Abandoned towns in Spain are selling for as little as $100,000

By Lucia Benavides

Originally aired on Marketplace on June 17, 2019.

More than 4,000 rural towns in Spain are in danger of disappearing as people depart in search of better opportunities in the cities. Now, hundreds of Spanish towns are up for sale for as little as $100,000.

Aldeas Abandonadas (“abandoned villages”) is one of the leading companies in the rural market. Operated like a real estate firm, it works with landowners to market their towns to businesses and individuals who want to live in rural Spain, and then takes a cut of the sales price.

In Search of the Naples — and Women — of Ferrante’s Novels

By Lucia Benavides

Originally published in the LA Review of Books on June 1, 2019.

When I first read — no, devoured — Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend tetralogy in 2016, I loathed the narrator.

Elena Greco, or more commonly known as Lenù, is shy and adapting. I was more interested in Raffaella Cerullo, or Lila, who made scenes and called men uommen’e mmerd (literally “shit men” in Neapolitan).

I suppose my attraction to Lila made sense — I was going through a not-so-great time as a 27-year-old freshly out of a long-term relationship and as a woman in the United States on the brink of electing an openly misogynist, racist, and xenophobic president.

Like Lila, I was angry. And I was tired of being like Lenù. The world was changing. Enough with being patient.

What It’s Like To Hear Paul McCartney In Liverpool

By Lucia Benavides

Originally aired on NPR on June 1, 2019.

Lucia Benavides and her mother, Ida, both say that listening to the music of the Beatles at home in Buenos Aires was formative for them.

Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Music Festival Brings More Women To The Stage

By Lucia Benavides

Originally aired on NPR on May 30, 2019.

Major music festivals around the world have come under increased criticism for the lack of featured female performers. This year, Primavera Sound in Barcelona is programming a festival with 53% women artists. Lucía Benavides (@lmbenav) has the story.

‘Without us, society wouldn’t function’: These are the immigrant domestic workers facing exploitation in Spain

Lucia Benavides/ The Lily

By Lucia Benavides

Originally published in The Lily on May 20, 2019.

The tree-lined promenade in Barcelona’s middle-class neighborhood of Gràcia is full of people at all hours of the day. In the late afternoon, the place becomes crowded with screaming children, school backpacks still hanging off their shoulders as they run up to various playgrounds. At night, teenagers huddle around park benches drinking beer.
But in the late morning, the pedestrian street is dotted with older Spaniards — some in wheelchairs and others hanging onto canes — catching the first glimpse of the strong afternoon sun. And beside them are their caretakers, who are mostly women from Latin America.

“We end up getting to know each other really well because we’re always here accompanying the men and women we take care of,” says Zuny Acosta, 48, from Paraguay. She and a group of five other women — from Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador — have been meeting at a park off the promenade nearly every day for several years.

On this particular morning, it’s Marlen Rosales’s 55th birthday, so the rest of the women have brought a sash and a crown for her to wear, and cake for everyone to eat. It’s an unlikely scene: a group of 30- to 50-year-old Latin American women loudly singing “Happy Birthday,” while the 90-something-year-olds by their sides clap or snooze under the warm spell of the sun.