Notes in Spanish podcast no.40 - El destape

[Ben]

Marina and Ben discuss the far-reaching effects of the bikini and topless sunbathing as Franco's era came to an end.

Listen here (http://www.notesinspanish.com/2006/08/29/notes-in-spanish-podcast-advanced-40-el-destape/).
Get the transcript here (http://www.notesinspanish.com/store/).

[Ben]

Slightly related article in El Mundo blogs (http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/06/15/sexo/1150362942.html):
"Todavía podemos recordar cómo hace unos años, en algunos pueblos −especialmente en la zona norte de España− los lugareños perseguían a los nudistas a golpe de palos."

[Marbella]

OK, yo seré el primero en decirlo, es un podcast donde unas fotos podían haber ayudado. ;)

En serio, hay mucho de lo que hablar pero hoy no quiero ser el primero.

[Leah]

for sheer laziness I'm not going to write in spanish...

anyhow, listening to the discussion of the effects of prohibitions in franco's spain, it reminded me a lot of Cuba. In the 4 and a half monthes I spent there, nothing was more disturbing than the relationship with tourism. Just like franco tried to keep out most things foriegn (accept those things that were approved and morally ok) Castro does the same thing. Cuba is an island in the truest sense of the world, cut off from the world and the media is ultra censored and basically says what castro wants them to say. Except what do you do when your economy is on the verge of collapsing and you have miles and miles of beautiful coastline? You bite the bullet and and allow foreign tourists to come and bring their money. Just like what happened in spain 30 years ago. And what is happening in Cuba? well, let's just that bikinis most definitely aren't the problem but contact with tourists has caused prostitution to go on the rise (there was one bar in the center of Habana that we called the putabar because it was always full of gorgeous cuban girls and fat old dutch/german/italian men) but more than anything else the euros that have poured in have really shaken cuban society. It's one thing to know that 30 miles away in Florida there is more to eat than col y proteina vegetal and it's another to have daily contact with gucci sunglass toting tourists. bitterness and discontent is on the rise. Castro knew very well that this would happen and built the tourist resorts far from habitated areas, but tourists will travel and folks want to see la habana.

One thing I noticed while traveling around the island was that people in the countryside tended to be a lot happier than the habaneros which tended to hastle me nonstop and always try to get a few dollars. In the provincial cities like camaguey and pinar del rio this tended to rarely happen and in the countryside it never happened. Why? these people are the true benificiaries of the revolution, their quality of life has gone up while the quality of life in Havana has gone done. Out in the country you can grow your food and fish (illegally).

Anyway, sorry to go so off subject but listening to you talk about el destape it reminded me so much of the "fermentation" thats going on in cuba.

Leah

[Brian]

"Vamos a dar un paseo para ver si haya Suecas...." LOL! ¡Qué tio es el padre de Marina!"

Mi mujer me ha dicho que cuando tenia quince años, se fue a la playa con amigas que todas eran primas. Todas (con excepción de mi mujer) se destaparon miéntras que se bañaron en el sol. Después de una hora, un hombre se pusó en afrente de ellas, mirándoles. Ellas le miraron, y a su gran horror reconoció que el hombre fue su TIO! Todas saltaron, buscando el "top" de su bikini, avergonzadas. ¡Parece que no eran tan "libres" como pensaron!

[Edith]

Marina and Ben discuss the far-reaching effects of the bikini and topless sunbathing as Franco's era came to an end.

Listen here (http://www.notesinspanish.com/2006/08/29/notes-in-spanish-podcast-advanced-40-el-destape/).
Get the transcript here (http://www.notesinspanish.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=7).

That was a very interesting chat! :)

So Spanish men weren't allowed to wear short sleeves during the early stages of the Franco era... wow. Sounds like Iran after the Islamic Revolution or like Albania under Enver Hoxha. The meddlesome behavior of dictators never ceases to amaze me! Right-wing or left-wing rulers, it doesn't matter - they all seemed to be worried about clothing, haircuts, music and the like. :confused:

I vividly remember my first visit to Spain in the summer of 1981. Things were still very different then, and once you left the coastal areas people did not seem to be used to tourists at all. Even though I'm dark-haired and not very Nordic-looking I remember being stared at a lot by young boys, especially during the train ride from Barcelona to Burgos. It was a bit disconcerting at times. During this vacation, I was wearing Bermuda-like shorts and some elderly people didn't seem to approve of this. Things have changed a lot indeed.

On a Barcelona beach, we saw how a topless woman who appeared to be Spanish herself created quite a stir among her fellow Spaniards. I had a black bikini at the time and this didn't cause any problems.

It's amazing how much things seem to have changed over the past twenty-five years. Even El País Semanal, the glossy Sunday supplement of El País, has got its share of nude pictures and sometimes they are quite explicit!

In his book 'Ghosts of Spain', Giles Tremlett also discusses these radical changes. He describes the Spanish as being libertarians at heart who hate being told what to do by meddlesome governments. Which makes me wonder why on earth they ever put up with Franco's moralistic dictates in the first place! There is a discrepancy here which I don't understand.

The Spanish use of explicit language, also described in the book, reminds me of Holland. We also tend to be quite tolerant in this respect, which is why certain words are not bleeped away during television broadcasts. The podcast and chapter 4 of the book (How The Bikini Saved Spain) complement each other perfectly.

[Marina]

Hoy, casualmente a la vuelta del trabajo, estaban haciendo una entrevista sobre la época del destape (http://www.notesfromspain.com/447/) al escritor y guionista Rafael Azcona (http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/Azcona/montaje.html) en el programa de radio de Gemma Nierga que tanto me gusta La Ventana (http://www.cadenaser.com/programas.html?anchor=serprolav).
Habla sobre su libro "Los Europeos (http://www.tiramillas.net/libros/resenas/resenas060613/azcona.html)", publicado en 1960 y que está situado en la Ibiza de 1957 (que automaticamente ha entrado en mi lista de libros por leer), y de anecdotas de la época como que en el Madrid de entonces los chicos no podían mirar fijamente a las chicas por si ellas llamaban a un guardia.

Podéis escuchar la entrevista entera aquí (http://www.cadenaser.com/player.html?audioFile=20060628csrcsr_18.Aes) ¡merece la pena!

[aeloygut]

Querida Marina,

Muchisimas gracias por el podcast sobre el Destape. Aunque yo no tengo mucha idea de lo que paso en Espana y los efectos de Franco y cuando empezo, excepto por lo que he leido en libros, era exactamente lo que trataba de explicar a mis alumnos.
De nuevo, muchisimas gracias por tu clara explicacion e interesantisimos comentarios.

aeloygut

[Mkingsley]

Me gusto much el topico de este podcast. Yo no se mucho de la historia de este tiempo en España. Me imaginaba que era estricto pero no tuvia idea que era tan estricto. Yo he viajado en España solo dos veces durante los ultimos 15 años y yo disfrute de la abertura de la gente. Yo pienso que en contraste la gente en los Estado Unidos es pudica. Yo me sorprendi mas en España por que penasaba que por la catolicismo la gente seria mas pudica peron ne era asi. Pero ahora entiendo mas las razones de la oleada anti-pudica. Gracias por la sugerencia del libro por Hopper. Me gusaria saber mas de esta tema.