Consider the changes wrought by tourism. In the 1950s tourists were arrested for wearing bikinis or kissing in public. A Spanish cardinal stated, “Public bathing . . . constitutes a special danger for morality. Mixed bathing must be avoided because it almost always gives rise to sin and scandal.” By 1970 this world had completely changed as Spaniards were bombarded with foreign ideas like democracy and socialism, not to mention consumerism and free-spirited rubias (blondes) from the north. In a survey of non-congenital mental illness in Málaga province, ninety percent of the afflicted were teenaged males who had gone to work on the coast and could not adapt to the new ways. By 1975, more than forty million tourists were coming to Spain every year, outnumbering the entire Spanish population. Spain also became a consumer society, less interested in religion and political rhetoric than in “the good life.” Television sets jumped from fifty thousand in 1960 to 1.75 million by 1965, and there were more than a million private cars by the same year. Williams, Mark (2009-08-04). The Story of Spain (Kindle Locations 4430-4438). Golden Era Books. Kindle Edition.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 12:35:12 +0000
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