You know the rest…. All right, it’s, “The More They Stay the Same,” especially in politics. That is a genuine poster from the 1982 Spanish general election when Felipe Gonzalez began his long fourteen-year tour of duty. I was a student wandering the streets, usually after a long night of learning a lot of new information in Spanish bars and pubs. Around 4 AM or so, they would start plastering up the political posters all over the city. I would ask the poster hangers for one of whatever they were plastering that morning. Then, I proceeded to hold on to the damn things for about 26 years. Crazy huh?
I framed one of the coolest PSOE political posters and put it in my Piso - so I don’t have a scan of it now. It is one of the “Juventudes Socialistas”. It's very colorful, and “Movida” looking, with a whole group of very happy and youthful people holding up sparklers. I’ll scan it one day. Update: I found it online. They are selling it for 50 Euros at Todocoleccion.net:
As you can see Felipe Gonzalez’s slogan was “Change”. Hmm, I wonder where I’ve heard that one before? Barack Obama ripped Felipe off!
For you history buffs, here is the predecessor to the Partido Popular. The party head was Manuel Fraga, a former Franco minister. He's the one that made the slogan "Spain is different" popular as minister of tourism. Hey Pedro Schwartz! You don't run into that name too often in Spain.
Check out this guy. Talk about a major-league Facha. It says, "Spain United and in Order." I bet! I actually love this one - it is so military looking although this guy, Blas Piñar, was no military man. He was a notary (kind of like a lawyer/judge). Needless to say this party, Fuerza Nueva, did not have major success at the polls and was soon disbanded. It continued on only as a publishing house for very right-wing writings. I considered framing this one too and putting it up in my house but had second thoughts. Guests may not understand that it is interesting to me only because it is so outrageous. I have enough problems being an American in Madrid without putting this guy on my wall. Besides, this gentleman is not that pleasant to look at.
I saw that Tom over at Simbolos y Senyals likes this kind of stuff, so I thought I would post them. He is welcome to them if he is interested.
11 comments:
Wow, these posters are a neat time capsule. And what's really scary is that some of those photos look like they could've been taken recently! The clothing, hairstyles and facial expressions of older Spanish men haven't changed much over the decades. No Reaganesque pompadours nor mutton-chop sideburns to mark the passage of time. :)
Can you track down that Pedro Schwartz guy? What's he up to these days? Is he still alive? And you're right...he's got a very unusual last name for Spain. I wonder if he was from Argentina? Because I think Argentina has the largest Jewish population outside of Israel and the U.S.
By the way, doesn't the young Felipe González bear somewhat of a passing physical resemblance to PP party leader Ángel Acebes? Separated at birth?
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/333325/0/acebes/zapatero/elecciones/
Ángel, Who's your daddy? jejeje :D
Wow, this is a fabulous post. The Felipe Gonzalez picture is really striking; he looks about 12 years old. I studied in Spain during '81-'82, and went back and lived/worked there from 1983-97, so I probably ran into you here and there. Love your blog!
I don't know a lot about Pedro. He is a professor, writer and lecturer. I'm pretty sure he's Spanish. He's buddies with Aznar, and he was one of the people that started the Alianza Popular.
Hey those posters are great! Do you mind if I use one of the PSOE ones as an avatar on a talkboard I use? I promise I won't earn any money from it (well if I could do, I'd let you know!)
Sure, Just give me a plug somewhere. (that's a mention).
Thanks for that! Plug given already in one forum; more to come.
What a great post, es cojo...nudo, I really mean it.
No Carl, please, please, don't put Blas Piñar on your wall, for God's sake, it would be too funny. A "facha" yanqui?
Regarding unusual names, well, you never know these days, one of the biggest German football stars is a guy named Mario Gómez, while the next Spanish sensation is a kid called Bojan Krkic, and many jews have Spanish(Sefardí) surnames.
We live in an interesting world.
Thanks roberto, I really appreciate your words.
Besides, I'm no Facha, I only play one on T.V. (an old joke).
Get used to the interesting names. Who do you think plays major league baseball? Guys with "American names"?
Hardly!
Carl - only just saw your link in. Thanks for the great material!! I'll be updating SyS more very soon.
Cheers Tom!
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