Miguel de la Cuadra's grandson: rentier lifestyle in Bali sparks debate

Miguel de la Cuadra's grandson: heir or trust-fund slacker?

At 31, the grandson of legendary explorer Miguel de la Cuadra-Salcedo has become a target on social media. His lifestyle, which includes surfing in Bali and an attitude many call rentier-like, has sparked a debate about inheritance, merit and the generational divide.

The images circulating show a young man with a beard and long hair, in a jungle setting, more reminiscent of a 19th-century explorer than a slacker. Yet the contrast with his grandfather, who travelled the world filming the Ruta Quetzal (a famous Spanish educational expedition), is inevitable. "If he had his grandfather's life today, he'd be the most famous person in the world," one analysis quips. The paradox is served: the grandson lives off his inheritance, but the grandfather was also a rentier, albeit one with a body of work of his own.

The thirty-year gap

Some blame this lag on upbringing. "This generation's ten-year delay is the parents' fault," the argument goes. While the grandfather built a media empire from scratch, the grandson seems to have inherited it with no greater ambition than the perfect wave. Still, others point out that in the digital age, the grandfather would have made a fortune on social media. Nostalgia for a more hard-working past clashes with the reality that it was never easy and that circumstances change.

The question that remains: is this a symptom of a generation that has lost its way, or simply the legitimate choice of someone whose financial cushion is already sorted?