Spanish views from a small town

We've had rainy weather yesterday and today, with thunderstorms yesterday evening; typical fall weather here. Temperatures have dropped, and become more normal. It's weather to curl up by the wood stove. The government has been thinking about the coming holidays, and has proposed that some gatherings might be permitted. Contagion is not going down as quickly as it should for a Christmas without any restrictions. Indoor living and cooler weather are allying themselves with the virus. So, the proposal is for gatherings of a maximum of six people who don't usually live together. And, to facilitate movement between households for the traditional late night suppers on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, the curfew would be pushed back to 1AM. That's fine for those who live on their own and want to get together with parents or siblings, but not the usual gatherings of grandparents, children, and grandchildren, so Christmas will still be much of a one household experience fo...

This area has been in the news for a week. Just about everyone in Spain has heard the name of our town, Rianxo. But not because of a happy reason. Rather, for the most heinous of reasons. It turns out that Diana Quer, an eighteen-year-old who went missing in August, 2016, in nearby Pobra do Caramiñal while on vacation, was killed and her body hidden here. And her killer is a neighbor.  As the story unfolded, we went through the stage of denial, of shock, and are now reaching the stage of acceptance. Yes, we know him; we also know his family. That is part of our stages of denial and shock. It's a normal family, neither better nor worse than any other family around here. It wasn't a broken home, like one might assume would nurture a serial rapist and killer. It was a home where all the children were taught the difference between right and wrong. It was a home where love abounded. Yet, this individual twisted himself in the most unnatural way.  The man was on his way to becom...

Last Saturday was the day against gender violence. There were marches and protests in at least fifty Spanish cities and towns. My mother-in-law, my daughter, and I joined the protest in Santiago that night. It was large, composed of mostly young women, with a few scattered men, generally younger, and a few older couples with their children. But we were all united in denouncing the violence that centuries of patriarchy have imposed on women in just about all the world. Forty-eight women and eight children have been killed so far this year by the men they most loved. While that may not seem like many women out of a total population of over forty million, it's still too many. And that number only represents forty-eight cases of abuse and humiliation that have ended in death. Many hundreds or thousands more women suffer violence of one kind or another from their husbands, boy friends, or partners. Some go to the police; too many stay quiet, hoping not to trigger another bout of slaps...

Yesterday there was another protest in Madrid. They've become quite common lately, despite the new law trying to limit their number and intensity. But this one was very numerous. People from all over the country attended, travelling in chartered buses and private cars. Over twenty thousand arrived to join local protestors. There are no official numbers on the total of protestors, but by the time the protest reached its final stop in Plaza de España, people stretched out all along the route it had followed from its beginning in Plaza de Atocha, quite a long walk. In Spain the different demands have different colors. Protests about education are green, protests about health care are white. Yesterday's protest was purple, against gender violence, aggressions against women.  The objective of the protest was to awaken the public from its lethargy by pointing out that violence against women is growing again in Spain. And this government, unlike the last that passed laws protectin...