More than 400 Britons live their particular retirement in districts and learn Spanish to break the isolation and integrate into the community
They live oblivious to the turbulence that the ‘Brexit’ is causing this week in the United Kingdom due to the shortage of basic products, the shortage of gasoline and the economic and labor crisis. With the traditional British phlegm, they confess that the break with the European Union has not caused them to become detached from their country, although it has precipitated their decision to move their residence to Spain. English politics stressed me out. I live very happy here because I don’t understand Spanish politics, ”confesses John Curson, while his wife, Jackie, nods. Both are students of the ‘Team Colo School’ academy that teaches Spanish for English.
In Lorca, there are 405 British registered residents, mainly in rural areas. They are distributed by 24 districts, among them Purias, La Hearing or Fontanares and only 11% live in the urban area. It is striking that in some councils with a high risk of depopulation, half of their inhabitants are already English. This is the case of Béjar, where 25 of the 46 neighbors are British, and Nogalte with 26 English among its 55 inhabitants. “They are helping the district not to remain empty”, recognizes José Antonio García, pedestrian mayor of the latter town.
In Nogalte, living conditions “are harsh,” continues the pediatrician, because in many farmhouses there is no running water or electricity and the houses work with tanks and solar panels or generators, but despite these inconveniences the English “like to live here, they love the quiet. To find telephone coverage they have to travel to a specific point and some roads are impassable. “It is the only thing they complain about, because sometimes they are isolated. I have sent letters to the City Council, but for the moment they have ignored us. Most of these new neighbors do not speak Spanish but “they come to the convivial meals that we organize in the town.”
In districts such as Béjar and Nogalte; half of the neighbors are already Anglo-Saxons and that has prevented them from being emptied
Miguel Girona is president of the neighborhood associations of Jarales, Humbrías, Ortillo, Zarzalico and Béjar, which have 230 inhabitants. “Almost all the people here left years ago and many of our children don’t even know the lands their parents have, but foreigners value this, there are beautiful landscapes. If the power grid came, more would come. The English live “in good houses”, some “break Spanish but others prefer to be in their world.”
Confinement by the pandemic has made many of these Britons aware of the limitations of the language barrier and the risks of their isolation. To combat it, a dozen of them attend Spanish classes at Consuelo Pinilla’s academy. “The first thing I taught them was to call for an ambulance. They want to learn and seek to soak up our culture. “Now I feel safer, I can order in restaurants”, adds Lynn Mcewan, one of the most enthusiastic students, who says she feels Spanish and that until now she had not found a place to learn Spanish. She has been living in Spain for four years with Alister, her husband, and Valentina, her beautiful English shepherd dog with whom she participates in dog competitions. On the farm there is also room for a purebred Spanish horse, trained by a teacher from Lorca, who will participate in the national dressage competition at the Lorca Fericab Horse Fair, says Lynn with pride.
This group of British in their sixties is not only interested in learning the language and popular expressions, but they also want to immerse themselves in the most picturesque traditional places, learn the most typical recipes, participate in Holy Week and everything that oozes Spanish culture. Most are retired, but some telecommute. This is the case of Debbie Balser, who works remotely in the finance department of a British company that manufactures automotive parts. She lived in the Camposol de Mazarrón urbanization for two years but “there were too many English people there,” she jokes, “I prefer the Spanish way of life” and now she is based in Cazalla.
They do not feel nostalgic for their country nor do they consider returning. Almost all of them have children who they see on video call and who come for vacations. They only miss the ‘fish and chips’ and complain that the public transport here is bad.
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