Smoking... Everyone Does it in Spain

A couple times people have approached me asking to use a lighter. Sorry to disappoint but, I am sure the next person you ask will likely have one. Never happened to me in the States. I always picture the television commercial persuading teens not to smoke; an image of a young girl tearing a piece of skin from her face in exchange for a pack of cigarettes. Despite being aware of those consequences, Len has shown me that almost their entire population smokes cigarettes, from teenagers, to adults, and seniors. Walking the streets, I always see at least five people smoking every time I leave the house. I was a little caught off guard.

In Seattle, it is a rare sighting to see many people smoke cigarettes and not many college students do so. It is looked down upon especially towards the younger generation. Maybe in Spain smoking is perceived to be cool or something? Like Cole Sprouse with his Instagram pictures: aesthetic, vintage, and all with a cigarette in hand. It does seem like a vintage thing to do as it was very popular in the past. And that does not mean I am encouraging it, my curiosity simply leads me in exploring why it is so common here.

My first day in Len was strange: a new city, a new culture, and new people. We were strangers, my host mom, host brother, and I, yet we were going to be living together for ten weeks. The first day was all about getting situated and used to my unknown surroundings. After having lunch, my host mom, Maria Angeles Villarroel Prieto asked me if I was fine with her smoking. Being a second-hand smoker, I assured her that I was perfectly fine with it. And up until now in the seventh week, I finally ask her about smoking.

Angeles knows that it is bad, other smokers in Spain do too and yet they still do it. Even cigarette boxes and tobacco packages display cautionary health consequences. Why would they all risk their health to smoke? For Angeles, she started when she was twenty, so it has been a little over twenty years and it has become her daily activity. Smoking is a part of her routine, it is always after having coffee when she will take out her pouch, roll tobacco in a white slip and light the white tip. I cannot seem to find any other reasons from her, whether it is a fashion or to stay skinny. Either or, it is common here, and rare not to find someone smoking. Although, she says that she is the only one in her family who smokes. Her son Marcos who is only 9 always tells his mother it is bad for her and she should stop. But she really cannot stop something that is socially accepted here and she has been doing it for so long. Angeles says that it is a culture in Spain.

Outside a bar where cigarette buds are all over the streets and people are all taking a break -- smoking, I talk to two men. To one of them, I went straight for it and asked him why he smokes, why do many people do so in Spain? And once again, I hear that phrase as he says that it is simply a culture. There it is, there is nothing else to it.

Everyone seems so nonchalant about the topic. They all give the same answer, casually shrugging it off as there are no other reasons. I realized that smoking here is just the cultural norm. It is that simple. Because most of the population does it, it is not rebellious or badly perceived. Or in other terms smoking is a trend, a type of fashion that exists in Spain. When many people do something, it is a diffusion effect that influences others to do so, accumulating and increasing its popularity.