Rarely does a single word capture the zeitgeist of an entire generation. Rarer still does it have a birth certificate. But in August 2005, Spain’s leading newspaper, El País, published a letter to the editor titled “Yo soy ‘mileurista’” or “I am a ‘mileurista.’” Mileurista was a clever neologism to describe people taking home only about 1,000 euros (roughly $1,200) a month. Sixteen years later, what once seemed an aberration has become a depressingly ingrained feature of Spanish life.
“The word came to me after conversations with friends,” said Carolina Alguacil, who coined the term when she wrote that letter. “We were graduates around 25 years old, who moved from one temporary job or an internship to another, sharing a flat in Barcelona in the midst of a real estate bubble. For my circle, all well-educated, well-prepared people, things didn’t work out—it was about the frustration of being perennial students.”
