Andalucían police used shot of women sitting on chairs on pavement in request to keep public right of way clear
Somewhere towards the very top of the long list of unspoken Spanish rules – gin and tonic should not be drunk before a meal, chorizo has no place in the vicinity of a paella and children’s bedtimes cease to apply in the summer – is the silent injunction that forbids any attempts to alter the habits of the country’s cherished older people.
It was unfortunate, then, that police in the small Andalucían town of Santa Fe chose the photo they did to accompany a request for people not to disturb their neighbours by sitting around the streets late at night.
Rather than showing a rowdy bunch of over-refreshed, guitar-strumming, illicit barbecuers, they opted for a shot of six older women sitting on chairs on a pavement, engaging in an ancient and convivial ritual familiar in towns and villages across the hotter regions of the country.
Sabemos que sacar sillas o mesas a la puerta es tradición en muchos pueblos, pero la vía pública está regulada. Si la Policía pide retirarlas, hazlo por respeto y convivencia. Con civismo y sentido común no hay molestias. ¡Gracias por colaborar! pic.twitter.com/Qvr6CftpZS
