The broken hopes of a generation

The broken hopes of a generation
by Lisa Abend / Vigo
time magazines


Lorena Dominguez, a 23 year old Spanish girl, daughter of a longshoreman and a housewife , worked at Citroën automobile factory. She had a well paid job. She made plans for the summer to move in with her boyfriend and travel. She pus her apartment on the market. After that, he crisis came and she had to lower her apartment price, that was when she started to feel the crisis affect.


After that, she made plans for the summer, but in December, Citroën let go to 3.000 workers, 90 % of them with an age below 35 and she was one of them. Until them she always thought she would end up better than her parents, she realized it turned into an impossible dream.

In this new disappointed generation, one out of 3 people younger than 25, are unemployed. This generation grew up in a time with twice as strong economy, their parents generation always did better than the generation of their parents and so on, going backwards. A lot of the Spanish people cant afford living in their apartments, so they had to move back in with their parents.

"   A whole generation is having its ambitions thwarted"

Until the crisis, Spain used to be one of the most success stories. Its GDP was 70% of the E.U. average in 1992.

The Citroën factory opened in Vigo, a proudly working class in 1958 when it used to manufacture 547000 cars a year and it used to be one if the highest producing plant in Europe. It used to be one of the largest company of Galicia region, directly employing 10000 local people.

Spain's GDP is expected to shrink to 1.6% in 2009.

Kids were raised with consumerist expectations and now they feel frustrated when they can't maintain them, what is more frustrating is happening to their expectations and dreams for the future.



The broken hopes of a generation by Lisa Abend / Vigo - time magazines