Puerto Martina is a bar in the town of Mera, Oleiros, in the province of A Coruña, which has a population of less than 38,000. But it nevertheless created a media earthquake so large that it was felt beyond Galicia and Spain. It created such unrest that even a reporter Guard Are you on a mission to explain to Londoners what the untranslatable ‘fodechinchos’ is? Statement by Rías Baixas rich in nuancesAll of them are degrading.

At the epicenter of such an earthquake, there is a message shared a few days ago by those responsible for Puerto Martina, in which they explained that they had taken the decision to close in mid-August, coinciding with one of the busiest times for hospitality, in order to save on foreign tourists and the clientele they receive during the summer months.

His message is shocking but, above all, it leaves a clear indication of the extent to which domestic tourism remains a problem in Spain, which is embroiled in debates about tourist massification and breaking records for foreign visitors.

And not small.

“Don’t make us rich, make us poor”

To understand what happened, we have to go back to August 6, when the account O Kan de Mera published a shocking message on Facebook. For background and figures. It was announced that the Puerto Martina bar would be closed between the 12th and the 19th, coinciding with the Asunción Bridge, one of the times of year when there is the greatest movement of tourists from the rest of the country, especially from Madrid to the Rías Altas. Origin of thousands of families who spend their summers in Galicia.

So far nothing strange. Or at least nothing exceptional. The surprising thing came when O Kan de Mera explained why Oleiros’s business would be closing in a week, which was to be expected. good billing.

O Kan de Mera explained, before going into detail: “Given the imminent arrival of the bridge on August 15, if a bomb falls on Mera there will be no fool left on the Plateau, we have decided to close the bridge between the 12th and the 19th” and admitting that they are fed up with the clientele that comes to the city during the summer weekend: “We are fed up with the arrogance of these people and we do not want to undermine the project.”

The bar’s owners complained specifically about customers who ordered “two Barcelós-Colas and four glasses,” asked for pincho with their coffee, or criticized the venue’s menu. In case the message wasn’t clear enough, a few days later the person in charge of the business, María, explained the situation to him. Spanish He said their aim was to avoid the flood of tourists expected to flock to the bridge. The newspaper even said the business was “tired of the people of Madrid”.

“This will not make us rich, impoverishes us” said the hotelier.

“It does us little good economically, but it wears us out physically.”

The reason? María, who insists on the same idea, continues: “The customers who come to the bar with “arrogance, demands, unusual requests, bad attitudes and, at times, xenophobic insults towards the non-Spanish staff”. Tourism “no longer means much on an economic level, as it guarantees that families go on holiday with limited budgets”.

It didn’t take long for María and Puerto Marina’s argument to go viral and was featured in chronicles in state media such as Cadena SER, La Sexta, 20 Minutos or 20 Minutos. Newspaper. With the media storm still raging and the long weekend of August 15 over, the bar decided to add fuel to the fire. Like? After a short break, it reopened with a sign at its entrance insisting on the original message, but this time much more strongly:

“Are you coming in? fodechinchos empty space“.

The question Stephen Burger is trying to clarify for his readers is Guard is: what the heck are ‘fodechinchos’? The answer is interesting because it doesn’t just tell us what’s happening in the little family bar in Oleiros. The term goes further, suggesting that the tensions created by tourism in Spain are explained not only by the record flow of visitors from other countries, but also by a much more intense flow: domestic tourism.

Without going any further, INE recorded 4.7 million travelers staying in hotels in Galicia last year. Of these, only 1.3 million were foreigners. The vast majority (3.4 million) were Spanish. In a country where “anti-tourism” is gaining ground, where international destinations such as the Canary Islands, Mallorca or Barcelona have refused to be massified without limits, it is easy for tensions in domestic tourism to blur. The famous Oleiros bar reminds us of this.

“Fodechinchos” is actually a phrase that captures it very well.

It is often said that the term was born in the Rías Baixas and was created to refer to a very specific type of tourist: the tourists who come to pick up the loose bits when the Galician fishermen collect their horse mackerel catch. What started as a kind gesture from the fishermen eventually resulted in visitors carrying buckets to collect the free fish.

Literally, this expression is the sum of the words “fode” (jode) and “chincho”, which in Galicia is called small horse mackerel. Guard It translates as “fish thieves.”

Use of the expression over time radiate for the community… and I have gained nuances. Nowadays it is often used to describe tourists who behave arrogantly and do not respect the traditions found in Galicia. Although it is usually associated with those coming from Madrid, it can be used for any tourist; this is not strange considering the great weight of the city in Galician tourism: not counting the internal market among the cities of Galicia. Madrid is the main starting point for tourists visiting the region.

The meaning of the expression “fodechinchos” also goes far beyond their greater or lesser hunger for horse mackerel or other fish from the Galician estuaries. It is rather a matter of attitude, behavior and respect.

“What is a fodechincho? A person to whom the guards told him not to go into the sea because the tide had gone out, and he went in anyway. And when the guard caught his eye, he got angry,” explains political scientist Abel Losada in X — a fodechincho is someone to whom you said, ‘You can’t climb these dunes, they’re guarded,’ but who went up anyway because he wanted to see the beach. A fodechincho is someone who hears you speak the language you’ve spoken all your life. Life seems small and bad to him.”

Images | Joaomrt (Flickr) and John Hayes (Flickr)

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