Spain's 1990s nostalgia: salaries, leisure and the end of an era

Spain's 1990s nostalgia: salaries, leisure and the end of an era

There was a time, not so long ago, when Spain seemed like a country under permanent construction. According to a message in the debate, a doctor could earn **a million pesetas a month** in 1997, a family filled their shopping trolley for 15,000 pesetas and a antiestéticast for twenty people cost 35,000. That is the narrative that dominates 1990s nostalgia, a decade many consider the last in which this country was anything like a prosperous and optimistic place. The problem is that this paradise had small print: noise, accidents, smoke and an underground economy that would be unthinkable today.

What do people really miss about the 1990s?

Nostalgia is not unanimous. Some argue that the 90s were the last decade in which Spain could be considered a more or less independent country, with a middle class that looked to the future with optimism. Others, however, remember the 80s as an even more authentic era, before the wild globalisation that changed everything. The key date that keeps coming up is **11 September 2001**, when optimism went out the window, and **11 March 2004**, when Spain changed regime through the back door.

But nostalgia is a trap. As one incisive analysis points out, "you don't miss the past era, what you miss is your youth". It is a phrase that dismantles much of the narrative. The 90s were not better just because; they were better because you were young, because clubs were full, because you could pull on the bus and because leisure was simpler and cheaper. Today, with Euribor soaring and housing through the roof, that world seems like a lost paradise.

The real cost of nostalgia: pesetas versus euros

The figures bandied about in the debate are stark. A family of four needed **15,000 pesetas** to fill their shopping trolley in the late 90s. Today, that same family needs to spend **1,000 euros a month** just on food if they want to eat reasonably healthily. The conversion is brutal: what used to cost 90 euros now costs more than 1,000. And it is not just food. A antiestéticast for fifteen or twenty people cost **35,000 pesetas** (about 210 euros). Today, with 200 euros, you can feed two to four people.

The gap is not just about prices, it is about opportunities. In the 90s, construction was booming and those who did not study easily found work on building sites. Salaries for qualified professionals were insane: according to one message, an aeronautical engineer could earn **a million pesetas a month** in 1997, the equivalent of 18,000 or 20,000 euros today. Now, that same professional earns a fraction of that. The underground economy, tax modules and cash-in-hand payments were the norm. Nobody asked where the money came from.

Leisure, safety and the noise of an unrepeatable era

Nostalgia also idealises safety. It is said that in villages kids played outside without danger, that crime was non-existent and that at most you would come across harmless junkies. The reality was harsher: there were fatal traffic accidents, people drove drunk and the streets smelled of smoke. "If you slept with the window open in summer, motorbikes at full throttle would wake you up," recalls one message. There was no culture of silence.

Leisure was different, not necessarily better. People went out to bars and clubs, smoked more and drank more. There was less variety, but more freedom. "You could express an opinion or make a joke without problems of censorship or lynching," says one participant. Society was more homogeneous, more genuinely Spanish, and there were no battles between men and women. That said, feminism already existed, even if it was not called that.

11-M and the end of optimism

The turning point most often mentioned is 11-M. For many, that attack meant the end of the Regime of '78 and the start of an irreversible decline. "11-M was also a consequence of 11-S," argues one message. Aznar posed for a photo with Bush and Blair, sent us to Iraq and then the bill came. Others deny it: "There were no martyrs in 11-M, not a single suicide bomber." Conspiracy theories hover over the debate, but nobody backs them with evidence.

What does seem clear is that something broke. The arrival of Zapatero, the Gender Violence Law and the peine civil war rhetoric put an end to equality between Spaniards. "We turned away from God and took everything for granted," concludes one message. Optimism died and never returned.

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The nostalgia for the 90s is, deep down, nostalgia for a youth that will not return. The economic data are stubborn: salaries were better, life was cheaper and the future seemed more promising. But that Spain also had noise, smoke and an underground economy that today would be a crime. Was it worth it? Depends who you ask. What nobody disputes is that that country has been stolen from us and will never return.