A Small African Nation

Sorry I haven't been posting very often lately, but I have kind of been at a loss as to what to write about. It's kind of amazing how little one can have to say when they spend the majority of the day doing nothing. I should have plenty of time to think of interesting, compelling topics. Unfortunately, the last couple of years have taught me that I am not exactly what one would call an "idea person". Alas.

Anyway, it is definitely fall here now. I am wearing long sleeved shirts everyday and always take (or wear) at least a sweater and a scarf when I go out. I fear that soon I may need to break out the gloves. During the day it is actually quite pleasant, if a little brisk, as long as you stay directly in the sun. Once you walk under a shadow or come inside the apartment, though, it just feels cold. Yes, I must be from southern California. I'm not necessarily complaining, though. It's kind of nice to actually experience a change in season for once.

I am still avoiding my foray into the wide world of illegal employment, mostly because I've been warned to stay away as long as possible. So far my housemates seem happy to let me mooch off of them as long as I continue playing the role of the housewife - cooking, doing the laundry, running errands - and surprisingly I don't mind it myself - yet. Not sure how long that will last. I am actually hoping I start to crave some other, more fulfilling, pursuit soon because I am really not very good at forcing myself to do anything. We have been thinking about making a change in the living arrangements lately, but it is still up in the air. It's possible I may be moving, probably somewhere more expensive, and then I'll need to contribute something to my existence.

The whole illegal immigrant situation seems to be a topic of many questions. This is understandable since it is one of the only interesting conditions of my present circumstances. So here goes my best shot to explain the politics in Spain, as I understand them.

Illegal immigration has come to be seen as a big problem by Spaniards only recently. Historically, unemployment has been high. "Good" jobs are hard to come by and are not relinquished often. But that wasn't because of an overabundance of immigrants. There weren't really any.

Economically, joining the EU has been very beneficial for Spain. The Euro is much more powerful than the old, devalued peseta. As a result, new construction is going on all over the country. We saw a lot of evidence of this during the summer, even in small villages. Many international corporations are choosing Spain, and specifically Madrid (as it is cheaper and less "cosmopolitan" than Barcelona), for their european headquarters because they can benefit from cheaper overhead while still interacting in the greater European community. In short, membership has brought a lot of prosperity to the Spain (and the Spanish people).

As a result of this newfound prosperity, illegal immigration has only recently become a big problem. Up until very recently, I would say 10 years at the most, but really probably more like 5, there wasn't much reason for anyone to illegally immigrate to Spain when they could just as easily go to a more prosperous nation, like France, Germany, or Britain. Illegal immigration is something those nations have been dealing with for many, many years.

To put some perspective on the situation that Americans aren't usually privy too, what with our tendency to speak of Europe as one homogenous entity, there is a saying among Europeans that "Africa starts in the Pyrenees". The entire Iberian peninsula (Spain and Portugal) has, especially this century been regarded as less evolved than the rest of Europe, more ruralized, third-world. And let's face it - historically that has been true. Spain was ruled by a dictatorship that deliberately resisted industrialization in any meaningful way until the sixties (with the help of the IMF - a whole other can of worms). Urbanization is a relatively new phenomenon here. Everything is still a little crusty. That's why I like it here.

Immigrants have responded to the explosion in prosperity, emigrating with vigor and tenacity from northern Africa and the Near East. Videos of rafts filled with dozens of immigrants, like what we might expect of Cuban refugees, were present in several newscasts I saw and can also be seen on YouTube. People often die. The problem is that while unemployment has improved for Spanish citizens, it is still one of the highest in (western) Europe, from what I understand. Good jobs are still hard to come by, as those international companies have been importing employees with the necessary skills and education that the Spaniards were lacking.

Although it isn't the North African immigrants who are taking the jobs most Spaniards would be interested in - other Europeans are doing that - north African immigrants (read: dark folks) are the ones who bear the brunt of Spanish resentment. Even five years ago a neighborhood like the one I live in would have been dominated by old Spanish folks and younger families. A black person would have been a highly rare occurence. It probably would have been possible for a child growing up here to have never seen anyone with African heritage. In just a few years, though, neighborhoods like mine, not to mention hundreds or thousands like it, have become much more diverse. Just like in America, where Latin American immigrants are blamed for economic woes, or in Germany, where Turkish immigrants are a favorite target, now Spain is having to learn how to deal with a more complex social atmosphere than it did in the days of Franco.

Spain's response to the problem - on a governmental, political level - has been slow. Or, in some cases, non-existent. Instead of coming up with some kind of policy or trying to solve the problem, Spain has left the problem of border security up to the countries the immigrants are emigrating from. To state the obvious, this is not very effective.

In general, it seems to me that Spanish citizens are doing much better for themselves overall, despite the accompanying increase in illegal immigration, and I suspect that tensions are rooted in something deeper than economics. I don't claim to be an expert on the social climate in Spain, or Spanish history, but the fact of the matter is that Spaniards are, in my experience, very racist against Moorish - muslim, north African - people, a fact which goes back for centuries, from what I gather. From what I see, just walking down the street, there has also been a lot of immigration to Spain from Latin America. To me, this makes a lot of sense, since the people from those former Spanish colonies speak the same language and share some similarities in culture. For some reason, though, Latin Americans do not seem to be the dreaded face of "immigrants". Maybe this is because they are immigrating legally... I'm not sure and am going to have to do some more research on the matter.

In any case, this is good news for me. Just like in America, from what I hear they don't much care if you're illegal if you're white, middle-class, educated. And let's face it, I'm not even after one of the "good" jobs. I'm actually pretty much hoping for a "crappy" job. But, since I didn't float over in a raft, that somehow that tells Spaniards I'm not a drain on their society, even though I'm sure those people actually do things like get jobs, which I, most certainly, am too lazy for. In any case, I'm not exactly watching my back for La Migra, even though I really should be their target. I'm not saying it's right, I'm just saying that's the way it is.

On the other hand, it would probably would have been waaay easier for me to get some menial job (or even a decent one) as an illegal immigrant back in the days before the EU - when I wouldn't have been competing for jobs (like those that require english) with thousands, tens of thousands, of Brits who have papers to work legally. Every silver lining has its cloud, right?

I'm thinking I've rambled on for long enough. I hope that explanation was clear. Can't be sure, even though it is what I went to college to learn how to do, haha.

Details

Hello all -

Today I thought I would try to introduce you to my home.

The smallest room ever

This is an, admittedly poor, photo I took attempting to show the teeny-tinyness of my room. Unfortunately, even when sitting in the very corner, there isn't much to see except for the wall. On the left you can see my window, which is very nice and almost half the size of the room. Next to the window is the bed, followed by a teeny dresser and finally, the door.

Next up we have the kitchen - where all the magic happens.

The apartment is set up rather unconventionally from an American point of view. The front door opens onto a long hallway. The first door you come across is mine. The second goes to the kitchen. To your left at the end of the hallway is the bathroom. Walking straight would take you into another bedroom, the door to the right opens into the living room. The last bedroom comes off the living room.

We have a very lovely balcony, which I can imagine would be intolerable in the summer because of the direct and unceasing sun. However, it is quite nice during this lovely fall weather.

The balcony looks down on the plaza, which has a fountain and a playground. It's quite the evening hang out for both the very old and the very young.



This is the building as seen from across the plaza. My balcony is the one in the right corner of the photo - top floor, kind of behind the trees.

Moving a block south, we come to the great Calle Alcalá.

I am told it is the longest street in Madrid. It must be because I can walk along it all the way from here, on the outskirts, to the center. It's quite a hopping street. In this photo you can (sort of) see the Metro sign - this is my stop, Pueblo Nuevo.

In other news... I haven't started working yet, although I finally broke down today and started looking up English schools. I'm going to go out of my mind sitting in this teeny room otherwise. Looks like I could make decent money IF 1) I had papers to work legally 2) had a certificate and/or 3) had any experience. SO what will probably happen is I will have the worst, most inconvenient job ever. At first anyway. Haha. It's all part of the adventure. I am also going to try to write for some english language magazines in the area (maybe, hopefully), but I kind of doubt they will actually PAY.

Returning to the mothership

As you should know by now, I am back in España after a 2 month hiatus. I arrived safely on Wednesday afternoon after a fairly uneventful flight. The first leg, from LA to London, took only 10 hours and the time passed relatively quickly thanks to the wonder that is on demand entertainment. I can´t remember what people did before this marvelous invention. Probably read or engage in some other, non-mind rotting activity.

The last time I came to Spain it was with a purpose in mind. Goals are not usually things I am very interested in, mainly because they decrease my ability to appreciate life for what it is and not as some small part of some future goal. Anyway - last time we had a goal. Kind of.

This time I have no immediate plans to walk across the country. Instead, I have plans to engage in a similar lifestyle while eliminating the whole exercise bit. Ha. But seriously. Instead of completely changing my life, the plan is to try and live the same life I lead in California (or some other approximation of a "normal life"), except in Spain.

Why? Now that´s an interesting question and one I try not to dwell on. How about "why not"? Why do we choose to do anything? Why did I choose to come to Spain last time? It was mostly on a whim, but it ended up working out for the best. I try not to override fate too often and when I do, I´m unsuccessful more often than not. So when the opportunity presented itself to come back and stay in Madrid for a while, I couldn´t think of any reason not to.

The big problem with this is that I am an illegal immigrant. Or at least I will be if I figure out how to make money. This is still left to be seen. It is kind of important, though. I probably won´t be able to afford to come back to Madrid after the holidays if I can´t. But that is a concern for another time.

Back to the present - I am living a room approximately the size of a shoe box. It is really quite a challenge for 2 people to stand in it at the same time. This apparently is not uncommon here (meaning europe or new york city). For now, it works. and it´s free. At least until the landlord gets tired of my freeloading, which is something of a possibility. On the upside, I do have a rather large window that looks out on a beautiful light well. One of the neighbors happens to be an aspiring opera singer (really) and two others seem to be in a very unhappy marriage, from what I can understand of the Spanish yelling.

The rest of the apartment is very nice, at least comparatively. There is a nice living room, but there is some older gentleman who must be subletting or something from one of the other people who sits in there all day watching television. No one seems to know where he came from or why he is here, but he seems harmless enough, if perhaps kind of depressed (when I say he watches TV ALL day, I mean it). There is also a balcony, which looks out over the Plaza de Reverencia.

Right now I´m leaving in north-east madrid, probably about 3 or 4 miles from the center proper. That´s really not so far, especially considering the ease of taking the metro in this city. There also seems to be plenty in this area - it´s definitely not a suburb, it just isn´t as old as the old city.

Today is a national holiday. It seems as though there is some kind of holiday or something every other week in this country, meaning that many of the shops will be closed. This doesn´t really matter for me, thankfully, since I have no plans to buy anything, but it can be rather inconvenient.

I am going to head out for a walk soon, my first venture into he city alone. Just me and my poor spanish skills.