An elderly Spanish woman, Ms. Maricarmen, has passed away.
Ms. Maricarmen had lived for 70 years in an apartment in Madrid’s Retiro district, but after a real estate company raised her rent from 500 euros (about 85,000 yen) to 2,650 euros (about 450,000 yen), she was forcibly evicted and later hospitalized due to the emotional strain.
This incident triggered an explosion of anger among Spaniards who were likewise suffering from soaring rents. Demonstrations began breaking out everywhere, and to convey the importance of “having a roof over one’s head,” protest actions spread across Spain, with people pitching tents and staying overnight around government buildings.
The reason I’m writing about this in my diary is that it happened while I was staying in Spain for ten days, and I saw it with my own eyes.
Tents had taken over the square in Bilbao at night, and a small food distribution was taking place nearby.
Colorful tents stood in rows before imposing buildings, carrying out a silent protest. Similar scenes were probably unfolding not only here in Bilbao but in cities across the country.
As I watched a sense of solidarity that is hard to imagine in Japan, I thought about Ms. Maricarmen. An 87-year-old woman who simply wanted to continue living in the apartment and neighborhood she had called home for 70 years. One of the protesters shouted, “This could be your mother. It could be your grandmother.” The person being forcibly evicted tomorrow could be your own family member—or even you.
Step outside the square where the demonstrations were taking place, and ordinary daily life was repeating itself as usual.
While I was traveling around Spain, news about Grandma Maricarmen was reported nonstop, and citizens kept encouraging one another to join the demonstrations.
On the terrace in front of a nearby cathedral, Spaniards finished with work were unwinding with beer and wine. Perhaps they too were trying to forget reality with alcohol, even as they lived in fear of rising prices and rents.
Near the tents, there was also a homeless person who, probably unrelated to the protest, seemed to have been using this square as a sleeping place long before. The people speaking about the importance of having a roof over one’s head—would they also embrace those living on the street, lying on the cobblestones? Tourists passed between the tents and him.
After returning home, feeling that I had seen society and reality up close, I later heard the small news report in Japan of Ms. Maricarmen’s death.
After Ms. Maricarmen’s death, the demonstrations expanded, and thousands joined memorial marches.
I wonder whether the people I saw in Bilbao staying overnight in tents are still walking on, thinking of the elderly woman who wanted to spend her final days in the apartment she had lived in for 70 years.
Comments (1)
Leave a comment