When my dad and I stepped off a plane in Madrid the first day of Spring Break and our cab pulled recklessly onto the highway, the first thing we noticed were the giant banners advertising candidates for the upcoming elections.
"Did you know they were having elections this week?" I asked my dad.
He didn't.
"Do you think we should be here?" I persisted. I knew there was a domestic terrorist organization in Spain and I thought elections might be a turbulent time.
My dad shrugged. "We're here now," he said.
And we proceeded to carry on as normal American tourists -- until March 11, when bombs exploded on three Madrid commuter trains during rush hour, killing more than 200 people and injuring 1,500.
Second-year College student Anne Foster also flew to Madrid for break. She and her family were traveling out of the city on a day trip March 11 when the first bomb went off shortly before 8 a.m. Foster said public transportation was jam-packed, ambulances were flying by and people seemed panicked. On a bus, she heard a radio report that 70 people had died. But the bus was noisy, and the news was in Spanish -- Foster assumed she had misinterpreted the report and didn't mention it to her family.
Her worries weren't confirmed until she returned to Madrid that evening and her father heard on the news that nearly 200 people had died from bombs on three commuter trains, including one near Atocha Station in downtown Madrid.
My dad and I were headed for that station later in the morning. We squeezed onto the always-crowded subway around 10 a.m., planning to spend the day touring the modern art museum nearby.
The morning seemed perfectly ordinary to us -- the vast underground network of shops and street performers bustling and train passengers with their noses in newspapers -- until our car, bound for Atocha Station, traveled one stop in its intended direction and then turned around, depositing us at the same place we had started.
No one else on the train seemed to notice or care, and if there were announcements, we couldn't understand them. One stop later, we wandered off the subway, confused, and were confronted with a screen that read, "Explosions in Madrid." The commuter trains were shut down, and the subway was closed for several stops on either side of Atocha Station.
We hurried back to the hotel to watch CNN. Already, Spanish government officials were on television blaming ETA, the Basque separatist group that has committed smaller acts of terrorism in Spain in the past.
Many Madrilenos apparently agreed. When we went back outside, Puerta del Sol, one of Madrid's major plazas, was packed with people standing silently in front of City Hall carrying small signs that said simply: "ETA NO." By the afternoon, hundreds of people holding up palms painted white -- to show they had no blood on their hands -- chanted the same words. We stayed for nearly an hour, and when we finally moved on, the protestors showed no sign of stopping.
After that, the plaza was never empty. People protested, rallied and held vigils endlessly.
Deborah Warren, who oversaw the response to Sept. 11 in Alexandria, Va., said such demonstrations can be an important means of coping. Americans who displayed flags and stressed patriotism participated in a similar phenomenon.
"There's a strength in being a collective, in being a group," Warren said. "It helps people to not feel so alone and not feel so isolated and not feel so scared if you have that collective, if you feel like you're in it together."
All day Thursday, the focus of the protests was ETA, even though information surfaced in the afternoon suggesting a link to al Qaeda. Late that night, only two signs taped to a gate in Puerta del Sol negatively portrayed outgoing prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, who was one of the few European leaders to support the United States war in Iraq. Many more denounced ETA.
Friday was rainy and gloomy, and most businesses and restaurants were closed or deserted. People still protested. A nationwide rally requested by the government that night shut down the city and drew millions of people into the streets. No one was accusing ETA anymore, but few were mentioning al Qaeda.
We left early Saturday morning, before public opinion took a dramatic turn. But fourth-year College student Karen Otto, who visited a small town outside of Valencia for break and worked at a bar there, said she encountered many people angry with the Popular Party government, which was voted out of power March 14.
"A lot of people who said they weren't going to vote decided to vote," Otto said. "Not just because of the war issue, but that the government was sitting there lying about it."
Otto said she worried about more attacks and tried to avoid the city. She saw protests as well, but said that outside of Madrid, most people wanted information.
"Everyone was just sitting glued to the television watching it," she said.
In Madrid, television was secondary. It played in the background during rallies and filtered out of restaurants as protesters marched outside. Spaniards left their offices to hold vigils and hiked to Atocha Station to stand quietly in remembrance. I don't speak a word of Spanish, but I understood more watching the people go by in the streets than I ever could have learned from CNN.
Read More
Visa status restored for one international student and two recent University graduates
By Jackie Bond | YesterdayAccording to a statement from University Spokesperson Bethanie Glover, the University learned of the visa terminations of the current student and two alumni April 4
Students react to President Ryan signing national letter defending higher education
By Brendon Bordwine | YesterdayWhile some students praised the move as a stand for academic freedom, others questioned its impact amid recent DEI rollbacks and safety concerns
Honor Committee adjusts panel scheduling and discusses term goals for subcommittees
By Bertie Azqueta | 3 days agoThe Committee will not reconvene for an in-person meeting until the Fall 2025 semester.
