[Politics] Why this rebel rural community in north-east Spain is fighting back against wind farms

[FazzNoth]

Vicente’s parents are no longer alive, but in the small, stone town of Calaceite on a remote Aragonese hillside, he still vividly remembers their stories. Vicente is 83.

 

He remembers how they talked of the Spanish Civil War, of the green-uniformed fascists, of the militia, of how their native language - a mix of Catalan and Spanish known locally as chapureáo - was outlawed by Franco. How in order to handicap the Republican resistance, the dictator banned communities from living in the countryside.

For modern Spain, this was the first real drive of people to urban spaces, a drive which continues today and has led vast swathes of rural Spain to be stripped of what were formerly thriving, sustainable communities.

This is what is now referred to as España Vacía, or Empty Spain.

Vicente remembers how his parents and their friends continued to speak chapureáo at home, to teach their children their personal histories, to read Federico García Lorca in secret, to keep their lives, memories and values alive underground.

What Vicente is remembering, of course, is his people’s cultural legacy of resistance.

                       ‘Empty Spain’

Calaceite is in the Matarranya region of Teruel, a state which a decade ago was forced to remind the rest of Spain it was still there by running a marketing campaign called Teruel SI Existe (Teruel DOES Exist).

Teruel forms a broader part of the region of Aragon, and is comfortably the least po[CENSORED]ted state in Spain, known predominantly for black olives (Aragonesas), olive oil and almond production - as well as for the fact that nobody goes there.

This region is certainly an extreme example of modern depo[CENSORED]tion, but it is by no means alone, with an estimated 90 per cent of the territory of Spain having suffered a mass exodus of po[CENSORED]tion in the middle of the twentieth century. Accompanying this vast internal movement, for cost-benefit reasons governments subsequently cut services and resources to these rural areas, an act which in turn drove more people to the cities, and continues to do so.

This region is certainly an extreme example of modern depo[CENSORED]tion, but it is by no means alone, with an estimated 90 per cent of the territory of Spain having suffered a mass exodus of po[CENSORED]tion in the middle of the twentieth century. Accompanying this vast internal movement, for cost-benefit reasons governments subsequently cut services and resources to these rural areas, an act which in turn drove more people to the cities, and continues to do so.

To the industrial, holistic eye of government mechanics, these rural areas are now empty of society - a kind of terra nullius, and must be made to contribute to the national economy in other ways. Perhaps the biggest window of opportunity seen by successive governments across the political spectrum has been to open up these territories for the development of vast wind farm complexes.

The truth is, however, that Empty Spain is not empty at all, and continues to house historic communities across its territory, many of which have now developed themselves into models of local, sustainable economies - communities which in the national debate are struggling to get their voices heard.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.euronews.com/green/amp/2021/12/30/why-rebel-rural-community-north-east-spain-fighting-against-wind-farms