Spanish views from a small town

Yesterday something happened I'm not exactly proud of.  I was walking to my car from a supermarket when I saw a man sitting on a bench. He must have been anywhere from 45 to 55 years old, tall, angular, wearing sunglasses and a long-sleeve white cotton shirt with pale blue elbow patches. He had a shopping bag from Mercadona supermarket sitting beside him. He took his phone and trained it on a girl sitting on another bench on the other side of the street. He took her picture and quickly lowered his phone, checking to see if she had seen him. She was talking on her own phone and was just hanging up.  I slowed down and stared at him, but he didn't see me. Should I say something or should I keep quiet? I walked a few more steps, stopped, and looked back, staring at him. He was looking at his phone and sneaking peeks across the street. He continued oblivious to my observation of him. I took my bag to the car. I left it in the trunk and took out another shopping bag to head fo...

So, an adult woman now has control over her finances, her education, her choice of job, and her choice of domicile. One might say that modern woman finally has complete control over her life, after centuries of being practically the property of the men in her life, whether father, brother, husband, or son.  Not if she lives in Alabama.  This week, the Alabama legislature passed, and the governor signed into law, the most restrictive abortion law in the United States since Roe vs. Wade came into being back in 1973. Under this new law, Alabama women cannot have an abortion unless the fetus is so deformed that her life is threatened, or that it cannot survive. Any doctor performing an abortion, if convicted, can face up to 99 years in prison. In contrast, a rapist faces up to 20 years, and those charged with incest, up to 10. Alabama is now saying it's not as bad to rape a woman as it is to do an abortion.  I am not saying abortion is the best solution to the problem o...

Once upon a time in this ancient country, women were chattel. If they were unmarried, they were under the tutelage of their fathers, however old they might be. Any earnings at any job they were allowed to hold (very few) were handed to the father. They could not leave the parental house without permission, unless they were to enter a convent or get married. Once married, they were under the complete tutelage of the husband. Things changed slightly in 1958. Under a new law, unmarried women could leave their father's household once they were 25. At that age they became independent. But married women remained under the yoke of their husbands. In 1961, a new law came into effect, allowing women to enter most of the workforce. It was a law born of necessity, not of the recognition of women as equal citizens. Women were still expected to become wives and mothers. They were obliged to attend to their houses. The ideal woman had a small job in which she brought to the household a supplem...

Clothes are a human invention. The primary reason for them has always been to protect our bodies from the elements, since we don't have nice, thick fur. As society evolved, so did clothes. That made from nicer materials, colored with difficult-to-find natural colors, has always been for those who could afford it ; the nobility in ancient times. Clothes also became indicative of sex; women wore certain pieces of clothing, men others. They became a way of knowing who was who in society, from the ruling class, to the lowest slave. Over time styles have evolved, and styles have also been used to keep certain parts of society in line, denying the lower classes the ability to wear ostentatious clothing. Women were controlled by being expected to dress in certain ways if they wanted to be considered respectable. Otherwise, they were shamed in front of everyone. At the end of the nineteenth century women began to rebel against these strictures. Women who wanted to ride the new bicycles ...