Hello, Gentle Reader! Recent news reports may have shared a recent experience here in mainland Spain: a massive power outage that affected all of Spain, Portugal, and Andorra. Even parts of southern France were affected.

The April 28 blackout, or apagón, was a unique event and helped uncover some interesting cultural reflections about Spaniards in times of crises. (By the way, apagar is the verb to turn off (the lights), and the noun form is apagón, or big “lights out” event.)

When the lights went out, I was in my sewing class, hand-stitching a shirt that I am constructing. A power outage is not usually a cause for alarm, and this was no different. We had windows in the sewing shop, and plenty of light. I just kept sewing. Before long, however, it became clear that that the power was out on the whole block… and then the whole city. Shortly thereafter, there was a growing awareness that this was a country-wide event.

Initially, the Wi-Fi still worked and we were able to communicate with friends around the country and connect to the internet, but that was inconsistent at best. Before long, that completely shut off, too.

In Valencia, April 28 was already a holiday, the fest day of San Vicente Ferrer. He’s one of the patron saints of the city, and lots of people take his festival very seriously. What that means for the city is that most people were not at work, students were not at school, and lots of folks had free time on their hands.

Shortly after the blackout, people started going outside and chatting with one another. The weather was spectacular and many people were at home with their families. The parks were full of shouting kids, barking dogs, and people enjoying time in the sun. When the power went out, the most inconvenient aspect was the lack of Wi-Fi or the loss of the elevator in the building. Spain is able to bounce through all of that, though, because socializing is another common hobby.

On my way home from sewing class about an hour after the blackout began, I noted the number of people in the street was significantly more than normal. Folks were calling out to friends and family in their upper story apartments to check on them. The bars were full and people had reverted to paying cash for their beverage and (premade) snack. More than anything else, people were chatting with each other, perhaps for the first time in a while. In bars and parks, a sense of camaraderie blossomed as people connected.

I also noticed that there was flooding on my street as I arrived back at home. Apparently, a water main on our block had fractured when the electric pressure regulator had failed. So by the time I made it home to our apartment on the 8th floor (actually the 7th floor starting at the ground floor, or 0), we no longer had power, water, or reliable Wi-Fi. The windows were already open, and our world was quiet.

Lunch was easy sandwiches with pantry items. We followed that up with a nap, and then reading and chatting while sitting on the couch. Since my work is online, I couldn’t do the things I normally do in the afternoon. Cooking dinner was not an option, so we enjoyed a leisurely dinner of cheese, crackers, hummus, and a few other things from the fridge, which was staying nice and chilly.

About 8 hours after the blackout began, the power reappeared. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the tone of the neighborhood changed as people celebrated being able to cook, use the elevator to go back to their home, and generally let out a breath they had been holding throughout the blackout. It still took a few more hours for resumed water and Wi-Fi but the power was the thing that was the most important.

The following morning, everything was back to normal, and people now had new stories of the things they did during the apagón. I reconnected with my friends on the Iberian peninsula and found that they had similar times without power. I was also able to access the news that detailed the confusion around the cause of the blackout, although Portugal made it perfectly clear that it was Spain’s fault. Even now, several weeks after the incident, it’s unclear what triggered the outage, aside from electrical system harmonics that disrupted the entire grid.

So, what’s the outcome? There were no riots, no doomsday alarmists, no looting, no explosions, and the world did not end. Quite the reverse, actually. Neighbors checked in on each other. People reconnected socially in new ways. Most people focused on the positive aspects of the event, and while a longer outage could have been much more serious, this was quickly managed and repaired. First responders did an amazing job of responding. The community acted like, well, a community.

The news would have you believe that people completely freaked out over the blackout, but please take that with a huge caution: stories of people freaking out are sensational and clickbait. Hollywood leans hard into this expectation that society unravels within minutes of a big change. That’s simply not what happened. The Spanish virtue of patience is more powerful than that. Sure, there may have been isolated incidents where crazy things happened, but the important thing is that they were isolated and not the norm.

Instead, Spain enjoyed a day of socializing, enjoying the weather, caring for one another, and, frankly, living. Yes, it could have been more serious, but it wasn’t. It was a reminder of the importance of community.