2005. Fernando Baena. FAMILIAS ENCONTRADAS (2005.1 / fieldwork / families)

Mayors are designated by the Provincial Administration. A third of the city councillors are designated by the Union’s Committees, a third by economic and social entities, and last, a third by family representatives, head of families and married women.

Freudo-Marxism and Anti-Psychiatry are critical with the institution of family. They intend to abolish family, substituting it by other more communitarian forms of reproduction and socialization for little children. They analyze mass psychology which explains the rise of Nazism and Fascism and denounce family and its repressive and authoritarian aspects which are shared with private companies, schools and other institutions. David Cooper attacks the bourgeois family (patriarchal and monogamist) in his book Death of the Family and associates it to the genesis of schizophrenia.

The 25/1971 Act, 19th of June, in protection of large families published in the n.º 150 del 24/06/1971 of the BOE, claims to complete and perfect both the protective assistance of Social Security and the special guarantees related to employment and labor relations, and to maintain the profits, established in terms of taxation. They are regulated, as much as the General Education Act reaches its full development, exemptions and bonuses of rights and education taxes, in all their levels and grades, and the preferential professional education related rights; special education subsidies are instituted, on the other hand, in favor of large families with handicapped or disabled children. In the same way, they have the preferential right to access subsidized housing, improvements in form of financing and awarding of credits to obtain unsubsidized housing. Finally, the reductions in the tariffs and on complements to public transport will remain.

The law considers a large family to be constituted by: The head of the family, the spouse and three or more children; the head of family, the spouse, if there were any, and two children, as long as, at least one of them, is disabled or handicapped for work; the head of family in a situation of widowhood, legal or factual matrimonial separation, and, in any of these assumptions, three children; the head of family, the spouse, if there is any, when one is totally disabled for work, having three children; the head of family and spouse, when both are totally disabled or handicapped for work, having two children; the head of family, the spouse, if there is any, and two children, if these are disabled or handicapped for work. The children can be legitimate, legitimated, naturally accepted, illegitimate with right to be fed, or adopted, each belonging to members of the marriage, or to one of them.

First Category families are those that have from three to six children. Of Second Category the ones that have from seven to nine children and Category of Honour those that have ten or more siblings.

The Law considers the father to be the head of family; or lack of that, the mother, and, in case of legal or of fact separation, the spouse who has their custody. In lack of those persons the head of family is the one who takes care of the under-aged or disabled members, as long as they live with him and at his expense. In the lack of these circumstances, the protection is limited to one of the siblings.

The head of a large family and the spouse have priority to be hired in any job position as long as they are apt, have the necessary knowledge and conditions required, are capable of performing their duties and these are positions subject to free contracting. From this priority are excepted directive jobs or those considered of confidence. In those cases in which there are dismissals, general hourly working day reductions or necessary transfers, they enjoy, in their category and specialty, protection to retain their working situation. In their benefit the legal designated deadlines are duplicated in time to leave a house that they live in for working reasons.

The law forces the wife to obey her husband. Without marital license, the wife can’t work, receive a salary, start a business, occupy any position, nor open bank accounts, have a passport, or driving licence, nor accept or reject inheritances, even if belonging to her parents, or ask for her share, nor be executrix, or defend herself in courts (except for a criminal trial), nor defend her own assets, nor sell or tom mortgage these assets, nor to have any money except to do the daily shopping even though it were her own salary. The woman is forced to follow her husband wherever he intends to live, she can’t exercise parental authority over the children until the father dies and in this case, she only has the right to receive half of what is left.

If any woman marries someone from another country, automatically she loses her nationality and is considered a foreigner; then she is given a green card and her studies lose efficacy, she can’t be a civil servant and needs a work permit.

Spanish family has as absolute values the indissolubility of marriage and procreation of as many children as possible, the predominant role of the father as head of family and the subordination of women to the reproductive function in a biological and domestic sense.

The matrimonial fertility period is of 7,5 years.
The average age difference between husband and wife is of 1,9 years.
The average age for a woman to marry is of 23,7 years.
When born a woman has a life expectancy of 75,1 years.
When born a man has a life expectancy of 69,6 years.
The vital cycle until widowhood is of 45,1 years.
The percentage of marital life in contrast with the average life of man is 64,8%.
The percentage of marital life in contrast with the average life of woman is 60%.
The average number of siblings is 2,5 per couple.
The average number of family members is 3,84. The highest in Canary Islands (4,3), Navarra and Basque Country (4,1), Andalusia and Cantabria (4,0). The lowest in Baleares (3,5) followed by Castilla-La Mancha, Comunidad Valenciana, La Rioja and Aragon (3,6).
From the establishment of the household to the first birth pass an average of 1,4 years.
Between births lay an average 3 years.
Empty household: 11,7 years.
The fertile interval in contrast with the vital cycle until widowhood is of 16,6%.
The duration of an empty household in contrast with the vital cycle until widowhood is of 25,9%.
The average duration of widowhood in woman is 9 years.
The average duration of widowhood in man is 2,2 years.
The total duration of the masculine vital familiar cycle with widowhood is of 47.3 years.
The total duration of the feminine vital familiar cycle with widowhood is of 54,1 years.
The probability of men to die first (woman 1) is 2,7.

In its January issue, the Ama magazine shows a picture of the audience that the Princes of Spain held with Ana María Benito de Asencio, elected Housewife of the year 1970.
The winner had to pass different tests: sewing, cooking, decoration and culture. The inside pages show Ana María Benito declaring herself against divorce, erotic cinema and violence. Ana is a social graduate and commercial expert, but doesn’t practice and, although she’s in favour of women’s labour, she has enough with her home duties. To her, a good housewife should have a will towards self-improvement, be dedicated to her husband and children, and constantly take care of the household problems, most of all children’s education. “Todo Madrid” attended de proclamation dinner.

Barcelona has a housing deficit that reaches 85,590 in its urban perimeter and of 18,120 in the rest of the metropolitan areas.

A reader of Telva criticizes the way in which the magazine idealizes the housewife. This, she claims, makes female workers feel guilty. Telva’s answer reads: “…the housewife-mother should dedicate her best time and abilities to hers… The best service to society is to create adapted individuals, and in this function, family plays a main role”. It also states that: “..above technical, industrial and material welfare, stands the spiritual and psychological wellbeing that an intelligent, educated and dedicated mother can greatly provide”.

Doctor José L. Navarro, in an article titled The Pill… Danger???, reminds us the danger that minimum dosages of oral contraceptives might produce micro-abortions. And exclaims: “Of course, in many countries the “escalation” of contraceptives has conduced to the legalization of abortion!”

In an article published by Telva, Jean Guitton says: “I approve of those rooted beings that can only live properly inside. The wife at home… The wife provides, to that which she gathers, a kind of curvature, friendly and protective, like a bird that curves its wings to create a nest.”

A reader of Telva asks: “Isn’t it true that these strict marital duties are obsolete and that these should be limited to those days in which both husband and wife agree?” Clara Fornet answers: “.. Being responsible, you have no reasons to refuse; you can only argue that you’re tired and ask for understanding and consideration on your husband’s part. But he can also ask for your consideration, referring to “something” that in man is much more imperative than in woman.”

The large group of Parliament attorneys request the creation of a housing credit Bank.

The Subcommittee that estimates the Housing Committee Demand believes that for the validity period of the Third Plan for Social and Economic Development 1,500,000 houses will be needed.

In the Hogar y Moda magazine, Enrica Catani writes an article titled Secrets of a successful marriage. In this article she writes: “… A man is not a moneymaking machine. Outside the household, he has to sometimes confront serious trouble and a woman can’t expect him to be forever cheerful. She must understand when she has to postpone an uncomfortable conversation. Postpone it only, if it’s important… I have used the word “important”, because a woman can’t intend to be listened when she afflicts her husband with gossip or unimportant problems that she must resolve on her own. It is fair to respect someone’s bad mood when it’s a consequence of serious worries…”

In an article called Tips to get along fine, published in the Hogar y Moda magazine, we can read: “His favourite pastime is painting, but his wife doesn’t know how to paint. This is one of the cases in which the wife must accept even that which she knows not how to do, and must do it with intelligence and enthusiasm, because, as we all know, visual arts involve noble sentiments, and are a spiritual education for sensitive beings. Therefore, although both personalities may be very dissimilar, an agreement is possible with the understanding that the wife must prove and practice.”

According to the magazine Hogar y Moda, women that work outside the household dedicate 8 hours to their jobs. To that we must add 5 more hours at home with the children, 2 hours transport, 2 hours for meals, and 1 hour to walk. Therefore, she would have 6 hours left of sleep a day. However, women who work at home, apart from dedicating 8 hours to that job, dedicate 2 other hours to help the children with their homework, 3 hours on meals, 2 hours on walks, 2 hours sewing, gardening and helping the husband. Thus, she has 7 hours left to sleep.

An ideal marriage, with two children in Madrid spends 45% of its budget in food. Having a budget of some 15,000 pesetas, they can spend 6,830 pesetas a month in food; which would be 227.60 pesetas a day. The average per person is of 56.90 pesetas. With such a budget, and according to prices of the Vallehermoso Market in Madrid, on the 16th of December 1970, the following menu could be elaborated: breakfast with white coffee, bread and butter, lunch of chicken soup, chicken mound, and apple dessert, snack with white coffee and dinner of cabbage with chips, hake (frozen) au gratin, and tangerine dessert. The above mentioned budget includes half litre of wine.

On the 14th of January, the wife of singer Andrés Do Barro bears a baby of 3 and a halve kilos.

Carmen Maria Guadalupe Dolores, daughter of Rocío Durcal and Junior, is christened. Lola Flores was the godmother.

Patricia, daughter of dancer Maria Cruz and Oscar Ortiz is christened.

Articles in the décor magazine Sábado Gráfico are about the houses of the Angulo, Ussia, Holmsen, Coca and Emilio Alduchi nicknamed “Pirro”.

In Barcelona judge number 8 announces a verdict in favour of social worker Misses Reyes Martorell in her dispute with Cáritas Barcelona which had fired her for having had a civil marriage.

Ana García Fernández and her husband, Manuel Rambla Encina, never got along. After a 15 year marriage, Manuel died on the 5th of January due to burns that his wife had caused on the 23rd of December when she threw a pot of boiling water on him in his sleep. She appeared to have added some corrosive product.

El Caso, in your article on “Lute”, published on the 23rd of January you say: “…these rumours assure that “el Lute” was madly in love with her and very worried about his children’s luck. And they say that he spent hours in contemplation on the sad nights of the Port, yearning for his family life, his children, “Chelo” (his wife)… No; the reader mustn’t be surprised. Love is this… “el Lute” decided to risk everything for his wife and children…”

In El Caso, an article titled “The denaturalized mother from Barcelona is in prison”, it says: “She had this child while single and then married another man, with whom she had another one. But her husband couldn’t put up with her, not being able to tame her and stop her constant infidelities, he left with his child. She went on with her life, going to bad reputed bars and having different friends for intermittent periods of time, among which there was a gypsy to whom she was unfaithful. He attacked her and almost killed her. In these adventures, her husband died in a car crash, without giving her the child’s custody, luckily for him. She had another daughter from an unknown father that a woman takes care of in exchange for money…”

On the 30th of January Nicanor Rodríguez, and educated, religious and polite man killed his wife, his four children and the maid, after which he left the house naked and shouting out sentences like “They want to destroy personality” and “I am justice”. His colleagues and friends noticed he had become obsessed with the Rogers system of education which he intensely rejected, and they think “… he probably decided to kill the children because he believed that if educated in such a way they would become automats” or that “… having the maid announced she was leaving on Sunday, Don Nicanor might have gotten upset. The girl was very young and attractive, and it’s not the first time a man is attracted by a maid that works at home…”

In Casteldefels (Barcelona), Laurencio Bicasanet killed his stepfather by stabbing him in the heart. The family was formed by 35 year old Ángel Domínguez Ríos, his wife Planes Armengol, 49 years old, and nine children, the first six from a previous marriage. With the couple lived seven of the children with ages from 18 to 5 years.

Commenting on a crime occurred in El Goloso (Madrid), Alfonso de Aricha, in El Caso, on the 6th of March, writes: “… this spreading of parricides is disturbing, with three cases in a few days, and a total of five people dead, and another, Tomás Ceferino Padín, who with absolute tranquillity, his arms full of blood, said: “There’s no problem… I have just killed my wife.”

In Villahoyosa (Alicante), more than a hundred people, all of them gypsies belonging to the “Granadine” and “Copito” clans, start a tremendous fight, which results in the death of one, another severely injured, ten arrested and several houses abandoned.

In the BOE of the 3rd of February appeared the labour bylaw for employees of urban buildings (superintendents): the measure affects a100.000 families.

On the 4th of February, the Messrs Otero asked the marquises of Torrealta (lords of Paramés Fernández de Córdoba) for their daughter’s hand (the lovely “Pepita”), so she can marry their son Felipe.

Seven brothers, all of them national teachers, born in Ysua (Lanzarote) offer a lunch in tribute of their father, Mr Juan Valenciano Curbelo, also national teacher. One of the siblings, Mayor of Haria, spoke and extolled Mr Valenciano’s merits, a man who was born in a poor family, and financed all of his sons’ studies.

The National Federation of House Arms sends a request to the Ministry of Commerce insisting on that, while the Code of Diet is not valid, traders in food cans should put the sell-by date and the price to prevent any type of adulteration. They also insist on an improvement of distribution channels to fight against the hold up of products and speculation. Another housewife bummer is the exceeding rise of the basic food products while salaries remain stable.

Between the 1st and the 5th of July the National Family Conference takes place, dedicated to the study of economic problems.

According to an opinion poll carried out by the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine of Faith, birth rate is dwindling due to: “dominant hedonism, marginality of morals, anovulant methods, which are believed to be permitted, and contraceptives, which are thought of as immoral. You can perceive the great optimism related to premarital relationships. In contrast with previous times a 60% state that these types of relationships are more serious, while 16% believe the opposite. Only the 6% think that nothing has changed.”

According to the attorney of the Ecclesiastical Court of Malaga, “in the last five years, we have dealt 246 lawsuits, of which 214 were divorce, and 32 judgements of annulment. Of the 246 lawsuits, 10 were done for free due to the plaintiffs’ lack of resources. Of the 236 cases, a little more than half of the costs have been the following: 9 less than 3000 pesetas; 65 were from 3000 to 5000 pesetas; 24 from 5000 to 7000 pesetas; 16 from 7000 to 10000 pesetas; 5 from 15000 to 20000; 3 from 20000 to 30000 pesetas; and one case cost 40000 pesetas. Regarding delays, of the 70 sentences pronounced in the last two years by that Court, 18 took less than a year; 40 less than two; and only two took more than two years without reaching 4.

Seven hundred widows attend the II National Study Conference of the Christian Communities’ Widows: “Society isn’t interested in supporting female widows, that reaching a number of 2,000,000 in Spain, is a force to be reckoned and we believe with great possibilities…”

In the Conference of Studies on Emigration that will close on the 19t of February, Mr Ángel Alfonso Martínez, journalist and interpreter, dwells on the fact that in Germany where he’s been living as immigrant for the last eleven years “Regrouping is a serious matter, extremely serious. A hundred and eighteen marriages have broken up in the last six months. Also, we can’t find a solution to it because the Spanish Emigration Institution doesn’t insist on regrouping faster. The Spanish bricklayer arrives, at first, with good intentions; but, maybe meets another woman, and what begins as a game ends up as divorce. German authorities have given a one year deadline for people to take there families with them; but we have to reduce that period to three months by any means necessary.”

On the 20th of February the BOE announced a rise on pensions starting on the 1st of March: retirement pensions 300 pesetas and a rise of 150 monthly pesetas in some cases; 180 monthly pesetas rise for widowhood; 175 pesetas for orphans; 180 for relatives if there’s only one beneficiary, and 75 pesetas if there’s more than one.

On the 25th of February the new maternity and children’s hospitals open in Oviedo. The invested is of 179,420,715.66 pesetas. Consequently a bed’s cost was of 410,600 pesetas.

29,677 scholarships are given in Madrid for the current course, with a whole sum of 207.514.000 pesetas; 24.264.000 pesetas for starters and 4.231 scholarships; 183.250.000 pesetas used for 25.446 scholarships to continue with studies.

(January)

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