SPANISH LETTER
The police come first to your notice in Spain, taking pre–
cedence over the people, the streets, and the landscape: the Guardia
Civil in their wooden-looking, shiny, circular hats, brims flattened at
the back, hats which are real enough, since they are worn and seen but,
unlike the tommy-gun which each Guardia has in the crook of his arm,
lacking in
real
reality. Next, gray-uniformed police with the red eagle
on their sleeves and rifles hanging on their backs. Even the guard in
the park, an old man in the costume of a Swiss Chasseur with a drag–
gled feather, leather jerkin, and shabby leggings, holds a rifle by the
strap. Then there are the secret police; no one knows how many kinds
there are but you see a great deal of them, On the !run-Madrid express
our passports were examined by one who swung into the compartment
and reversed his lapel, showing us the badge of blue, gold, and red
enamel. He was quiet, equable, and unsystematic, sighing while he wrote
some of the passport numbers into his notebook and ruffling the pages
as if wondering what to do next with his authority. He murmured adios
and withdrew. The train labored on toward the flower-blazing villas
of Santander, the wooden walls of the car quivering. The seats ·were
long and seignorial, each headrest covered with lace, and in one of
them sat a Spaniard who, as we were passing the harbor, engaged us in
conversation, not casually, by design, preventing me from looking at
the ships in the silver, coal-streaked, evening water. He gave us a
lecture on the modernity of Santander and invited us to ask questions
on Spanish life, Spanish history, geography, industry, or character and,
without being asked, wrinkling his narrow forehead and shooting forward
his palms like a photographer ordering you to hold still, he began to
speak of hydroelectric power, very minute in his details about turbines,
wiring, transmitters, and whatnot. We were American and therefore in–
terested in mechanical subjects. I was not an engineer, I told him.
Nevertheless he finished his speech and sat as if waiting for me to pro-
217
