The third vertex of the Latinx triangle: Latin America and the repopulation of rural Spain

Abstract

In the 1980s, a significant number of Latin Americans began moving to urban centers in the Iberian peninsula. These arrivals grew exponentially. By 2022, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela each had more than 100,000 citizens in Spain. While cities have been the most visible poles of attraction for Latin American immigration, small towns have also witnessed the arrival of Latin Americans. Rural Spain, commonly known as “empty Spain,” had been shrinking and waning in silence for decades, due to an aging population and the migration of young adults to the cities. In 2021 Spain’s central government started to speak of migration as a solution for depopulation, but this proposal’s origins date further back. In 2000 the local government of Aguaviva, a small town in Teruel, decided to bring back life to “empty Spain” by inviting Argentinian families to settle there in exchange for employment and housing. Since then, many more towns have followed suit. The documentary Aguaviva: La vida en tres maletas (2004, “Aguaviva: Life in Three Suitcases”), directed by Verónica Marchiaro and Mario Burbano, offers the story of this first rural repopulation. A close look at the diverse lived experiences portrayed in the documentary, and its different points of views on hospitality, can help guide current conversations on repopulation.