We are not saying that there are many Spaniards packing their bags and leaving behind Madrid, Barcelona, A Coruña … to go live in an uninhabited town in the purest style of the protagonist of the novel The Disgusting by Santiago Lorenzo. No, it is not that, although there are also those who do. What we want to reflect is the number of people who, after being confined by the coronavirus, for one reason or another, have decided to leave behind the cities where they have lived in recent years. Where they were born or not, cities in which they have been happy, but in which now they can no longer or want to live. For whatever reasons: the rush, the money … whatever.
The journalist Celia Blanco is one of them. They will recognize her because she is “the one for sex”, since in recent years she has been the creator and director of the program With you inside de La Ser. Blanco leaves behind his Plaza Mayor in Madrid for a flat overlooking the beach in Cabo de Gata. In Almería it will have a 65-meter flat with a 40-meter terrace on the beachfront, 3 bedrooms, 600 euros per month. In the epicenter of the capital, a few steps from Puerta del Sol, there were 75 m2, 3 rooms, 1,200 euros per month. Do the math.
“If you work online it is absurd to stay in Madrid, I love Madrid, I have been very happy here. I was that village girl, I come from Getafe, who always wanted to live in the main square. And I have succeeded, but it is no longer viable. If I don’t sleep with guys who treat me badly, why should I stay?
“I am leaving the city because it is no longer a nice and pleasant city that welcomes you and protects you, it has become a tourist destination that makes most of the residents no longer able to bear the rents and the price of coffee with milk. when you go to breakfast. And this time it was my turn: I was unemployed, I had a good salary and a good job and lived in a house that I could afford. She was the happiest person in the world, but the economic situation makes you have to go because Madrid is a city for the rich and for tourists. The prices are exorbitant, trying to have a rent that you can pay is impossible, ”explains Blanco.
And he continues: “I cannot live the anguish of not being able to pay at the end of the month or have the anguish of not being able to go out for a drink with my friends because every time I go out with them I spend 60 euros, because Madrid is a very expensive city. Before suffering it, what would happen to me if I stayed longer, I decided to abandon it, I leave with a broken heart. For me Madrid is the city, but I can’t stand here ”, he explains.
Blanco goes with her son and her partner to a town of 500 inhabitants, she says that she will take care of that town as she has taken care of Madrid, which she still loves very much even though it is already an inhospitable city for her.
Alba Jiménez is a nurse and left Madrid without confinement in between, the flight took place a year ago. He went to Menorca without meeting anyone there. “I lived in Madrid for 15 years, my father is from a small town in Ávila and I always liked small places. I left Madrid quite touched, I thought it was because of work at the hospital, but I realized that it was not work, it was the city. And that I was a privileged person because it took me 20 minutes to walk to the hospital. But the city was drowning me, ”she explains from the island. “I was overwhelmed by the rush that everyone is always in, the stress, the routines prevent you from enjoying things, you’re always waiting for Friday to arrive and hey, I also want to enjoy Tuesday,” she explains. Jiménez confesses that he lacks nothing in Madrid, that, during confinement and despite having been working every day, in Menorca he has been able to afford certain luxuries: “The first day I had free I went to bathe at the beach, I was alone and for me that is freedom ”, she concludes.
The profile of the people who leave urban centers is very diverse. For example, Estela Vallejo Latorre He is from a town in Soria and at 34 years old he has lived in Italy, England, India… He has been in Madrid for a little over a year and now he spends his last days in the capital: “I am from a town in Soria and confinement caught me in Soria capital. They operated on my father and being there helped me to reflect on what he was doing in Madrid. In one of the first days of the de-escalation I saw a job offer from an association to work with immigrants, I applied and they called me to start a few weeks ago ”, he explains.
Vallejo says that for her, enjoying life is having calm, peace and tranquility: “Enjoying the little things, the community. In Madrid there is a lot of rush, people are bitter, they are not happy. And look, I’m fine in Madrid, I have a job, friends … but I feel an emptiness, “he says.
Estela wants to fill that void in Soria and she doesn’t think she will miss Madrid: “I know it sounds hard, but that’s the way it is. People speak ill of Soria, that if this is a wasteland, that if the people are dry, that if the cold … But this is not the case, for me it is a wonderful land, I have always had it very present “, he says .
No, we are not saying that going to small places is the panacea or the solution to all the ills of urbanites. After all, as Daniel Gascón reflects in his novel A hipster in empty Spain, one moves to another place and moves with all their internal problems: if you don’t change yourself, it doesn’t matter if you change Madrid for Las Hurdes.
In any case, for those who are considering moving, apart from the two previous readings, there is another must-read work if they are thinking about a change in their lives: the wonderful essay Empty Spainby Sergio del Molino.
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