Word: spain
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...even a prosperous future presents knotty challenges. In the course of just two generations, Spain's economic expansion has turned it from an emigrant to an immigrant nation. Integrating new arrivals is a Socialist priority, but many immigrants don't support the party's progressive family policies. Ana Maria Vinazza says that in the decade since she arrived from Peru, "the Spanish family has changed for the worse." Beyond her opposition to gay marriage, and concern with the loss of religious values, she sees too many Spaniards indulging the young. "Parents give children too much. You have to earn what...
...recent breakup with his Seville girlfriend was due to the fact that he still lived with his mother and father. "I love my parents, I love being taken care of," he says. "But it's hard to have intimacy like this. If you're a young person in Spain, it's difficult to start your own life...
...link between macroeconomic trends and individual family choices is often hard to quantify. Still, few doubt that widening prosperity was a necessary precondition for Zapatero's momentous changes to Spain's social legislation. In the wake of his surprising 2004 victory - which many attributed to the incumbent Popular Party government's mishandling of the aftermath of the March 11, 2004, Madrid bombings - the little-known Socialist leader made waves with his announcement of an immediate withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. But the sweeping agenda of progressive social policy is what has truly marked Zapatero's term. He pushed through...
Most attention, however, has gone to the Zapatero government's expansion of gay rights. Spain had no national provisions for same-sex couples' rights until 2005, when it became only the third country in the world (after the Netherlands and Belgium) to allow gay marriages, and the first to give them full legal status, including adoption rights. After living together for a decade, Maribel Povedano, 39, and Adela Alvarez were married last May in Seville, watched over by scores of family and friends. "All our neighbors completely accept us, even those in their 70s or 80s," says Povedano...
...couldn't marry because they weren't serious. If your rights don't have the same name, they don't have the same protection or the same standing." Zerolo, whose wedding was one of the approximately 10,000 gay marriages licensed under the new law, is proud to see Spain catapult itself from behind the curve to ahead of it on these issues. "This the first time in Spanish history that we are world leaders in equality," he says. "With an effervescent economy and the recognition of the dignity of every man and woman, we are a country prepared...