S pain s birth rate is one of the lowest in Europe, lower than its mortality rate. A common feeling here is that it is very expensive to raise even one child. The feminist movement is strong. Women outnumber men at the universities. Competition for jobs is intense.
Cell phones are everywhere.
Since the dictator Franco died in 1975, Spain leaped into the 21st century. Jaime, our guide in Seville, noted with a hint of bittersweet sarcasm that Spain s former colonial possessions are no more. Their golden age is past. Tourism is the main industry of the present. Their past has become their future.