Spanish views from a small town

And now it seems just about all the western coast of Galicia is being shut down. All our peninsula of Barbanza now has to hunker down in their own township, except Noia and Lousame, that can share quarantine. Most likely, that is because, aside from having a similar rate of infection, there are extremely few services in Lousame. I don't even know if they have a largish supermarket. Today, the guidelines have been made public for New Year's Eve. They are the same as last week's for Christmas. Mobility will be allowed between townships to visit family, and curfew will be pushed back to 1:30 AM on the 31st. All this simply means that next week, for Epiphany, we'll be on even more red alert for contagion. Even with curfew, illegal parties have been busted in many places, where participants dance like it's 1999, enough to make Prince and the Revolution proud of them.  Those who set the guidelines seem to think most people are responsible, and will look out after their ow...

Nearly o ne hundred years ago this month, one of the deadliest moments of modern history began. It would last well into the spring of the next year, and even now we don't have enough information about it. At Fort Riley, Kansas, the first documented cases of the Spanish flu were recorded.  Countless soldiers there were being readied for deployment overseas. The United States had entered World War I the year before. Soldiers had already gone to Europe, and more were waiting to cross the Atlantic. On March 11, a cook was the first to come down with the flu. A few days later, he was followed by hundreds of soldiers into the camp hospital. That was the first recording of a virulent illness that quickly spread from one person to the other.  In May, thousands became infected in Spain, including the king, Alfonso XIII. This flu virus, however, affected mainly the young and the strong. The king was only 32 years old, yet he became very ill. At this time, however, no more died from ...