Nor Trump breaks the idyll of Rota with his base | Spain

The childhood and adolescence stories of which today are fifty grown in the Andalusia of the 70s and 80s do not usually include celebrations of July 4, US Independence DayNor from Halloween, who became fashionable much later. But is that Wayne Jamison, 54, son of an American military destined in broken who married a Spanish, did not grew up in any place. “I remember solving troubles between gangs with battles of Break dance”, He says. Rota was something else.

It is still something else. Special, some say. Anomalous, according to others. It makes it unique its gigantic naval base, which occupies what about 4,000 football fields. Normally away from public care, today it is in the spotlight. Donald Trump has placed it there. Because? Because if the US president calls his protection to NATO members and shows himself Hostile with some of its partnersit has some logic that many heads have turned to the point of greatest Yankee military presence in Spain, with 3,200 uniformed, to which 500 civilians and some 2,800 relatives are added, according to the Ministry of Defense. « The US is no longer a reliable partner, what do the bases of Rota and Morón do? » He asked this week Antonio Maíllo, IU leaderwhich is part of the government. Podemos has asked for its closure.

But the majority vision in Rota (Cádiz, 30,000 inhabitants) is far from that. According to the views collected, the current context –instability, uncertainty– It is not seen as an occasion to open the melon of the closure of the base, nor of the end of the American presence there next to the Spanish troops. On the contrary, the mere hypothesis of a reduction in American deployment causes rejection. Not even Trump, Specialist in breaking allianceshas weakened the idyll of this corner of Cádiz with the American.

« You can pass three lives in broken and you will not find anyone who speaks badly of the base, » Jamison exaggerates, Philologist and writer. A reason, he explains, is the obvious: the work that gives the base and the money left by the American staff in commerce, in the restaurants – it is said that they are the Spanish people with more pizzerias per capita -, in the pubs, in the more than a thousand rented houses to those who live outside the complex … defense figure in 155 million annual the annual impact of the US presence in the area. But Jamison adds another reason: after seven decades, the link with the US overflows the economic and reaches the sentimental. « If it was not broken, I would surely be against the base, but having grown there … », he reflects after remembering his « trapicheos » with Ray-Ban glasses and Levis 501 pants and his first spree, which ended in an area known as « Las Américas », full of American style pubs with darts, billiards and music machines. This is the type of memory Made in USA embedded in the identity of the people.

There is a certain pioneer pride in broken for having smoked the Marlboro before, shoes before the Converse, ridden before on a skateboard and even – thanks to the radio of the base – before Jimi Hendrix before. As Ignacio Díaz Pérez recalls in Andalusian Rock History (Almuzara 2018), el underground It slipped in Spain in the 60s and 70s through the port of Barcelona and the Andalusian bases. So the link with the US is made not only of dollars, but also of culture and memory. And Hispanic-American couples. And anecdotes scoundrels on drunk soldiers and massive fights.

In a taxi drivers’ corrillo, a driver rescues the old story of a bus that arrived from Seville full of prostitutes to attend a landing of soldiers. It was in the late 70s, when the base made Rota in « one of the main mecas of prostitution in Europe, » says Juan José Téllez in Without any base (COLTASUEÑOS, 2010). Everything has changed a lot since then, when there were 10,000 Americans destined. « The lots of Soldados satiros atiborrando the güisquerías is history. Today many come with their families, everything is quieter, » Téllez explains now, as critical of the basis as aware of the support he has in broken.

In the Paddy pub, the dependence of American money is obvious. The walls and roof are almost completely lined with dollar bills that have been leaving their customers, most Yankees. After the bar, its owner, Juan Jesús Lobatón, 44, takes out a wad of dollars that he no longer has room to place. « Maybe I hang them, » jokes Lobatón, who disdains the rumors, increased with Trump, from a transfer from Navy to Morocco: « I have been listening to rumors like that, but this base is never going to close. » Some ticket hung is already, as if it were a garment drying in the sun.

Even more dependent on the base is José Duarte, 60, who sells vehicles for military and defense personnel of the USA. In Wilis, one of the multiple barbershopy, almost all who await shifts are American in search of a millimeter precision cut. Is the business right? « A good time, » he smiles in hand Alexánder Sánchez, a 34 -year -old Dominican. On a barber couch, Matt García, a Californian military of 32, who has come for two years. After only two months, he is delighted that they have sent him to Rota, who for his tranquility –broken these days by a shooting between clans with a dead-, His food and his beach have an idyllic destination reputation. Faced with Trump questions and the future of the base, he makes a gesture of discomfort: « I Don’s Know”

The answer is instead is clear in the Ministry of Defense. « There is no change » in plans on the basis, says a spokesman. That is, to the five destroyers of the NATO antimisile shield another will be added. If the approved by the Government in 2023will arrive this year, increasing the US presence. It is celebrated by the mayor, Javier Ruiz, 47, of the PSOE, a strong defender of the base and convinced that, despite the « noise », the American bet is firm. What would it be broken without base? « I don’t even want to think about it, » he replies. And he does not believe that there are extra concern for the war climate here: « On the contrary. We feel more protected. »

The ‘antiwoke’ fever

The mayor only darkens the tone when he cite the « runrun » according to which Trump’s cuts can affect the contracts, not exempt from labor conflicts. One of the most found is in the company Louis Berger, which does loading work in the airfield. But not only from private companies, but also from the staff of the Ministry of Defense who work for the US armed forces arrive echoes. CCOO denounces that, since February, the US gives long to the negotiation on the agreement.

Both Manuel Urbina, 59, computer scientist, and María José Milan, 55, of labor security, both of commissions, indicate another change to the worst of this second It was Trump: the withdrawal of the base of all the « gender and diversity » material, in line with the obsession Antiwoke of Trumpism. Milan sorry. USA, he reflects, has always insufflated a « liberal » to rotate air. And that, at least inside the base, is changing. « There are departments that the 8-m They used to put purple things. This year it has not been done, « he says. » You’ll see when they find out that we want to continue negotiating the Equality Plan, « Urbina slides.

With a salary that exceeds 3,200 euros per month, Urbina states that part of the people have always seen the personnel who work « for the Americans » as « privileged », but that that has never weakened support for the base. « Even the few who are against one or another of her, » he says. As IU militant, Manuel Martín-Arroyo, 45-year-old teacher, looks part of the “China in the shoe” of the base. That is, it is one critics. Of course, it makes clear that his position is that before discussing the closure you have to look for « economic alternatives. » « We are not going against the worker who wins his beans, » he emphasizes. But neither can he stop saying that he puts « the hairs of end » to think that his people have passed through his people prisoners minors for Guantanamo.

Martín-Arroyo does not plan to go to Rota, summoned for April 6, where the classic will be heard « NATO No, Bases outside ». Nourished catwalk of leftist forces in the 80s, the march carries decades languishing. In the opinion of Cristóbal Orellana, 63, from the nearby city of Jerez de la Frontera and who has attended « at least » 25 editions, there are plenty of reasons to revitalize it. « When there is international, broken tension and Morón they are a military target, even if nobody wants to see it, » he says.

In Without any baseJuan José Téllez points out how the Pentagon usually chooses for its fertile land bases – as in the case of Rota – to deprive the peoples of « alternative resources » and guarantee their dependence. Orellana states that, due to that agency, there is little social response in rota. But he points out that Trump’s arrival, with his contempt for his « theorists », facilitates a questioning of the bases that « should not be discussed only locally or only in the antimilitarist movement. » « This war climate appeals to the whole society, not only to antimilitarism, in the same way that gender violence appeals to the whole society, not only to feminism, » he concludes.