culture: "guapa"

I noticed right away when coming to Spain, that people greet women as "guapa" which means beautiful. When the girls in my group and I were meeting our families for the first time, they all approached us with an "hola, guapa!" Throughout my time here I have heard it more and more. Young and old women say it to their friends and family members on a regular basis. I thought this was interesting because, in English, we don't necessarily say hi to our friends by calling them beautiful, pretty, or even cute. In fact, as a culture we almost seem modest about looks, or at least talking about them.

But not only do friends say it to each other, men shout it on the streets. If a woman passes by a group of young men, it is not out of the ordinary for them to just say "guapa", or "hola, guapa". I have also heard this a lot from homeless beggers, and street vendors trying to get my attention.

I was talking to some of my friends about this today and one brought up an interesting point. She said she learned that it is actually a historic cultural aspect, dating back to Franco. She said that when he was in power, men and women were not allowed to interact on the streets. I too, have learned this in my pop culture class. But what she learned was that people would learn to sneak around Franco's rules. Instead of interacting with women on the street, men would just shout out the word "guapa" if a pretty woman walked by.

I think that it is so interesting that something like phrases people use here were developed from Franco. It is amazing how much impact he had on this country, and how even years later, his laws still affect the people of Spain and the way they think and act.