Response to this byline on an article by Spanish Writer and journalist, Maruja Torres.
I read this week that the Spanish writer and journalist Maruja Torres seems to have gained popularity online in Madrid with an article following this quote from her about the city:
“Se está convirtiendo en una ciudad inhóspita”
And it interests me because, as a foreign resident, sometimes I feel the same way in having the sense that I am not as welcome as I might possibly have been in the past and that, as a result, not as safe either.
Saying that though, it would probably be prudent to admit that there is an implied or hidden generalization here. Are we saying that the people who live in Madrid are, by and large, less hospitable than they used to be?
If Maruja´s statement is true, then Madrid is most likely to be equally, or even more unkind to the marginalized. Therefore, the citizens of Madrid would have no right to say that they are living in a modern open-minded city.
As the western world’s culture gets increasingly homogenized, especially in the capital cities of Europe, surely any given big city is just as inhospitable. So, why is this news?
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