![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Wondering what good happened to him in 20 years. MACIAS: He went into a dark place, thinking that, at 40 years old, he had nothing to show for his life. Work started to dry up progressively until there was no work for Pablo. Studying architecture in Spain seemed like a good idea for a while for my generation, when construction was booming, until it wasn't, until the crisis devastated the sector. MACIAS: That's my friend Pablo, an architect. And at that moment, when so many of my friends were basically drowning, I felt lucky to live somewhere else, to have some stability. I had a stable job as a professor teaching radio production at Brooklyn College in New York City. We grew up under a new democracy full of promise that things would be better for us, better than for our parents, not just politically but also economically. MACIAS: My generation was born around the time Franco, the Spanish dictator, died. We talked for hours and hours about the crisis, politics, society, Spain, our generation. I saw many of my friends give up on their dreams of a more fulfilling life as I watched from the outside. The 2008 economic crisis was four years in and not going away anytime soon. That's the year I started taping interviews with my friends in Spain. MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: This story starts in 2012. And this episode, which originally ran on Latino USA, Miguel gets very honest about his hopes, his regrets, his debilitating depression and what you lose when you choose the freedom of not putting down stakes anywhere. And he's spent a lot of his life since toggling back and forth between these two worlds that he inhabited on either side of the Atlantic. He grew up in Spain but moved to the United States when he was in his 20s. Miguel Macias was an executive producer with our play cousins over at Latino USA. On this episode, we're going to hear a very personal story from someone who was stuck between these two different versions of himself, these two different modes of being. And sometimes it was just about their parents being able to step back into a life they had before they had the life they have now, before any number of potential lives and careers and lovers came off the table. ![]() Sometimes it was a function of people's parents slipping back into some role they played in the family order back in the old country, back in the day. The anxious mother who was just more assured, who was just moving lighter. A normally taciturn father who was suddenly really mischievous and quick-witted, the life of the party even. People on the team have talked about what it was like to go back to their parents' home country and to see their parents transform into these unfamiliar beings once they were back in this different element, their own element. So when we're all chopping it up on the CODE SWITCH stoop, which is the joke-y (ph) name for the little area in the NPR office where all of our cubicles are situated, we sometimes get to complaining about our families and our parents, you know, as you do, and all the typical generational frictions and frustrations come up, but also so does a lot of commiserating about this experiential stuff - right? - this giant gap in outlooks when you are born and raised in the United States, and your mother or your father or the people who raised you grew up somewhere, you know, halfway around the world. What's good, y'all? I'm Gene Demby, and this is CODE SWITCH from NPR.ĭEMBY: So for as long as CODE SWITCH has been the thing, our team has been made up in no small part of the kids of immigrants. See Spain through your senses.Just a heads up, y'all - this episode contains mentions of suicide. Smell fragrant, aromatic spices borne on steamy air, refined and delivered. See the vibrant colors of saffron and paprika, white Bomba rice and green courgette. You’ll soon be enjoying Spain with others rather than being alone and glued to a screen. You wish you were in Spain but you can’t be there right now. Let’s face it, on YouTube you may catch a sight or sound from Spain. This experiential moment takes you very close to Spain’s essence. This is not an exercise of imagination alone. When you taste Spain your senses sharpen and you exist through this gustatory, sensory experience. All of them know that the best way understand Spain is to taste it. There are gaining in popularity and they’re filled with Spanish enthusiasts, foodies and sometimes homesick Spaniards. It’s in your city, a Tapas bar, or your own kitchen. Finding Spain Wherever You Are – It’s Just One Taste Away ![]()
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