Around the world

Title

Around the world

Language

English

Year

1949

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

October 8, 1949 Madrid is today becoming one of the most ''Amerkanized" of all European capitals. Spanish initiative e:r.-abl.ecl Christopher Columbus to discover America in 1492.; now, Spain is discovering Am(•J.ica all over again. . The tallest building in Madrid is the eighteenth-story sky-scrapper built by Spanish and United States cai:>ihl to become the core of th.. nation's new and moder.nized telephone system. You can walk into any one of a score of cafeterias jn the center of Madrid and haw hot cakes· with butter and honey and drink a glas·: of orange juioo, prepared b~fore your eyes from the tresh fruit, for breakfast. Spaniards, once famous as being eternal drinkers uf coffee, today drink fruit juice or a milk shake - th•~ latter being known here as a "Batido de Leche." Instead of the bun, kuown as a "Suizo," which they used to eat with their coffee. thev will probably have a "club sandwich." No attempt has been made to translate this. You jus.t ask for "un club sandwich." Every Madrid typist - and most of the younger duchess for that matter-model their clothes on the dresses Hollywood presents or:. the films. Hair styles, too, follow Hollywood. You will see a score of great masses of hair worn loose over the shoulder$ in the best "Veronica Lake"' tradition in a five-minute walk fhrough Madrid's center. Madrid shops us~d to hnitate Paris and London 11hops by their conservatism. Twenty years ago, there was onlv one department store i!1 town. Today, there are more than a half-dozen. This has proved the hardest change for the old-style Madrileiios to take. They never expected to see the days when Madrid _ newspapers would be advertising "summer sales" and "autumn proin•Jtions." Twenty years ago, it was an .almost unheard of thing for any Madrid ~hop to advertise its wares. Formely, Madrid watched .NATIONAL WEEKLY By HENRY BUCKLEY Reuters Correspondent London and Paris closely for will still see the French L'Illeadership as regards thine:s lustration but it will be more to wiear a.nd, also, for poliii- or less swamped by copies of cal and literary guidance. Time, Life, Newsweek and All the best-dressed men in the odd copy of Esquire or Madrid copied the style ot the Saturday Evening Post. "the Prince of Wales" in the It is only fair to say that carefree, inter-war yt>ar:' part of the "Amedcaniza. when the now very much~do- tion" of Madrid has been inimesticated Dukie of Windsor tiated by people who have was the pioneer of European lived in North or 'South A.nemale fashion. The senoras r1ca or elsewhere abro.ad. of Madrid faithfully followed 'Ihe first cafeteria. known the dictates of the Paris fa. as "California," which first shion houses. inrou ... eieu to !Vladl'id tt·u11 Today, men as well as wo- juices a.nd exotic sandwiches men are much more influenc· with fried eg~s. falling out ed by New York than by Pa- of the middle, and milk ris. Any Madrid tailor today shakes, was set up by a Spashudders wifa h9rror if you niard who had lived some ask him to make you a suit years in Cuba. "estilo Ingles"-English style, Today, there are about trousers reaching high up the thirty cafeterias in Madrid trunk aiiiTits spacious jacket, and as ma.ny again awaiting with waistcoat. licenses from Municipality to 'The Spaniard today has his open. dcithes made American-style, The smartest and most golow-cut trousers with belt ahead department store in the instead of suspenders - or city was also o~ened by a braces, if you prefer to call Spaniard who had lived sumr> Lhc.m S:l - with a close-fit- years in Cuba. Another waair. tin.I! jacket with no waist- initiated by a man trained in coat. but usually accompanied a London store. bv tailor-made shirt. Earlier generations of S11>aAmerican films are the fa- niards colonized America. vorites and Spanish films Today, the new ideas from have to be exceedingly food the West come back to Spain. to make the gTade in the But the revolution of the leading cinemas on Madrid's Madrid way of life is not due wide. new Gran Via. only to the initiative of a few It ·is only the newly rich or men. The whole way of life thc;se with many dollars at is changing. People go to catheir disposal who can buy feterias because they havP American cars today. for other ideas of diet and beSpain. in company with most cause they have not the time other countries of Europe, is their fathers had to sit and· short of dollars. c.hat for hours in smoke-laden Those who want to buy cars have to buy British or E_rench ; but the spacious, fast American car remains the favorite with most Spaniards. On the news stands, vou cafes. - The strange thing about this "Americanization" is · that Madrid sees no Americans except for the few who liYe here and a relatively sin.all trickle Page 35 of tourists. She gets no Marsball aid, there is ·no extensive publicity df America as exists. for instance, in Iitaly. .and there is no ·coming and going of relatives from the United States beeause very few Spaniards have emigrated there. It is, th.:eref ore, somewhat puzzling that Spain looks so much to the United States. even modifying her diet ~nd way of living-difficult things tc change as many statesmen 'have found when they tried to effect them by order. The most probabl~ exvlanation of the American influence lfos in the fact that in Spain's civil war it was the bourgeois party which won 1 The civil war caused a trPnwndous national upheaval, far more considerable than Lhat of the American rivil war and rather comparable to the Frenc'h Revolution or to Britain':: Cromwellian revolution. The postwar period fon1Hl Spain in the hands of hour· ~eoise whiri:J. had suff er~d a L·lood bat!1. It acted with a dynamism a:1d capacity to re.:>Uild and reconstruct which showed little resemblance . to the formet· tarnished record of this class in Spain. In ot'her words, . middfo class Spain is today looking for inspiration to the leading "middle class nation" of the worl_d. Nor is there any indication that the majority of Spain's wider masses hav.e any objectioi,i to such an attitude - provided that it does result in ~ modernized Spain. IDEAL WATCH SUPPLY & OPTICAL CO. lmpor ·s - Retailers - Wholesalers - Established 1919 We sell watches, clocks, jewelries, watch bands, bra~letsi, chains of every descriptions. Comp'ete line of watch spare parts. ma':erials, tools, supplies, Optical goods, etc. Send for c.ur price list Main office: 819 Rizal Avenue

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