Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2023/03/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Douglas Thank you for sharing that story. Sounds like you had a very adventurous youth - and I hope to hear more stories like that! jasse On Wed, Mar 1, 2023 at 9:54 PM Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote: > Indeed, post Franco there were many spasms of violence, and, as a > foreign visitor, I was a witness to one incident of it. > > In 1976, I had a 2 week holiday booked with some friends in Majorca in > Spain, and the week beforehand, the bank in which I worked - in common > with all other banks in Ireland - locked out all its staff due to an > industrial dispute. After a week in Ireland, I headed off to Majorca and > we did what other young men in their twenties did on their holidays - > beaches, girls, drink, etc. We did notice the police seemed very > twitchy, but nothing untoward happened. > > At the end of the fortnight, I rang my Dad and he told me the lock-out > was likely to persist for another month or so, as both sides seemed at > loggerheads with a totally intractable situation. Armed with this > information, three of us who all worked in banking said farewell to the > other guys who had to go back home to work, and we went to Barcelona by > ferry. On arrival, we headed on 25 miles to the north of the city to > stay in Arenys de Mar where we knew another group of Irish bankers were > staying in hostels - ?3 a day, ?1 for the bed, ?1 for food, and ?1 for > drink. > > Anyway, we all had a great time, even organised a football team to play > local teams, and whiled away our hours trying to persuade both local and > foreign young ladies of our honourable intentions. However, one weekend > a couple of weeks into our stay, ourselves and some girlfriends were on > the beach amidst groups of locals and foreign visitors, when I realised > I had left something (swimming goggles perhaps) back in the hostel. I > headed back there and got it. On my return I noticed some Guardia Civil > vans parked at the entrance to the beach. They were tooled up with > batons and looked menacing. > > I joined my group and after a few minutes heard shouts and cries. To our > collective horror, we saw all the Guardia had piled into an innocuous > looking group of young people about 20 metres away and were beating them > and dragging them away to the vans. No one on the beach moved, or tried > to interfere. When they drove off, we asked other people on the beach > what was the reason for the arrests and the extreme brutality shown, but > we just got shaking heads and shrugged shoulders. I always wondered what > happened to those poor people. > > Spain has changed a lot in the past 47 years. Four years later, I was in > a different part of Majorca with my wife and young son. People and the > police seemed a lot more relaxed even then. However, a few months later, > Col. Tejero of the Guardia Civil attempted a coup and took over the > Spanish parliament until he was disowned and his actions belatedly > condemned by King Juan Carlos. Like most people in Europe at the time, > we wondered had an evil past returned. Spanish politics is certainly > interesting... > > Douglas > who had no camera with him in 1976, but had heard of Leica. 30 years > later I owned a IIIc, and the following year an M3. Still have both. > > Nathan, I like the image. A very nice moment captured. > > > > > On 01/03/2023 18:57, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > > Thanks, Peter. There has been some rain that morning but in general the > winter has been dry. In contrast to Northern Europe, it has been > unseasonably cold here. This morning when I was driving to work, it was > only 9C (48F in American money) which is extreme for Alicante in March (OK, > the month just started, but still). However, there is plenty of tomatoes of > all types, and the prices are no higher than normal, so the supply problems > in the UK are not weather related. I think somebody screwed up and is using > the cool weather down here as an excuse. > > > > As for the plaque. It is a long story. The restoration of democracy in > Spain following Franco?s death in 1975 was peaceful but perhaps not > universally welcomed. The right wing and the Catholic Church were tightly > connected, and a not insignificant sector of the population would have > liked the Fascist government to have continued with a new head. This did > not happen, fortunately, but in contrast to the democratisation process in > places like South Africa or Poland, there was no reckoning with the > perpetrators of human rights violations of the previous regime?no truth and > reconciliation commission, no judicial proceedings, just a tacit agreement > to sweep things under the rug and move on. This was known as the ?Pacto del > Olvido? (?the pact to forget?) and until recent years it was rarely > questioned. Only in the past decade has there been serious movement towards > a more normal treatment of the past, as evidenced by the removal of > Franco?s body from the hideous mausoleum he had built outside Madrid (he is > now buried in a normal family plot) and installation of memorials like our > plaque in Alicante. Still, there are still street names and symbols harking > back to the dictatorship. > > > > Like I said, this is all complicated, intermingled with issues of > Catalan nationalism, the role of the church, etc. Lluis, who has actually > lived in Spain during the dictatorship and through the transition and > subsequent years, may have a much richer perspective than I. > > > > Cheers, > > Nathan > > > > > > Nathan Wajsman > > photo at frozenlight.eu > > > > http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws > > http://www.greatpix.eu > > http://www.frozenlight.eu > > > > ????? ???????! ?????? ?????! > > > > > > > > > > > > > >> On 1 Mar 2023, at 10:57, Peter Dzwig<pdzwig at summaventures.com> > >> wrote: > >> > >> Wow, you have rain in Alicante? But I guess that's why we can't get our > tomatoes from Spain and Morocco at the moment. > >> > >> Very much like the picture I wonder what she makes of it, or will do in > the future. Great shot. > >> > >> I guess Mussolini's planes were flying out of the Balearics. Would love > to hear why it took so long to put in place. > >> > >> Peter > >> > >> On 27/02/2023 11:57, Nathan Wajsman wrote: > >>> A proper Leica image this time?shot on film with the Leica M2 and > developed by me. The background: on 25 May 1938, Alicante was the victim of > one of the many war crimes during the Spanish Civil War. The city was > besieged, and starvation was widespread. On that day, the attackers knew > that there would be a delivery of fish to the Central Market, and so > Mussolini?s air force chose to bomb the market?the objective was clearly to > sow terror among the population, there were no military targets anywhere > nearby. More than 300 people were killed. > >>> Today the square is called Plaza del 25 de Mayo, and in 2013 a > memorial plaque was installed on the pavement (the fact that it took so > long after re-establishment of democracy in 1978 is another story). Most > people just walk by, but I noticed a father explaining the meaning of the > memorial to his young daughter: > >>> https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-7FBJMQn/A > >>> Cheers, > >>> Nathan > >>> Nathan Wajsman > >>> Alicante, Spain > >>> http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/> > >>> http://<http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu > >>> PICTURE OF THE WEEK:http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws < > http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog:http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/ < > http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/> > >>> Cycling:http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator < > http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator> > >>> ????? ???????! ?????? ?????! > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> Leica Users Group. > >>> Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > >> -- > >> > >> Dr. Peter Dzwig > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Leica Users Group. > >> Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > Seehttp://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information -- Jasse Chan jassechan at gmail.com