of excitement is a good thing: the last change
of government was probably influenced by the Atocha train bombings.
The Chinese curse says "May you live in interesting times!" We will
be home a couple of days before the election, and I shall follow the
results with interest, but hopefully not too much.

Yeste is a pleasant unpretentious small town high on the southeast
slopes of Monte Ardal. It received a prize in 1963 for its
restoration projects, so has now settled happily into a blend of old
and new. It has a castle, a large dilapidated church, and a friendly,
comfotable and unpretentious small hotel in which to relax after the
tensions of driving the surrounding mountain roads. We caught a local
market at last, but it was rather sparse; I expect many traders take a
few weeks off in winter, just as we did in our market trading days.

We are heading east now, towards Alicante, where we will spend a few
days.

¡Pero no muy directo, y no muy rápido!

Mac

[LesterOR]

Mac,

Thanks for the political update. There's been no reporting on the
upcoming elections in Spain. Although it sounds extremely quiet on
the ground, big issues are at stake for Spain (the role of the church
in society, the role of Spain in worldwide military alliances, equal
marriage rights, immigration, etc.).

I had the luck to be a student in Spain during the Felipe Gonzales'
first campaign and election -- and subsequent first attempted coup
(1982-83). The times were very exciting, and people were highly
engaged. But even during the coup, which came and went quickly, there
was a firm commitment "on the ground" to re-joining Europe and leaving
the Franco era behind. No one seemed to think their day-to-day lives
would really change either from the election of a "socialist" (the
party is about as far left as Al Gore) or from a right-wing putsch
back into power.

Sounds like not much has changed.

Lester

[Mac]

On 2 mar, 16:46, LesterOR <Leste...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Mac,
>
> Thanks for the political update.

Lester

Please don't regard my post as a political update! It is simply,
like all my messages, a subjective snapshot of things as they appear
to me at the time. Anyone living in Spain, such as several people who
contribute to this board, would be able to supply a far better account
of what is actually happening here than I could.

Mac