These are difficult times. Spain is living in a state of national emergency and society is facing chaos and misgovernment. The blame may lie with a new biological agent that has escaped from a laboratory or a demonstration that has gotten out of control enough to provoke a popular revolt. It could also be a seismic swarm, an attack by a foreign power, or the feared and much-talked-about Third World War. The scenarios are almost endless. All plausible. All catastrophic. All? For a group of people, no.
The Roman legions had a saying: Si vis pacem, para bellum (“If you want peace, prepare for war”). This is precisely the life motto of the preppers, a community increasingly consolidated in Spain whose members know how to act in different critical situations, are well-versed in survival techniques (for the countryside or the city), and have a safe space where they store, store, and store material so that—in case of— they do not depend on anyone. “Each one, according to their mentality and fear, prepares for one scenario or another,” confesses Patricio Villaescusa, a prepper and owner of a bunker, on behalf of a naturally foresighted collective.
Villaescusa does not see prepping as a passing trend. On the contrary. He claims that what he does “is common sense,” a replica of what our parents and grandparents did in times even harder than the current ones. “I am a primitive technology instructor and I teach how to do the things of everyday life,” he explains. His skills allow him to make preserves and ointments for wounds as well as to make fire with branches. He is by no means the only one who has taken this path. In fact, it is estimated that the largest prepper association in Spain already has more than 17,000 members, according to the College of Personal Defense Trainers. In reality, it is a drop in the ocean. Worldwide, there could already be more than 20 million preppers, with the United States leading. It was there that the modern version of prepping emerged in the mid-20th century, at the height of the Cold War against the Soviet Union. The fear of an atomic apocalypse caused by the Russians led thousands of citizens to build underground shelters and stockpile essential supplies and non-perishable goods in them.
Today, revitalized by the pandemic, spurred by the global instability conditions that have been hitting the planet in recent years, and by the flock of black swans that have fluttered over the Iberian Peninsula in this five-year period—from the Dana to the blackout—it is gaining supporters rapidly. Despite the looks of astonishment. “The population here in Spain lives without any concern. We have been through what we have been through, people got scared, went out en masse to buy toilet paper, and after three years they have gone back to the way things were before,” reflects the instructor. For him, the most hypothetical catastrophe is related to economic collapse, although he does not rule out social anarchy. “On the other hand, I see it very plausible that there will be another virus much more aggressive and lasting longer, or even a disaster in the economy,” points out Jorge Miñano, another prepper.
Despite its popularization, the Royal Spanish Academy still does not recognize the term, even though the culture of contingency has existed for a century. The primitive preppers emerged driven by fear. The supporters of extreme self-sufficiency focused their efforts on threats based on the socioeconomic and technological context of their time. The scarcity of resources caused by World War I (1914-1918), the collapse of health services associated with the outbreak of the so-called Spanish flu (1918), and the panic over massive unemployment, urban famines, and the devaluation of paper money brought by the Great Depression (1929) acted as triggers then.
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Villaescusa admits that not all scenarios present the same fatality rate, but they do demonstrate collective vulnerability to them. “Society itself is not as strong psychologically and physically as it was a few years ago. When a catastrophe arrives, we are very soft,” he denounces.
This is where José Luis Presa de Santos comes in, with his tough-guy aura, long and thick beard, and his dozen regulatory knives. “I never leave home without my backpack,” he says, animated, while showing his weapons imported from Ukraine. His backpack is more like a knapsack with all kinds of reserves. From four bottles of water, to batteries and—again—some weapon to use in case of emergency. And this is the one he has at hand daily, because he has others at home. But who is José Luis Presa? His résumé reads quickly: he previously worked in private security abroad and participated in armed conflicts; now he is something like the premium prepper. A Hispanic Arnold Schwarzenegger whom those most interested in improving their survival skills turn to.
Going to him literally takes more than an hour and a half by car from the Spanish capital towards the forest. Right, left, straight ahead and… cross-country, according to the coordinates he himself provides. A few steps ahead you can already see a goat skull on the main tent, the briefing one. In front of it appears another, in which he lived alone for more than seven months, or the training one (equipped with Airsoft weapons). All with their special decoration: from animal skulls to the national flag.
Presa arrives with his Mad Max-style SUV, his camouflage suits, his backpack—of course—and his eagerness to show the operations headquarters of 3KR Group, the veteran organization specialized in extreme survival training, of which he is instructor and director. “Today’s society wants to be John Rambo without going through John Rambo’s hardships. That doesn’t work. Then you’re just an Instagram John Rambo,” he interjects.
Presa is one of the greatest Spanish experts in prepping and bushcraft, although he prefers the term survivalism. And no, they are not synonyms. “The difference lies in the militarization of the matter. Survivalists are based on combat, on small control units. It is not the same to be a textbook prepper—the one who stockpiles cans and has a farm—than to have a group of five guys who know how to attack that place and take it over,” he points out. That is what he teaches at his camp, because preparation, he explains, is just as important as the huge stockpiling of water or toilet paper. He also opposes prepping that tries to sell the idea that the end of the world is near. To that and to millionaire bunkers as a way to face a catastrophe. “People sell fear, but the Apocalypse does not come all at once,” he confirms. “The collapse is what we are living today in Europe. Everything starts with insecurity, loss of purchasing power. Then comes the loss of trust in all political institutions and the degradation of infrastructures,” he enumerates.
Presa talks and shows his camp at the same time. He recalls the main advice for any aspiring prepper: “If you die, you cannot help your own; the basis is self-protection.” He has suggestions to give and share, as well as an endless dictionary with entries related to this lifestyle. Like the NBQR protocol, which is used to refer to nuclear, biological, or radiological accidents. Or The rule of three: “You cannot be three seconds with a bullet in your head, three minutes without breathing, three days without drinking water, and three weeks without eating.” But above all, he emphasizes the biggest mistake made by those starting in the field. “The problem is that people do not see their mistakes. I call them eusebios. The typical guy who has a shotgun with 1,000 cartridges and is eager to start shooting without training… That guy is a real danger.” Terms previously unknown are ceasing to be so. “There is a boom of people preparing. It is because of fear,” admits the prepper Miñano.
The line between foresighted and prepper is becoming blurred. The image of a tough guy holed up in a bunker waiting for an unprecedented catastrophe to strike the planet is no longer the standard profile. The 2026 prepper has no gender or age. “A nine-year-old girl came to the camp with her family and completed the exercises better than her father”, clarifies Presa. Miñano, for his part, explains that years ago this figure was much more defined. “They were military and people who came from the Army. Now there is everything: housewives, cooks, taxi drivers… People aged 30, 60, university students…,” he comments.
In short, the profile of a hypermuscular mercenary with a machine gun on his back should be left for 80s war movies. “We are talking about people who have families and want to have knowledge about security in case something happens,” confirms Adrián De la Cruz. He was a National Police officer for 10 years and now dedicates himself to teaching techniques and selling survival material. He clarifies the main dilemma when dealing with a national emergency. He, who lives alone in a shelter house that could withstand a “zombie apocalypse,” knows it better than anyone. “There are really only two ways to act. One is to stay at home and the other is to evacuate,” he summarizes.
To carry out a good emergency plan, he insists, the key is to have talked previously with the family. What in the field is known as PFE: Family Emergency Plan. “Having a meeting point, for example. Because storing objects is important, but knowing how to act is also important,” he emphasizes. Again, what should be done in case of emergency? The first step, of course, is to plan. A good shelter or backpack should always include water. “We live as if everything were unlimited, as if turning on the tap meant water was infinite. The reality is that it is the scarcest product,” completes the instructor. Non-perishable food is also necessary, as well as a tent, a gas stove, flashlights, candles, compass, lighter… We get the idea. This whole pack makes up what is called the 72-hour backpack, intended to ensure survival during that period of time.
Miñano also refers to the importance of joining other communities to cooperate: “Each one must assume a different role. The one who is alone does not survive,” he reminds. Nor does the one who has easily vulnerable mental health. “In the end, survival is totally Psychology. It is wanting to survive.” Because the 80% chance of achieving it, Villaescusa points out, is in one’s own head in dangerous situations. And that mentality is a muscle that must be trained. 3KR, Presa’s group, is clear about it: “Knowing how to make a tourniquet in 20 seconds while they shout at you and hit you can make the difference between life and death.”
The backpack prepared, the Contingency Plan ready… Only one flank would remain uncovered. What about the State agencies? Villaescusa lets slip that emergency bodies “are not obliged to save anyone.” “It was already proven in other crises in Spain: the one who is obliged to save themselves is oneself. Better to be prepared,” he reaffirms. Presa thinks the same: “In Spain we are alone. My survival depends entirely on me. Because there are many of us and the mentality of 90% of the Police is that of a civil servant: they are not going to get their hands dirty.”
Si vis pacem, para bellum. The preppers, those who draw backup plans for backup plans, follow the phrase to the letter. Because when life is at stake, surviving is the only option. How can you escape the end of the world? By training, planning, stockpiling. Preparing, in short. Presa sums it up graphically: “You only achieve it by going through hardship along the way. There is no other way. That’s how it is.”
