Quarentined 30’s
Clara was born on a Good Friday. She is part of a generation of Spaniards that has been defined by the maroon colour of their passports, a compulsive attraction to Ryanair’s deals, and the ghost of a profound economic crisis that sent her, amongst 2.5 million other young adults, to the other side of the world.
She is turning thirty back in her motherland. Confined in a 60 m2 flat while her life shrinks to the size of a phone. Drained batteries, perpetual beeping and stiff thumbs that are increasing the revenue of big tech companies, have become the reality of more than 530.000 Spaniards that are farewelling their 20’s in isolation during the covid-19 lockdown.
The fears inspired by the present situation can’t stop mingling with flashes of a prior pandemic: the 2008 economic crisis. Microorganisms prefer the upper bars of the population pyramid, but recessions feed viciously on the 25-35 bracket. “It’s the never-ending crisis”, she sings to the rhythm of Limahl’s 1984 hit. “I’ve never known life without a recession. It began the year I started Architecture School and I don’t think it will ever be over”, says Clara Dios Díez , who spent four years in Santiago (Chile) before moving back to Madrid.
She gave up Architecture. After finishing her degree with honors and battling precarious contracts, she chose web development. “I had to face the reality of the markets. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky or perhaps I’m just being naive and calling it luck is unfair, because there is someone out there who is responsible. I just don’t see an end to this and I don’t feel like politicians can help me”, she concludes.
Despite the fact that some of the leaders of the 2015 “indignados” (an anti-austerity movement in Spain) are sitting in parliament, there is a shortage of optimism in politics. The general perception has worsened since the last elections: the number of those who are less than satisfied with the political cast has risen 1.6% (from 52.8 to 54.4%), according to the Center of Sociological Research (A Spanish government agency).
Among fake news, videos of loud clapping neighbourhoods, and instructions on how to make a DIY facemask with a bra, a running joke has infected all phones. Donald Trump (President of the USA), Pedro Sánchez (Spanish Prime Minister), Amancio Ortega (CEO of Inditex, a multimillion-dollar fashion retailer group), and a 10-year-old are stuck in a plane about to crash into the ground. The plane is equipped with only three parachutes. Donald Trump grabs one and jumps immediately. Pedro Sánchez looks back and says, “I am the smartest person of Spain, therefore, I must live” and leaps out of the aircraft with the second parachute. Amancio Ortega looks at the kid and says “I’ve lived long enough. Take the last parachute and save yourself”. The 10-year-old replies: “Don’t worry, Amancio, the smartest man in Spain has just jumped with my backpack”.
Surely, the joke sheds light on a national and international truth: 2019 was the year when kids had had enough. A time when teenagers dared to “call B.S.” and ask leaders “how dare they” wreck their future with their questionable economic choices. The coronavirus is asking the young to be selfless, stay home, and get ready to be unemployed before embracing an indefinite number of precarious years. A profound change for an entire generation that can only hope that when everything is over, those in a position of power hand them a parachute.
Quoted sources:
Online Interview with Clara Dios Díez, April 9th 2020
Instituto Nacional de Estadística: “Padrón de Españoles Residentes en el Extranjero (Register of Spanish Residents Abroad)” , 2019
Center of Sociological Research http://www.cis.es/cis/opencms/ES/index.html