Portait of a Crisis

Portrait of a Crisis

text and photographs by Xavier Galiana

Copyright of Xavier Galiana 2011

The financial crisis in Spain began in 2008 and ever since then, it has been on the news headline everyday. The crisis is not only economic but also has social and political impact. And it is always the common man that suffers from the repercussions- uncertain pension scheme, increased unemployment rate, decline in wages and lowered health and education standards.

The media and politicians often portray the crisis in the language of facts and figures- the amount of the public debt, the number of people marching the streets, the cuts to public spend-ing, the number of jobs lost etc. However, behind these numbers lie different stories of human experiences and needs.

Frustrated by the situation, the Spanish public has been roused to voice their concerns. Taking inspiration from the recent Arab Spring, many people started meeting in city squares to discuss the situation. This soon developed into large gatherings of people in local squares, with Plaza del Sol in Madrid being the epicentre of the 15th of May Movement (also known as 15M). This social movement, commonly referred to as the ‘Indignados’, drew people from different social backgrounds with the sole intention to take charge of the country’s social, economic and political changes at this still embryonic stage of the crisis.

Whilst from the news headlines, it is clear that Spain is in a difficult situation, the crisis is per-haps less clear when walking through any city, as life seems to go on as usual. This raises the question of the lived experience of this so-called crisis. What does it mean to those people who have become summed up in facts and figures? In what way has this crisis affected the ordinary Spanish? “Portrait of a Crisis” is a journey across Spain, to discover the answers behind these questions and to explore these human stories that one seldom read about in mainstream media.

Portrait of a Crisis

Carmen Gómez GilBarcelona

I’ve been working all my life, but two years ago I lost my job and everything started to crumble down like the pieces of a domino set.

Unemployment benefits weren’t enough to pay the rent and I ended up in the street. I’ve been a squatter. Now I live in a rented apartment along with my daughter and my grandchild.

I never thought it would come down to such a helpless situation. If it were not for the charity food and for the tapped water and electricity I wouldn’t make ends meet. In fact I can barely make it up to the first two weeks. We have to wheel and deal.

With the 541€ of the unemployment benefit I must pay the rent, the bills and a few more things. Every month the parish gives us food. Still I have to go to the community kitchen to have enough for the three of us.

First time I went to de community kitchen was really hard, I almost fainted from sorrow. I left all the food in the table and started cry-ing. When I left I went to the subway determined to jump to the tracks. People saw my condition and I ended up in the hospital. I’m on therapy now.

I don’t feel guilty but I do feel bad. I feel anger and helplessness.

I can’t see a way out. I need a job, but who’s going to hire me with my training and my age? I’ve been sending CV’s for over two years, and I haven’t received any response. I’d go abroad if I could. They come from overseas to work in here! Why couldn’t I do the same?

Many people couldn’t care less about these situations, politicians take no notice. Otherwise this wouldn’t be happening.

Maria Rosa PerezValencia

My particular decline started in 2008, when my partner and I loosed our jobs and couldn’t afford the mortgage payments any-more.

I’ve been working since I was 15, never been afraid to work: I’ve hanged advertising posters, I’ve cleaned, I’ve been a cook in several restaurants, and in the army I’ve made the same tasks that men do.

I bought my flat in 2004, I met the payments scrupulously until the situation was so extreme that it was paying them or putting food on the table for the kids. The bank refused to neither help nor negotiate. I decided to stop paying.

The bank is nice to you as long as you pay. They’ve lent you money, and it makes sense they want it back, but you can be in the black list overnight, they don’t care if you’ve been paying reli-giously. The school voucher has been rejected because I haven’t paid IBI (the Real State Tax) for two months.

Compensation for unfair dismal, child support, donation of egg cells... Everything I got I used it to pay for the flat; I well could’ve worked as a prostitute. For me, my house and my kids were the priority.

I could see that everything I was fighting for was crumbling down. My head was a mess. I was easy going about anything. I wanted to disappear. I’ve felt guilty and frustrated both as mother and as a person. If I could stop the time I’d do it right away. I don’t want the quality of life I’m providing my children with.

The Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (a committee of people who can’t pay their mortgages) it’s being a great help for me. I feel I’m not the only one.

I just want them to left me alone, I want to live and start all over again.

During the construction upturn there was plenty of work. I went from labourer to minor official in no time, and not because I was good at it. I just wanted to work.

On day everything stopped and all of a sudden I was unem-ployed. Many construction labourers are working the land again, that was the only choice we had.

Moving from working as an official to picking up olives with a nest is devastating. It’s really hard, but the situation is so bad that I’m thankful for bringing a salary home.

We used to have dinner out at least twice a week, but that’s over. Now we earn less so we spend less. I work all week, then I go to the supermarket and come back home with the bag full and noth-ing in my pockets.

It’s very tough. Sometimes you want to pull up the olive trees. I haven’t seen good times working the land.

I’ll be out of here as soon as I find something else.

Francisco GilPilas, Seville

We are in Puerta del Sol in a hunger strike. We will be here from 15th of October until the general election day on the 20th of December.

We are fighting for the dignity of the people. Our politicians keep on looking away and don’t really care for the basic needs of the citizens.

Current reality in Spain is not only the 5 million unemployed people, it is also the 13 million people of unemployed and their families. Families don’t make ends meet and have to ask for help to eat. They even get the electricity cut down or are thrown out of their homes when they can’t afford paying.

How much money do we need to have in our pocket to be con-sidered a human being?

Our fight is to bring awareness to this society. We have to react and not allow all those theoretically elected puppets carry on do-ing all this atrocities with our money.

You don’t need to be very bright to realize the attack that our welfare system is suffering.

I feel sad for the lack of implication. We really need to compro-mise ourselves. This is the result of all those years of bonanza and manipulation from media and education. People have fallen asleep and now it’s time to wake up.

We ask people not to vote. We should show them that this is not the way and that we are serious about it. They don’t represent us and we cannot allow this to carry on.

Ignacio MartinezMadrid

Sandra LascanoLuis JimenezBarbera del Valles

Barcelona

When the girls were born it was great joy but also a big problem. The twins were born prematurely. Jazmine was born with cerebral palsy and she needs someone to look after her at all times.

Luis would work all week long and I took care of them. During the weekends I would work and he tended them.

My husband fell down the stairs and was left with permanent damage. Now I can’t leave him alone with the girls. I quit my job. We only have my unemployment benefits and his sickness pay-ments. A total of 780€.

We had a debt of 250.000€ with the bank. On the morning of July 21st, 2011 I left home and when I came in the evening it wasn’t my house anymore. They took it in lieu of payment.

We’ve been running around for three months. Now the four of us are living in a room we’ve rented from a lady.

Being moving around the clock with the twins is very stressful. Without fixed abode the ambulance won’t come to pick Jazmine up. The girls attend different schools. I cannot be in two places at once.

At this point we don’t know what’s going to happen. The city council and the social services are doing nothing. If this situation doesn’t change I’ll have to camp right in front the town hall.

My family just wants to live a decent life. We don’t need luxuries, but we do need a home.

Miguel Angel NavarroVilafranca del Campo

Teruel

I’m currently working as farmer and stockbreeding, although I studied Geology I can’t find a job related to my education. I have the feeling that every day I spend in the village I’m further and further from my real chosen work.

I finished my studies four years ago, and then I worked for a com-pany that developed quite interesting construction projects for three years. There were times of plenty. Then, many companies we worked with started to crumble, we were nine employees and now there’re only two of them.

After five years, coming back home to make a living is been tough. My involvement in the family business is getting bigger every day, and that’s growing myself apart from what I really want at a professional level. Seeing that there are no real professional outlets fills you with anger and frustration. Who wouldn’t like to work in the field he’s studied?

I went to England to improve my English, to enhance my C.V. and to open up new horizons. I want to work as a geologist and I would go anywhere.

Being still young, I came back for professional reasons, but these days many people are coming back to their home villages be-cause they can get more out of their money there. I feel fortunate for having a job and being with those whom I love.

I feel fortunate for having a job and being with those whom I love. I’ve got friends that don’t even have that chance; they’re in a tighter spot than me. It seems to me that the situation’s not likely to change, sometimes you feel like giving up, but we must fight to find the solution, otherwise we wouldn’t be ourselves.

Juan Manuel RomeroIgnacio SanchezCoria del Rio, Cordoba

We’re staging a walk-out to Madrid to ensure that the shipyard in Seville does not close down. We feel we’ve been fooled, but we still have hopes. Several generations of my own family have worked here. We want people to be aware of our situation.

We workers have been struggling since they tried to close it down back in 1975. With regular stuff and subcontractors there were almost 7000 employees, but now we’re only 58 left.

The Shipyard of Sevilla was privatized in 2007. It was the biggest survivor; its commitment was to keep the staff, but nowadays we’re facing an exhaustive redundancy and the shipyard could eventually be shut down.

It’s the first time we have three ships under construction and there’s no money to finish them. There’s been a lousy manage-ment and the debt is huge.

Our skills are very specific, the Andalusian Regional Executive have been investing money in improvement courses for years. If they close it down, what will we do?

They’re not offering solutions and keep breaching all agreements. We’re hoping to find a way out as least traumatic as possible: maybe outplacement or a decent compensation.

We’ve been raised in the shipyard, for us is more than just a job.

xxx

Sonia RubianoMadrid

I work 35 hours per week in a residence for elderly people. Mon-day to Sunday, 25 days per month and I have earn 685€. It’s a lot of work and it’s badly paid. This salary is not enough to make end’s meet, and I have to do some cleaning shifts to top up my wages. All together I make around 800€ per month.

I have one boy and one daughter and I don’t have any other op-tion. They know I give them everything I can. I live for working and they look after the house.

I am tired all day long. I finish work at around 10 at nighttime y and if I can I will go cleaning in the mornings. I don’t spend enough time with my children. I’m always thinking on what they’re doing.

I have been on temporary contracts since I started working here 3 years ago. This is the fifth contract I have signed. Every time the contract comes to an end I feel very anxious. I have to deal with this instability and I worry with not being able to afford the rent and the food.

We used to live in our own but now we are living with two of my brothers and their families. We are nine in a flat of 100m2 . They have also been affected by the crisis. We decide to join and share the expenses. Otherwise all our particular situations will be disas-trous.

We have lost a lot of intimacy and there are problems even though we are family. We try our best to get along. We have to get used to share and live together.

We haven’t got any other option.

Jose Luis CortésValencia

Last May I took the newspaper and I saw that the main square in my city was occupied by people of all ages who were complain-ing about the current situation. I was really happy to see that.

I jumped out of bed and went to see what was going on, I was there for a week. When I came back home I told my wife that from then on we’d go home only for sleeping.

I’ve been in the 15th May People’s Assembly in Peñafiel since then. Now we’re trying to create a job bank. It will be a sort of co-op that links domestic workers, builders, mechanic, painters… Our aim is that the most financially neglected have the chance to get a salary.

We want to fight this social unrest by working.

I’m too old to find a job. I’ve got a social support of 439€, I’d like to find a permanent employment, but there’s lots of people younger, nicer and more submissive than me.

I don’t feel guilty for losing my job. Five million unemployed can’t be guilty.

I really want to fight and I’m glad I’m involved in the May 15th Movement. I hope we can push this forward and put this lousy system to an end.

Either you act or they will bury.

Carme PortaAgustina PeranBarcelona

We’re friends, during our conversations about the present crisis we came up with the idea of creating a theatre troupe to do our bit and search for solutions.

We decided to stop worrying and move into action.

First we created a few tragicomic characters. When we staged them we realized how powerful they were. Tears can unite people, but humor too. We try to face a tough, dramatic and brutal world with an ironic and amusing attitude, but not a futile or frivolous one.

We’ve performed in banks, court buildings and evictions. We focus on accomplishing tiny victories like avoiding people from ending up in the street.

You don’t need a high budget. We contribute with our time and effort. We use acting to raise awareness and to help people who are suffering because of this unfair situation.

You’re driven by love, by a desire for change and by solidarity.

In our actions the person affected can address the banker and tell him what he or she thinks without fear. People feel comfortable and empowered to express something they can’t express in the real world. It’s fictitious but liberating. It’s the power of words.

We’re much more powerful than we think. When people unite we rise fear in the politic and economic establishment.

Antonio Mudarra Pilas, Seville

I used to own a workshop of aluminum frames. My wife was a school teacher; we enjoyed a good and peaceful life. I moved into the building business in 2001, I wanted to see new things and make money. At the beginning we always had three or four important construction sites.

Problems begin in April, 2007. Banks don’t issue loans anymore and promissory notes are rejected. I can’t pay my workmen and they stop working for me.

Now I have to face the consequences from both sides. We were comrades for years and overnight they sue me. This is a small town and I have a hard time when I run into them. Perhaps someday I’ll get used to it, but not now. This is giving me a lot of pressure and stress.

They owe me almost one million Euros. Late payments were the beginning of the problem. I have nearly 400.000 € worth of prom-issory notes at home, and I don’t think I’ll ever cash them. I would be happy if I could cash half of them.

I can see that this is physically affecting me. Look at my hair! Sud-denly I look twenty years older. It’s not been worthwhile.

People talk good or bad things about you without having any idea. I wasn’t rich when things were going alright and I don’t live in poverty now.

I’m not regretful either. I don’t want to pay the past any mind be-cause it’s really hurting me. I want present and future.

This construction site it’s been shut down for four months. If I got the money I could finish the works within a month and a half. It won’t sell easily.

Mitxelo IturraldeTudela, Navarra

I’m the fifth generation of brick makers and I really hope I won’t be the last one. The impact of the crisis was brutal and instanta-neous. During ten years the peak production rates were amazing.

In Spain, during the last three years, housing construction rates have dropped from 900.000 to 100.000. More than 95% of the bricks we produce are bent on the construction business.

Now we can survive thanks to a reduction in the production rates (production is no longer continuous) and to a drop in the prices. There’s virtually no margin at all. Competence is coarse.

In the meetings with my colleagues, we were always told that the whole thing was going to crash the year ahead. We all could see that the bubble was going to burst, but we kept producing and selling. Nobody had the guts to stop it. We were just fulfilling orders!

We’ve all got bigger thanks to credits and indebtedness. In 2008, credit insurers turned off the tap, suppliers stopped paying and panic took over the whole sector; that caused it to collapse as fast as it had grown. The crash was so brutal that we didn’t know what to do. It was utter chaos.

Business isn’t going to recover unless more and more companies disappear. The rates we reached four years ago won’t happen again. We can’t fall into the same trap twice. That’s unworkable.

We’ve been raised in the get-rich-quick culture, the industry must be restructured. This country has been living well beyond its means. Now it’s easy to say, but someone must’ve regulated it.

Our salaries were already cut in 2010 and this year we have gone from 18 to 20 hours of direct teaching.

They have reduced one for every ten full time teachers and the amount of students is increasing every year.

We work 37 hours per week and besides teaching we have to do lots of other things to make the school run smoothly. We have to prepare our lessons, correct test, have one to one sessions with parents and students…. Where are we supposed to find time?

They are asking for an extra effort but this is not benefiting anyone. The consequences of these cuts are the chaos for the organization, we cannot split practical lessons and the educa-tion for the students that need more attention has been removed. Basically the quality of the public education is poorer.

The motto that unites us and makes us fight, strike and demon-strate is ‘Public Education of and for everyone’

When I walk around wearing the green shirt I always get smiles from people. We know what’s happening. Our public education is in danger.

Ana BernardosMadrid

Francisco HerreraPilas, Seville

I’ve lived all my life in the olive grove, now olive picking doesn’t pay and that’s sad. We get less than ten cents per kilo. Some years ago you could make real money, and we invested in the olive grove knowing we could get a good harvest.

Crisis affects us all. Prices are very low, dirt cheap. We get 50 cents per kilo, and you have to wait a whole year to settle your bills. How can I afford the grove’s pruning and maintenance expenses? Benefits are barely enough to pay the labourers. It’s bankruptcy for the owner.

Today many people are just leaving the olives upon the trees. Who would invest in farming? Olive growing is forgotten and people are unemployed. All those savants should come here and see if they can wise this up. If we go on like this everything’s going to go down the tubes!

Some years ago we would get 200 pesetas per kilo. Prices have sunken. Demand has fallen and now it’s not profitable anymore. Despair has spread among farmers.

You only spend on what’s necessary, if you’re lucky enough, because some people are flat broke. It’s nine o’clock and taverns are deserted. Now, when my wife comes back home she says: ‘You’re here!’

Youngsters don’t want to hear about farming because it’s very tough; if you’re a landowner it’s fine, but day labourers are dead.

Luis AlbertoMadrid

Montamarta market reflects the neglecting that has spread through the neighborhood last years. The state of its facade an interior it’s the same you can see in the streets and buildings all around the neighborhood.

Thanks to the May 15th Movement unity and concern have in-creased. Now we’re aware of the cultural, educational and social needs of the neighborhood. It’s a total failure.

Thanks to the People’s Assemblies I’ve come to realize that differ-ent people can share similar thoughts and ideas. We’re respon-sive to everything it’s going on. Now I’m open to the neighbor-hood’s life.

We’re working step by step to develop a social project created for and by the neighbors. We want to expose the neglecting we’re suffering and to recover neighborhood’s assemblies and public spaces for the market.

We’re putting forward a free neighborhood’s meeting point, a place where we can decide the future usage for the market.

The day we lose the neighbors’ support we’ll leave.

We don’t want to see more public spaces neglected, and we don’t want anybody to speculate on them.

German ParamoParla, Madrid

It has been a week since we started camping in front of Parla Council as a protest for the redundancy of 66 civil servants.

I have worked for 18 years as a teacher in an occupational centre for handicapped kids. I am crushed, I’m fucked and I’m in the street. I feel indignant and frustrated. I am stuffed with pills to deal with that.

The centre is still open and we attend 80 boys and girls. I was running the gardening workshop with 20 of them. I have known some of them for 17 years. They don’t even understand the situ-ation.

When they come here to visit me and give me their support is very hard. They want to camp over here with us.

It is not fair to get rid of people like us who’s been doing serious and important work for the community. Neither they have stopped to value the work and how we have done it nor our personal situ-ations. This is like the bingo.

I use to work for a private foundation doing the same job but I de-cided that I wanted to work in the public sector because that has always been understood as a more secure option. As from today, not anymore. Now we have to join the queue at the job center without any compensation and we’ll lucky If we get the unemploy-ment benefit.

I don’t like being in this position and more over when there are not objective reasons for it. I am not scared of what the future might bring. I have the will to live.

Mari Carmen JimenezValencia

I was evicted in 2010 and the bank is reclaiming about 100.000€. My current situation would be a personal drama for many people. It’s a shame that I am still dependant on my mum being 35. She is unemployed.

It’s not fair!

This injustice has turned me into an activists. I have close ties with all the social movements that fight for citizens’ rights, like PAH and 15M movement.

I’ve been honest and I feel I’ve been cheated. When I couldn’t pay I tried to negotiate the payment on account with the bank. Their answer was to negotiate the mortgage. I refused. Then ‘the let-ters’ started to arrive. Every time the bell rang I got goose pumps: ‘They’re here, they’re throwing me out of my dam home’

For courts and banks we’re nothing but numbers and payrolls.

Finally they’ve turned me into anti-system activists. I am a citizen and I will always be. This crappy system condemns and punish.

People need to wake up. They don’t realize that tomorrow it could be them.

We demand the rights protected under Constitution. No more complaining and crying at home! We must change this, and I am going to fight for it. It shouldn’t be just a temporary foul.

This system punish people lifelong and absurdly. They’re not get-ting a dam Euro. I don’t owe anything to no-one.

Carlos CruzSeseña, Toledo

I moved here 3 years ago. I’ve been living here since the begin-ning.

The prices in Madrid were too high and it was impossible to afford anything there. Here for 215.000€ you could buy a brand new flat.

Sesena was a village of around 7000 inhabitants. In a matter of years we would had been 50.000 people if all the homes pro-jected for the new residential called ‘El Quinon’ had been built and sold. Nowadays we are around 18.000.

Things were not easy at the beginning. The neighbourhood was left without any services. We didn’t even have shops where we could buy the basic stuff. We started getting some services after people had taken census. The neighbourhood was and still is lacking the every day life of a normal area.

As a consequence of the disagreements between the local gov-ernment and the constructor the neighbours we have suffered the lack of services. We were supposed to get a good road to access the motorway and better public transport and we are still waiting. All the streets were very dirty and with no lighting, and the water treatment plant for the gardens was switched off. The situation has been very bad over here. We felt left out. We even didn’t get any Christmas lighting.

We paid our taxes and we want the same services enjoyed by all the other residents of Sesena.

We had local elections on the 22nd May of 2011. Almost every single vote that came from El Quinon area changed the historically left government of Sesena to the conservative party. People of El Quinon were not happy on how the former mayor treated and dealt with us.

Despite all the problems we had I like living here. The neighbour-hood of El Quinon will go forward.

xxx

We bought this flat off plan six years ago. By then both of us had a job and would brought home a good salary. We paid a 30.000€ down payment and then kept paying 700€ a month during twenty one months.

We’ve been waiting for three years for the construction to be completed. In our current situation we couldn’t have paid for it. Good thing we don’t have a mortgage. Some people are still pay-ing for half-built flats like this one.

We don’t worry about the flat anymore, what we want is to get our jobs back and recover the money we’ve invested. Now you can find flats the same size for half the price we paid.

We’ve been overthrown by the crisis. I’m self-employed, and we mortgaged our old house to buy the excavator I work with. When construction business was going well I would work twelve hours a day. Then work became gradually scarcer and now I’m lucky if I’m hired to bury a donkey.

This is a harsh situation, sometimes we can’t even eat on what they pay me. Along with State aid we get about 850€ a month. That’s for us three and for the installments of the excavator.

‘Sometimes, when I’m bored I go to the airport and get as close as I can. I can see the planes going back and forth. I wish some-day I could fly in one of them.’

‘How can I fill a shopping chart with an empty wallet? A wallet full of money can’t buy happiness, but an empty wallet only brings sadness.’

Manuel LópezMaría RodríguezPilas, Seville

Iñaki La Barranquilla, Madrid

The shooting room it’s been open for 11 years.

I spent two years in the street before coming here, I was really hooked on drugs. I would smoke a gram of horse every day. I’ve been on it for 30 years.

With residents and occasional users, over 1000 people are using this centre. This isn’t a ghetto. You can come and leave anytime you want. Here you can find all kinds of people of all faiths and cultures living side by side.

I’ve been unemployed for two years and a half. I used to work as an electrician; I’ve worked all my life. I wasted all my money on dope. I’m young to be given an early retirement, and as a self-employer my benefit is crap. My addiction never affected my job. I was a drug addict and that was that. I got high after work.

This centre is the first step to get out of this crap. If they close it then everything will be screwed up. There’s no way out of the streets.

We’ve got a shelter, showers, food, health care and so on. With-out all this I’d do more drugs. At least here all my basic needs are covered, I don’t have to go nicking around and getting into trouble.

We can regain our dignity here. They save lives.

The centre does good to you, when you look at yourself in the mirror you don’t see a piece of crap dragging around.

It’s easier to cut money on us because we don’t complain, we don’t stage demonstrations. In January, when they close it down we’ll be shooting up in the streets of Madrid again.

Joselyn VillanuevaSheyla y Sharon MorilloMadrid

We are members of the Student’s Union. We carry out lots of actions, we draw banners, arrange sit down protests and demon-strations, support teaching stuff strikes…

Budgetary cuts on education have caused classes to be over-crowded. We’re 35 students per class because of the lack of teachers. The quality of education is dropping. Groups can’t be split. You can see the whole center needs a better coordination. We are freaked out, university entrance examination is close and we don’t know if we’ll be able to cover the whole syllabus.

We went to Libreros Street to buy second hand textbooks and get some money for the ones we used last year. We have saved some money.

Textbooks and materials are expensive. There are many families struggling to afford the cost of all the things we need for our stud-ies.

I have been working for 22 years in road maintenance. It’s a hard job to do. We are always working outdoors.

The job we do its quite physical. We repair and clear the roads, change the traffic signs and basically make sure that all roads are in the best possible conditions. I don’t know how I will cope with all those tasks when I am 65 years old.

I am 58 and everyday that I go to work is harder. My body does not respond like when I was 30 and I could carry on working with some physical pains.

I already made up my mind about pre retiring at 61. I wanted to take scheme that allows us to work two months per year until the full retirement at 65.With the new law about pensions and retire-ment that won’t be possible anymore. Now I will have to work until I am 66 and I cannot do anything about it.

I realize that the current situation asks for some understanding and I would like to help but our company cannot afford pre retire-ment and hiring someone else.

I wish I could give my job to a younger boy.

Joaquim Clua Reus, Tarragona

Elvira NavarroVilafranca del Campo

Teruel

I studied Technical Engineering in Zaragoza, plus two Master’s Degrees, one on Occupational Risk Prevention and the other on Environmental Services Management. I think my education is more than enough to find a job related to my studies.

Upon finishing an internship, I took a precarious job just to acquire the expertise that all firms require to hire you. I would work be-tween 8 and 10 hours a day, plus 90 minutes commuting. It was a part-time contract, and my salary was 400€. I would spend half of it on petrol.

I’m currently working in the slot machine arcade of a service station, it’s 7 km. away from my place. I feel lucky for not being unemployed, but at the same time I feel frustrated because is not related to my studies. I work endless hours and I don’t even have a contract or a payroll. So far they’ve never paid what we agreed.

vvI’ve always lent a hand at home. I could continue in the family business, but I don’t want to be an economic burden for them. I’m not afraid to work, what I want is the chance to prove myself in a position related to my studies, I don’t care if it’s in Teruel or somewhere else.

Rosa EscarpHospitalet de Llobregat

Barcelona

The time spam between zero and six years is crucial for the development of children’s character, that’s why I decided to set up a daycare with a psycho pedagogic approach based on self sufficiency, liberty and responsibility while not losing sight of family relations.

I’ve dedicated my entire life to share my expertise with parents through a project called ‘Family-School’.

We have a maximum capacity of 103 children, and we’re currently tending 40. Last three years the number has dropped sharply.

We’ve made a financial effort to carry on with children whose families were committed with the project but couldn’t afford it. Sometimes I think we’re an NGO, and I’m proud of that.

The growing numbers of public nurseries and families that suffer financial difficulties have caused a fall of 60% of the children.

I’ve never considered closing down; I’m trying to find the formula to be less constrained by money. A public subsidy for our centre could be the solution.

Education is a party of three: school, family and child, but child development involves active participation by the whole tribe.

Losing our home is a hard hit to take. You enter a maze the mo-ment you lose your home. Our personal relationship as a couple and with our kids has been affected. Everything has become a problem.

You reach the point in which you don’t even want to go home.

At a family level the feeling of impotence is overwhelming. Want-ing a flat it’s not a sin, and not being able to provide that to our three kids makes us angry.

Our responsibilities are their needs.

We feel very comfortable in Valencia but we even thought of returning to Colombia for good. We couldn’t bare the punishment of having a debt that would had not allow us to have a fresh start.

We don’t know about laws and the process to follow. The bank took advantage on us. A home it’s a right but it is also a dream. Banks shouldn’t be allowed to play with our dreams.

Thanks to the help and pressure of the PAH we managed to get accepted the flat as a payment for the debt.

We don’t have the debt anymore but we don’t have a home either. Thanks to my cousin’s endorsement we have rented a flat. If it wasn’t for her help we would not have a place to live.

There is a future for us. We can have a fresh start. We will over-come this slowly but surely.

Fernando SimarroElisabeth GrijalbaValencia

In Spain, the social and economic turmoil of these past four years has advanced the call for gen-eral elections. Eight years of a socialist government combine with the harshest ever-lived crisis by most Spaniards had brought the country to a sudden change of its direction and its social politics.

The country and its people had already gone through a hard journey yet not finished. Though this economic crisis has affected people from all backgrounds, the poorest and more vulnerable are the ones that had felt the effects of this crisis in a greater way.

During the past years Spain has managed to hang on at the edge of the public debt limits set by Europe. A bailout has not yet been needed although the forecast for the coming years in Spain does not look very encouraging.

For the first time in decades the level of emigration is higher than that of the immigration. Spain is not anymore an attractive country to start or carry on with one’s life.

The conservative Popular Party (PP) had won, on the 20th of November 2011, by a landslide in almost every region and now the country waits in expectation to find out what measures will be taken to improve the current situation.

With special thanks to all the people that has made this project and personal journey posible

xxx

Portrait of a Crisis

text and photographs by Xavier Galiana