RELATIONSHIPS IN THE 50´S

    RELATIONSHIPS IN THE 50´S

Human being is social by nature.  We have the innate skill to relation to others. In fact the most people have a partner or get married throughout theirs life. But relationships have been always the same? Throughout this essay, we will explain the changes that have suffered the relationships and the factors that have caused it. For this we´re going to analyze two specific periods in the Spain history, that caused differences in Spanish society:  Spain in the 50´s, during the Francoism and Spain nowadays. 

  

The 50´s was a period of time in Spain where Francoist Spain was imposed, that refers to a period of Spain history from 1936 to 1975 when Spain was under the authoritarian dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The basis of this dictatorship was among other Spanish nationalism, Catholicism and the anticommunism. 

The Francoism helped to spread a traditional minded, catholic and authoritarian, based on religious values and strict moral (especially sexual behavior). The society of the 50´s was a very polarized population into rich and poor with a weak middle class. Also it was a society based on discrimination between men and women, among other. 

Therefore the generation that lived in that time was limited for this, for example my grandparents, Vicente y Angelines who lived in that period told me about it: “The differences in lifestyle and in relationships too, between the society of Francoism and nowadays are huge”. 

The politic was an important social factor, the Francoism was imposed to all the population, and they must to accepted several norms. However in not the politic the only that had influence in the society, religion was more influentialist and it established moral and strict rules of conduct. Related about it, my grandparents told me that: “Politic did not have much influence in our relationship, we have been apolitical and we were happy, on the other hand, religion has very influence in our way of thinking and also in our behavior. In fact, religion had more influence in the society and also in our relationship than the politic”.

In fact, if you didn´t believe in the Catholic religion, you had to respect that rules otherwise, you could be pointed out by the population. Moreover, the religion educated to the society since the school, my grandparent told me that: “I have gone to a Catholic school, the “Escolapios order” and that had influenced my behavior and my values throughout my life.” He said that he has conditioned its way of being and thinking. In contrast to our time, religion is not as important in society, and not so publicly professed. Besides religion nowadays has not the power to bind or to impose norms or rules of conduct. My grandmother explained to me that: “Society today is more liberal and heterogeneous. You can go outside and see a couple of men kissing, and in the other hand you can find also a conservative family”. 

Moreover, the rules and norms that we mentioned previously, influenced also in the roles on the couple. Men and women have not the same function. My grandmother explained me that “Women in that period, was educated to be housewife, and it was implicit obedience to your husband, also it was sometimes sexists. However, men were the person in charge to provide the money and make important decision”.

Regarding public appearance in a couple relationship, was so cautious. My grandparent explained to me that: “Sometimes when there was a bit of darkness I stole a kiss from your grandmother, but in general we should be conservative and go as much given to hand down the street”.

The different stages in the couple was different than nowadays. For example, they explain me that to live together you should to be married. And the engagement was so controlled by the parents, more parents of girls than parents of boys. Angelines, my grandmother said that “Men had more freedom than women. We were more controlled by our fathers; but not only in the engagement, we were more limited and controlled in the hour to arrive at home, also we can´t study, we should to study to be housewife, there were very few business women”. 

The relationship with the partner´s family were more respectful and distant than nowadays. My grandmother add that: “When I went to your grandparent house, I always call them with Mr or Mrs.” And there were rules in the couples, established in the society like for example men were gentlemanly than now, also, men had to pay all, and men were on the left side on the street. 

In contrast to nowadays, couple relationships have changed so much. The way to show love and live with our partner has changed since the last years. Actually are not so much rules of conduct, and we are more liberals or we consider our society more liberal. In my opinion, is important to learn to our history, because it can help us to improve our live and also our relationship, for example the different roles that play women or men in a couple, or the discrimination and sexism, is important to take care about that things and improve it. So our past can help us to live better and to improve our future. However, we can´t establish all the differences, and we can´t do an objective essay because oral history has a lot of weaknesses and the subjectivity was impossible in an interview.