For the fourth webinar, we welcome back Mr. Ignacio Pellicer and Mr. Pedro Heredia, from the law firm Pellicer and Heredia. This webinar will be held on February 9, 2022, at 7:30 PM CET on the topic of renters’ rights and buying property in Spain.

To tailor these webinars to your needs, we ask that you send us any questions you might have ahead of time. We will pass them on to our speakers, so that they are aware of your concerns and can plan the talk accordingly.

Send your questions to [email protected] by Monday, February 7. 

If you would like a recording of the webinar but can’t make this session go ahead and send in an RSVP. We will send a link to the video to all who sign up.

All adult US citizens living outside the US, including those who have never resided in the country, have the legal right to vote in federal as well as some state elections. However, you should re-register with your local election official at the beginning of each calendar year, as well as every time that you move, to ensure that your ballot will arrive in time to mail back and be counted. 

Most people have questions about this process, but never fear! Join us on Zoom and we will walk you through the application, clear up any doubts and help you to fill out and submit your Federal Postcard Application (FPCA) online - all with expert guidance from former DA Spain chair Jim Mercereau. 

Encourage your US citizen friends to take advantage of this opportunity. Democracy is on the ballot in 2022 and your vote matters! 

With Omicron still quite present, DA Madrid's next event will be held virtually. Please join us on Thursday, January 20th for a two part program:

• Back to Basics: How, and How Often Should I Request My Ballot?
• I Want to Phonebank: Teach Me How!

Please join us to learn how to request your ballot and all that you need to know to make calls to help Democrats win in 2022!

Date: Thursday, January 20th
Time: 7:00 - 8:30pm

A Zoom link will be provided to those who register.

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Message from DA Spain Chair

It’s December, which means it’s holiday season once more. Many religions and cultures celebrate special days this time of year; for both of us, Christmas is the holiday of choice this month. And Christmas in Spain can teach us all a lot about what’s to come in the months ahead.

In the USA, of course, Christmas Day is pretty much an ending. It means presents get unwrapped and put away, carols stop ringing out of car radios and at shopping malls, and householders start eyeing the space they’ll regain in the living room when the tree finally gets taken down.

In Spain, though, December 25th is the beginning of the 12 days of Christmas, which will culminate in the coming of the three Wise Men on January 6th, el Día de Los Reyes. On that day, Spanish families celebrate the arrival of the Kings with gatherings, gifts, and parades. Here, Christmas Day is a beginning, not an end.

Democrats Abroad Spain goes through a similar push-me-pull-you with endings and beginnings this time of year. Certainly December is an ending for us, as we close out our books on the year. We tally up how many members we gained and lost this cycle, check our bank balance, and reflect on what worked and what didn’t in terms of programming and outreach.

But it’s also a time for us to contemplate what’s ahead. Next year is an election year, and predictions for the midterms aren’t pretty right now. Fortunately, we’ve got amazing folks working on Get Out The Vote programs, membership initiatives, and fundraising efforts to pay for all of the above (and more) in the year ahead. Having celebrated the past, we’re ready to move into the future.

With the elections and COVID-19 and heaven knows what else around the corner, we’re confident that 2022 will be yet another challenging year. But as they say in the Christian tradition, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” Thanks to you all, whatever traditions you hold dearest, for being part of that light and for walking together through whatever lies ahead.

With best wishes for the holidays and the new year,

Kathy and Carlos

ATTENTION: EVENT DATE AND TIME CHANGE. EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE ON Wednesday, Jan 26 1:30pm EST/ 7:30 PM CET.

Books Abroad, The Global Women’s Caucus Feminist reading group, is excited to kick off the new year with an unforgettable read about the roots of misogyny, written by world renowned classicist Mary Beard.

You might wonder what a learned Cambridge don, professor of classics, scholar of Ancient Roman and Greek civilizations, and Britain’s best-known classicist can tell our modern “me-too” world about feminism, but the answer is, “a lot.”

Beard is an indomitable feminist, and her new best-selling book Women and Power, is an engaging and educated search back into antiquity to find the roots of misogyny.  To quote The Guardian, “[r]eading it in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, it seems utterly, dreadfully convincing. Mute women; brutal men; shame as a mechanism for control; androgyny and avoidance as a strategy for survival.”  But Beard doesn’t keep us in the past.  What she uncovers for us in the classics has bearing on our leaders today and sensitizes us to the world around us. And she even offers remedies.  It’s a slim volume (115 pages), but what Mary Beard writes is powerful and complex.

A manifesto that is erudite, powerful and complex… and more importantly, for non-classicists, delightfully readable.

Join us Tuesday Jan 26 at 1:30 PM ET, 7:30pm CET on Zoom.

RSVP for the Zoom meeting information.

Did you know that US citizens living abroad are required by law to re-register every election year, as well as every time you move? We know that in the past, some states have not been strict about this requirement, and local election officials may have sent ballots to overseas voters regardless of whether or not they had re-registered. However, we also know that as of October 2021, nineteen states had enacted 33 new laws making it harder to vote (source: The Brennan Center for Justice). This year, we strongly recommend that all US citizens living overseas send in a Federal Postcard Application - better safe than sorry! 

Volunteers from Democrats Abroad and VoteFromAbroad.org will be at the Barcelona Expat Fair on March 5, ready to assist you as you register to vote in this important midterm election year. Bring your US driver's license or other state ID if you have it, or the last 4 digits of your social security number. We will walk you through every step of the process and make sure you are ready to vote in all primary, general and special elections in 2022. 

Be sure to click on the ticket link below to generate a FREE ticket allowing you to access the venue. Bring a friend! 

Living in Spain isn’t all fun in the sun, siestas and fiestas.

To help you navigate the minefield so that you can have more fun in the sun, DA Spain’s Women’s Caucus (SWC) is proud to announce a new webinar series called ‘Living in Spain.’ 

Once a month, for an hour, Living in Spain will host a guest speaker who will present on a topic of great interest and answer audience questions. The webinars will take place on select Wednesdays at 6 p.m. 

We are following up our successful November webinar about Spanish taxes with advice on how to talk to Republicans during the Holidays.

Next up, and just in time for the holidays, Living in Spain will feature guest speaker (and former Republican) Victor Horcasitas, who will share sage advice on how to talk to your crazy uncle in the MAGA hat, how to circumvent awkward encounters around the dinner table or at the local supermarket, and more. The session will be held on Wednesday, December 15 at 18:00h. 

RSVP here 

Mark your calendars! Future topics that have been confirmed with  Ignacio Pellicer and Pedro Heredia from the Alicante law firm Pellicer and Heredia are: 

• January 12th: Residency visas and immigration
• February 9th: Renters rights and buying property

Message from DA Spain Chair

It’s November, and we Americans are looking forward to celebrating this month’s revered national tradition — Black Friday! Seriously, though, Thanksgiving is upon us, and it’s time to focus on the three lessons that it can teach us. And I think we Democrats in Spain – indeed, Democrats across the globe – would do well to reflect on them.

First and foremost we have a lot to be grateful for. Are things perfect politically? Of course not. We hold both houses of Congress by razor-thin margins, and the loss in the Virginia gubernatorial race was a painful blow. But Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are in the White House, which beats the alternative by miles, and we’ve got thousands of volunteers across the globe who are ready to roll up their sleeves for the midterms. Is our country perfect? No, and that’s distressing; it’s distressing because we believe that the USA has a lot to offer us and the world. So there is much to be grateful for.

The second lesson is that we know how to be together, even when we disagree on some issues. This coming week, families of all stripes will gather at the Thanksgiving table and try hard to be nice to each other. Similarly, Democrats can – and do – work together for common goals. We need that kind of unity, that kind of “gather around the table” mentality, in our work as Democrats. Let’s focus on the many, many issues and concerns and dreams that unite us. This is how we win. This is how we progress.

The third and final lesson of Thanksgiving is that, historically, it’s a seriously mixed bag. European settlers prospered in America, but they did so at a terrible cost to indigenous people, people of color, and lots of others we could name. But we Democrats are at least willing to acknowledge both the good and the bad in our country’s past and work from that to craft a better future. If we work together, we can build on our successes and try to deal with our failures.

So happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and let’s all raise a fork to what we can accomplish together. And, on a personal level, please know that I’m grateful for all of you.

– Kathy Tullos, Chair, DA Spain