Living under an Ultra-Conservative Roof

After living with my señora for more than two months, I have started to put together bits and pieces of her life story...and it turns out that her conservative beliefs run much deeper than I realized. We had the most fascinating conversation last week about the reign of Franco (the dictator who ruled Spain after the Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975). I was interested in what her life was like during this era, since we are learning about this in my culture class right now. What she told me was surprising.

Apparently, her life was best during Franco´s rule for several reasons. The cost of living was much lower than it is today...one explination for this may be due to the inflation in prices Spain has suffered with the conversion to the Euro in 2002. Also, she told me that it was much safer in the streets during this time and women did not have to fear being out late at night, like they do today...this is probably because nobody had rights in Spain during the dictatorship because all of the power was in the hands of the military. Finally, I assume that Franco´s ultra-conservative rule and declaration of Catholicism as the State´s only religion was also appealing to my señora, who goes to mass every day and is very involved in her church´s community.

I too enjoy attending mass, but my señora has taken this one step further and has started to give me all sorts of religious items...to supplement my religiosity, I suppose. For example, I now have not one but two poster-sized lamenated calendars that display the Virgin Mary and other religious figures. She has also passed on multiple pieces of Catholic literature she´s received from her church groups...as if I don´t have enough to read for my classes! Despite the rarity of these unexpected gifts, I am flattered by her thoughtfulness.

Mi abuela española, Juana (my Spanish grandmother), is very religious as well; my señora told me that when Juana was living in Madrid during the Civil War, a sacerdote (a priest) lived with her family and held daily mass in their home for the entire town! This was incredible to hear because I can now understand more easily how an entire population falls under the leadership of someone like Franco, who maintained the support of the Catholic Church by making it the State´s religion.

After this part of our conversation, I only asked a few more questions because the older conservative generation in Spain definitely do not see the same picture as those who grew up under the oppression of Franco or who have learned about the real history of his dictatorship. When I asked about how she felt about the people who were oppressed during his reign, such as the people from Galicia, País Vasco and Cataluña (autonomous communities within Spain) who speak different languages than Spanish due to their very distinct histories, she exclaimed (translated) "Spain had one official language!". Although Spain now has four official languages, she still feels very strongly about the more liberal changes that have taken place in the country under the present liberal government. She went as far as to say that Spain doesn´t have a true democracy right now, under the leadership of Zapatero and the political party PSOE...even though I´m pretty sure elections with ballots are valid in this country...

So in conclusion, I don´t think I will be having much trouble going back to my own household and having political conversations with mi padre now :) Haha, ciao!