after passing the posters of Sherry and leave the highway a narrow one-lane highway in each direction leads us to Rota military base. Martially escorting that scrawny gray asphalt snake, appears a double wire fence that stretches as far as the eye can see. The first line doesn't seem too threatening, but the second, according to the posters, is electrified.
Behind them nothing special can be seen, just the typical semi-arid Cadiz countryside that we can find in much of the rest of the province. The feeling is that those billboards are relics of another time.
However, after observing for a while, we see how some dust rises in the distance. A couple of minutes later, a large khaki jeep drives down the dirt track that is carved behind the second fence. The military who travel in it they have more Nordic features than southern Andalusia, which makes us suppose that this time it is the Americans who have gone out on patrol.
It is the day to day Broken, a small and sleepy population of Cadiz that in the mid 50's of the last century saw how his life was changed forever by the installation of a US military base.
Moon Castle, Rota.
THE CASTLE OF LUNA, WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Once we get to Broken , we walked along the promenade towards the center of its beautiful and secluded historic quarter. the sand of the beach of La Costilla – the most popular and crowded of all those near Rota– glows an almost white gold for much of the year, as often happens in these places that have been touched by the wand of the constant good weather.
At the end of it awaits us a breakwater, the port and the iconic lighthouse, with its red and white stripes. Together with him, the gate of the sea It serves as access to the center of the town and, after crossing it, it only takes us a few seconds to stand in front of the moon castle, which is halfway between the squares of Padre Eugenio and Bartolomé Pérez.
This fortress has its origin in the thirteenth century, when he got up on an old Muslim watchtower. Renovated at the end of the 20th century, today it is City Hall headquarters of the city and has been declared Well of Cultural Interest.
Nevertheless, moon's castle has passed to the annals of Rota history because, according to witnesses of the time, in 1953, Francisco Franco climbed his tower to indicate where the Rota military base should be built.
Lighthouse of the Port of Rota.
THE TRANSITION FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE TO MODERNITY
The Rota military base, since its inception, has been viewed with suspicion and love in equal measure. However, all you have to do is ask the roteños of a lifetime to find an important majority that supports it unconditionally. And we are talking about the Rota from the mid-50s of the last century.
A place where you could only live the hard tillage of some not too generous fields, of physical wear and tear long days at sea and the meager income left by the province's tourist activity.
The arrival of American soldiers in Rota changed all that forever. The need for qualified personnel brought Rota to many men, both American and Spanish, who, overnight, needed houses to live in, restaurants in which to eat, bars and entertainment venues in which to expand, banks where you can leave your money, shops where you can buy things for your home, workshops where you can repair your modern cars , etc.
Our Lady of O Parish
Many roteños had the opportunity to learn new trades and leave work in the fields to carve out a much more lucrative future working at the base, as mechanics, cooks, porters, maintenance managers, welders and many other charges.
The city was geographically divided into two parts. In the zone of calvary street continued to live the “mayeto” – roteños from the countryside or farmers -, while from san fernando avenue a totally different world began: the American.
In this last part proliferated Burger joints, pool halls and Cadillacs in which they sounded, at full blast, the American rock rhythms. American clothing, dollars and the modernity of the first world power also arrived.
military patrols from the base they controlled that nobody got out of hand, but the truth is that roteños and americans got along perfectly from the beginning of their coexistence. In fact, they formed couples of both nationalities who have stayed to live in Rota or have decided to start a new life in USA. Families whose children possess a funny English accent when they speak Andalusian.
AN INTERNATIONAL GASTRONOMIC EXPERIENCE
Another of the direct consequences of the installation of the base in Rota is that it was here that some of the the oldest international cuisine restaurants in Spain. An example is House Texas Mexico , which offers mexican delicacies since 1988, when in many big capitals there were no Mexican restaurants.
Older still is the Shanghai, opened in 1968 and who has the honor of being the Chinese restaurant that has been operating the longest in all of Spain. Of course, burger joints and steak house had a great boom and are still found in almost all the streets of the city. Don't miss out on trying the fantastic roteña hamburger, which never disappoints. With a bit more budget There are no better burgers in Rota than the gourmet ones served at little john.
Finally, the traditional cuisine of Cadiz is perfectly represented in The Cat Tavern. Unsurpassed their grilled prawns, assorted montaditos, Rota's start – a dish similar to salmorejo – and any other of its tapas that are perfectly accompanied by Very good Finos and Manzanilla.
AMERICAN TRAITS UNTIL TODAY
Near the gate to the huge Rota base –in which today Spanish and American soldiers coexist, but decisions depend on the Spanish command–, graffiti still reads "NATO No, bases out!".
However, thanks to the prosperity and employment that the base brought to the town, Rota can boast, today, of being a beautiful and quiet coastal town in which the coastline was not exploited with large building complexes and mass tourism that ruined everything, as happened in other parts of the Andalusian coast.
Roteños earned good salaries thanks to their new jobs and they had no need to speculate with his land so that it would be pasture for the construction magnates. It is true that You don't see the old romantic Cadillacs anymore circulate through the streets of the center, but yes, some Chevrolet appears or those mammoth Hummers urban that so many Yankees like.
Slowly, the houses in the center of Rota have returned to the hands of roteños or national soldiers, while the Americans have been decreasing in number and living in the houses inside the base.
But, as night fell, on the dance floor of the lovely beach bar Cuban sugar, a guy with white skin and almost 2 meters tall tries to follow, with a dexterity similar to that of the African elephant, the steps of the Latin dance teacher. “Slower, please, slower”, he stammers with a smile. And there are things that will never change in Rota.