Most towns and villages in the lower region of Andalusia have shared a similar existence over the years, and although much of Spain has changed considerably since Franco’s demise, many of the smaller villages still adhere to a very traditional way of living. Franco had at first condemned interference from the western world after his victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), so Spain’s doors remained tightly shut to what was happening in the rest of Europe and America. At the dawn of the 1950s, most of Europe had started to recover from the effects of the Second World War and many countries began to prosper both commercially and culturally. Spain, however, was in the grip of the iron-fist of martial law and Catholicism, which kept the country locked in an era of totalitarianism. Franco established policies that were highly favourable to the Catholic Church ( the only legal state religion), like banning civil marriages, making divorce illegal and religious education compuls...