What's most impressive about modern-day Spain is the speed with which it threw off its stultifying past and became an exciting center of new ideas and humane policies. It shows what people can do when they defy the privileged nay-sayers and set about to improve their lives.

The pre-World War II-era dictator of Spain, Francisco Franco, lived and remained in power until 1975, and his political party continued to rule for several years more. I made repeated visits to Madrid during that time, revising my guidebook to Europe, and these short stays were unbelievably depressing. Censorship prevailed. Newspapers were one-note and dull. Motion picture theaters showed cowboy films, and little else. An atmosphere of repression lay heavily over the entire country.

And then in 1981, when a ridiculous army colonel burst into the parliament building, fired shots in the air, and announced that the military was again taking over, the unexpected happened: King Juan Carlos, who had been reared by Franco to be a harmless figurehead, single-handedly put down the revolt and proposed a referendum in which the Spanish were asked to say whether they wanted more of the past or a new and democratic constitution. On the streets of Malaga, that Roberta and I walked last week, bronze reproductions of newspaper front pages in 1982 announcing the turn to democracy are inlaid into the sidewalks. And in 1982, a youthful reformer -- Felipe Gonzales -- became premier of a liberal and democratic Spain.

This remarkable turnabout -- and the almost unbelievable progress which it brought about -- happened less than 25 years ago. In that short amount of time, Spain has been transformed.

The current Prime Minister of Spain, Jose Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero, is the grandson of a captain in the Republican Army of loyalist Spain, who was captured and executed by the army of Franco. He has made a point of educational reform, enacting laws that mandate the teaching of democratic ideals and institutions; he has greatly widened the separation of church and state. Even before Zapatero, Spain had embarked on programs of amnesty for nearly two million illegal immigrants whose presence is vital to the economy of the country, enabling -- among other things -- the harvesting of olives and oranges and the ever-increasing production of olive oil for a health-conscious world. Attracted to the historic capital of the Hispanic world, many of these immigrants -- including several hundreds of thousands of Ecuadorians -- are from nations of Latin America, and not simply from North Africa.

In addition to the overall impressions, the highlights of a trip to Madrid are its trio of world-important museums: the newly-expanded Prado (with its rooms of Velasquez, Goya and El Greco, overwhelming in their impact); the modern Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (with the Guernica); and the classic collection donated to the state and now known as the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Your knowledge of art history is incomplete until you have visited all three and stood transfixed by paintings acknowledged to be among the greatest of all time.

This year, the government has pulled down the city's last remaining statue of dictator Franco. His efforts to stifle the nation's yearnings for free expression, to thwart the modern progress of Spain, have at last been defeated, and you will be exhilarated by a visit to this capital of youth and vigor. If you had thought the life of London, Paris or Berlin was "cool," wait until you see current-day Madrid.

Write and read comments about this post.

Labels: spain