Where Hunters Shoot Red Partridge

Lily and I left Madrid in the morning. We drove south into the flat, parched tablelands and ancient pine forests of the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha; the southern 'meseta' of Central Spain - an uplifted plain that rings Iberia as the Colorado Plateau encloses the center of the American Desert Southwest.

There is little here, except agriculture and empty plains: vineyards and rows and rows of olive trees and the saffron crocuses, which have been harvested here since the age of the Moors. We passed through Ocanà, Guardia, and finally El Romeral across unparalleled flatness to the west and strange steepled mesas to the east, fringed by scrublands where hunters shoot red partridge.

There are few people in the southern meseta and even fewer animals. Most of the people have left the country for the city since the end of Franco's dictatorship (35% of Spain used to live in the city. Now that has risen to 65%). And the animals have gone the way of the Spanish gun. In Madridejo, that absence of life became very real as we sped through the narrow and empty whitewashed alleys.

"Where is everyone?" I commented.

"Don't forget its siesta," Lily said. She was right, of course, but outside these smallest of small towns, the siesta culture is fading as well. When the Dictator Franco died, King Juan Carlos decided the days of political monarchy were no longer useful in Europe. "It was his dad, you know," Ralph said, "who was responsible for telling the King that a monarchy just doesn't work anymore."

Spain elected Gonzales, a socialist who built up the roads and infrastructure. Since then, the new leader, Jose Maria Aznar, became Europe's last market-based leader, and multiplied Gonzales' success by changing the focus onto private business, banking efficiencies and nodding heads from the European community.

Earlier, I had written to the Castillian Communist Party to ask a few questions. Sr. Pedro Higuera wrote back with "revolutionary cheers" and told me that "we are working on a thirty-five hours-in-a-week with no 'salarial' reduction...no nuclear graveyards in Castilla...no presence of American forces or aircrafts inside our territory...complete autonomy for our community..."

Most of Sr. Higuera's comments could be expected from any number of Iberian leftists, but mention of complete autonomy is common in Spain and a sense of fierce independence has been a Spanish trait long before biblical times when people immigrated here to 'the edge of the world' to escape the difficulties of the organized world to the East. Historically, Spain fought off the intrusions of the outside world on a local and individual level, preferring to hit the mountains and defend by striking in surprise in small groups --the word 'guerilla' was invented in Spain. Today, people still have a strong distrust for lawyers, judges, institutions and associations.