Rota n' Roll

During the Cold War there was a corner on the Spanish seaside, from where the United States controlled the threat of the fearsome Communist bloc of the Soviet Union. The largest American military base on European soil was built in Rota, a small and humble farming and fishing village that soon started to change. Farmers like Juan "el Gato" lost his piece of land and fishermen like Antonio "el Cisquero" changed their fishing boats by warships. And then, thousands of American marines like Paul arrived with their huge cars that barely fit in the narrow streets, full with clubs where teenagers soldiers, like Mike, tried to find a shelter to forget about Vietnam. But there were also those who came back from Vietnam, and when the Sixth Fleet and the nuclear submarines were docked, "rock n'roll" started in the town. Streets full of bars and "sins", dollars, American smuggling products, stories of friendship, disagreement but also love tories between the marines and the girls in town. The tinny humble village got richer and bigger while, through the loudspeakers of the radio, the greatest hits of rock & roll sounded all over the base, broadcasted from the base radio station for soldiers´ not to feel homesick. But the wave of sound ran through the fences and young people in the area discovered unknown melodies for the first time and many local music bands, such as "Los Radars", (called like that because of huge antenna that intercepted the signals of the Russian spy ships) and many other young people were brought up under all that cultural and social influence, thinking that "the real world" was that, when it was enough to come near a next village to wake up from the "American way of life" to the misery of the postwar period and to Franco’s dictatorship was still ruling in Spain. And all these things happened once upon a time, when Rota met the "Roll".