Millions of young Americans spent their summers, in the sixties, backpacking through Europe. They hitchhiked, rode the rails with their eurail passes, and crashed in youth hostels. It was a time of taking in the sights, art, culture, foods and partying. Several months later, they returned home to the States -- unless you were Paul Gorman.Written by Seattle Filmmaker/Writer Paul Gorman, “Into Trouble” chronicles his 1969 backpacking trip to Europe where, as a nineteen year old teenager, he was arrested in Franco’s Spain. At the time, Spain was regarded as one of the most Fascist countries since Nazi Germany, Faced with up to six years in famed Prisión de Barranco Seco, in stepped the U.S. Department of State with a most unusual plan to secure his release.
"On a cold and snowy day in January, 1969, I left home seeking adventure, dodging the draft, running from my father, and looking for the love I didn’t get at home," Gorman writes in his book.
Hitchhiking to Chicago, he experienced a roller coaster ride of 120 mph car chases between ex-convicts and cops, becoming a fugitive. That was just a warmup.
After landing in Luxembourg, several weeks later, Gorman made his way to Spain. One of his stops was Barcelona, Spain, where he stayed approximately three weeks in a youth hostel. "Underlying all of this was Fascism," Gorman continued. "Nowhere in my travels in Spain was it more apparent than in Barcelona. Strangely, it added to the allure of the place. I was doing something frowned upon by “polite society”. But I never really analyzed it in those terms. It was just the cheap prices and sense of the place that appealed to me, as it did to the other backpackers I met in Barcelona. We were looking for adventure outside the mainstream. The Soviet Union was out of the question; they were the enemy and the girls were frigid, but Spain was also considered taboo, and the biggest sinner of all was Barcelona."
While staying in Barcelona, Gorman met another American who was on his way to the Canary Islands aboard a freighter that took about fifteen passengers. It was early March and colder than he expected, so Gorman opted to go with him. "I could use some sunshine and warmth and, from what he told me, the place was crawling with beautiful bikini-clad Swedish girls—even better. After a six-night voyage, we disembarked in Las Palmas, de Gran Canarias, Spain."
It wasn't long before Gorman ran out of money and resorted to petty crime to pay his bills. It worked for a while, but then it caught up with him.
Asked why he wrote the book, Gorman said, "The experiences I had there are forever etched in my memory. It feels like they happened yesterday; they are that fresh. And yet, they are experiences so unlike the person I am now, that I find it hard to believe I actually did the things I did. That’s why I had to write the book. I had to put it into a context that fit the person I’ve become. The experience changed my life for the better."
Gorman hopes his book will help teenagers wrestling with personal identity issues and turmoil at home.
"Into Trouble" was edited by Barbara Noe Kennedy, previously a senior editor with National Geographic and currently editor of the best seller, “Bad Karma: A Trip to Mexico from Hell.”
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