Madrid 1969

In Madrid I went to Charo's house. Charo had stayed at the convent and had helped me with French lessons. We were good friends and her family treated me very well. Charo unknown to me belong to the Opus Dei. I was naïve, for I should have known. She had given me “Camino” to read which should have alerted me. She lived in Calle Bravo Murillo very near to St Antonio's church. There, she knew a priest who was very kind. He took us by car every where and showed me Madrid in good style. We ate at best restaurants and he was very generous. I was later to find out that he too belong to Opus Dei and was sawing the seeds for me to join their profitable organization. It was not to materialise.

Charo and myself in Paris

I took the train and went to Seville to see my sister Lourdes and family. My intention was to find a job there but I was not lucky. At the end of August 1968 I took the train back to Madrid in order to find a job. I was 19 years old. My savings were 12,000 pesetas, a small fortune in my bank, but looking for cheap accommodation was my first priority in order to make my saving last as long as possible.

I bought a newspaper and started looking for a room in the centre of Madrid. I remember buying a map and asking the people offering rooms for the nearest tube station. I telephoned several numbers before I found one that was central and appeared to be suitable for my needs. I took a taxi from the station and arrived in Calle Barbieri. This is a street in the red district of Madrid. I was taken to a suitable room and after placing my few belongings in their rightful place I descended to the kitchen to see the atmosphere and to find out where I could have something to eat.

In there I found people of different ages and appeared to have very different professions too.One of them was a retired cabaret singer, looking at her one could tell her singing carrier was over and something else was her current employment. Another young person was facing the cooker where she was preparing her lunch. Her name was Loren. Lillian was an English teacher, Maria Jose was teaching young people in a school and Mary Carmen was working as a telephonist. That was not bad I thought, they all had decent enough jobs I had done well choosing the cheap pension.

During the following days I kept looking at adverts and telephoning companies for work. I was fortunate enough to see an advert as a sales assistant in Torrejon de Ardoz near the American Base. I made an appointment and I arrived at this alabaster factory near Plaza de Castilla. There were several people applying for the position and I wondered what my chances were. The owner Pilar a nice kind woman explained that the job was some distance away and we would be taken by car. Six of us were taken for a trial at the shop. When we got there we were mostly disappointed because it was a portakabin souvenir shop in the middle of no where. However, American pilots did purchase goods there.

Pili my friend, and head shop assistant

Apart from the normal souvenirs goods, alabaster lamps,statues and ashtrays were sold in large quantities. Pilar's brothers were good carvers of alabaster. I was told what the position entailed and I was given guidelines. An American officer entered the shop asking for an alabaster lamp, these are placed on alabaster pedestal and are lit inside. I had never seen one of these before, but I approached the ones displayed and he pointed to one of them. I took it to the counter and in English told him the price and whether he would like it packed. He nodded and took his purse out to pay me. I wrote the receipt and put the money in the till. Then this item had to be dismantled and wrapped, the pieces are heavy, after all alabaster is soft marble. -No problem, I looked at it and started taking a part. Seven pieces were ready for me to wrap in carton and tied with string. I must have done a good job, for the head sales assistant took me outside while others where interviewed and she said to me quietly, “don't worry the job is yours”. In effect it was, and the following day I was to go to Ventas station and Pili would collect me by car to my new job.

I was to be paid 8,000 pesetas. This was a very good salary at the time. Loren was a waitress and she had minimum wages plus tips, Vivian was earning 5,000 pesetas as a teacher, Mary Carmen was earning just above the minimum wage of 3,000 as a telephonist and Maria Jose, would not disclose her salary.

I would leave the house at 7.30 and go to a coffee shop to have a coffee and toast. I was "ok" now, I had a job. I then took the underground and travelled for 16 tube stations to meet with Pili in Ventas station. At 8,30 on the dot she was there waiting for me in her white Seat 600. We travelled to the outskirt of Torrejon de Ardoz before we got to a solitary camp in the vicinity of the American base. In the shop there was one young man called Ezequiel, who was to help with heavy goods, cleaning etc.

The shop Artesanos Unidos -The owner and myself ,and Ezequiel

The shop was not very busy, but the margin in sales exceeded 300 per cent. This taught me something about sales and cost of product.

In our rooms, life continued and the people that did not profit from the red district like myself, Loren,Vivian, Mary Carmen y Maria Jose, got talking about finding a better location. Our reputation was at stake, as well as realising that going home at night was not enjoyed by any of us.

I found a flat for rent in a much better location, Quevedo. We rented a large flat with 5 bedrooms, kitchen and sitting room. It was the 5th floor and we had good views and plenty of space, no more encounters with dirty men in our street.

This flat was unfurnished. Such were the times. We had nothing, no bed or table or chairs.On Saturday those of us that were not working decided to go to the Rastro to buy beds. We had a brilliant morning bargaining and buying our first pieces of furniture, well, metal, for the beds were made from cheap aluminium. We also bought some sponge matresses that were served unwrapped and tied with a string. The next problem was how to take them home, we thought nothing better but to take the underground. Four young women,four metal beds and four sponge mattresses.

Fortunately,the tube station exit to our destination was very near to our flat and we arrived laughing and vey happy.

Some of the girls were tidy and respectful to others, many had no common sense and would leave the toilet or bathroom full of hairs or worse. This caused some problems and I introduced a roster for cleaning. -Did it work? no. Just the same we had a good few months there in harmony and enjoyed our new way of life.

I decided that I needed to gain some certificates if I wanted to improve my chances in the labour market, and I started going to evening classes to study the "O" levels that I had left unfinished as a teenager. I went to evening classes for 2 years and managed to improve my writing and arithmetic skills.

A few months later Vivian brought news of a flat to rent in Hernani, in Cuatro Caminos, with 5 bedrooms and much cheaper than our present one. Naturally, Quevedo is an expensive location. We moved there with our meagre possessions and improved our life style by having more money to ourselves.

My sister Tina was at the time in Geneva and with a package of accademic knowledge of 3 languages; English, French and German, she decided to come to Madrid and try her luck finding a job. Tina had been a very good student, and had had pre-university studies and teacher training . She placed an advert with all her skills and had lots of offers of employment. However, this being the Spain of the early seventies the interview locations were questionable and she had to sieve through the offers before she managed to get something respectable. Finally,she managed to get a job as a secretary for a Doctor at the Consejo General.She became number 6 in the flat.

A few months later another friend of mine Celines, who had being a student dressmaker with my eldest sisters decided to come from Barcelona to find a job in Madrid. Celines became number 7 in the flat.

Then my brother who was by now 16 was sent to Los Salesianos college in Madrid to learn a trade.Due to my brother coming to Madrid I looked for a job nearer in order to be able to give him lunch and a bit of family life. I got this job in a hotel in Puerta de Hierro and I used to get a two and a half hour lunch break, as most Spanish do.

I travellled by tube at 2,15 and rushed to Cuatro Caminos to have lunch with my younger brother, rested for 15 minutes and took the train back to my job at 5,30 until 9,00 pm.

My father must have guessed what was happening and decided to pay us a visit. He immediately found a small flat back in Quevedo area and installed us there with my mother. We were two sisters, one brother,our mother plus Celines who decided to come with us.

My mother suffers from claustrophobia and the flat was an attic which had roof windows only. She was not happy and she develop orientation problems.The flat was in a circle of houses with a fruit market in the middle. You would think that my mother would be able to find the entrance of our block of flats, just by following the circle, well she could not, she was totally disorientated and would wait in the flat for one of us to appear. This may give the impresion that my mother was a fool, nothing further from the truth. She had a proven record .

This situation was not suitable either and my father decided to return to Madrid in order to set us up as a family. He did just that. He found a beautiful flat in one of the best districts of Madrid, Barrio Salamanca. In Calle Sainz de Baranda.The flat was spacious and luxurious by our standards. We were nine people in it but we all had our space.My parents were retired and had a small pension. My eldest sister was a dressmaker and looked for a job in her profession.Isidro, her husband found a job as a Pest control worker.Tina was working as a secretary and teaching english privately.Celines continued to work as a sales assistant. Myself worked in the Hotel Puerta de Hierro as a sales assistant in a boutique. Life was busy and we all contributed to the expensive rent with our wages.

My mother and father,my eldest sister her husband and 8 year old son, my sister Tina my youngest brother, and our friend and me. (9 people)

My brother went to school to learn a trade. There was a lot of activity in the house and everyone did their best to survive. Some comments made today by people of my generation complaining about the world situation, working conditions or the size of benefits provided by the goverment, make me ungry for they forget that we had nothing like that, that no help was at hand if you had no job. There was nothing to fall back on to then.

Young people of today must realise the effort made by us and our ancestors fighting for better working conditions,working hours,better rate of pay,minimum wage,holiday, working rights, uniforms,health and safety and many more benefits found in the work place today as given rights, when in fact they were all fought for.

It remains to be seen what legacy this new generations will leave to their descendants!