Home Life in Spain

New Zealand Tablet, 25 May 1911, Page 947

Home Life in Spain

Family life in Spain centres wholly about the mother of the family (declares Mary F. Nixon-Roulet in The Spaniard at Home). The word of la mad re is law to the children ; and it is equally so to the father. . < As mothers, Spanish women are devotion itself. From the highest to the lowest Spaniards are devoted to children. Devotion to her offspring is equalled, by a Spanish woman, only by her loyalty to her husband. Their home life "s the only thing in the world for them, and there are few things pleasanter than the Spaniards at home. % The most striking thing about Spanish home life isr its mirthfulness. The servants sing about their work, the; children chatter, the women talk gaily, the men jest, everyone is pleasant and obliging. The whole tone seems to be taken from the lively, talkative dona at the head of the house. _ . •£ Customs vary in different ranks of life, but the general tone of family life is the same. Even among the peasantry one seldom hears . quarrelling. y,t home. Perhaps because he is temperate, Diego is easier to live with than his English or American cousin, and the plain little whitewashed cottages of the poorest country districts seem to breathe a spirit of content.