ciadoncha; ¡cuántos recuerdos - Webpages at SCU - Santa Clara ...

Children playing in the new school during the 1970s.
Photo provided by Federico Varona
Historic Context
According to Juliá, who consummated the administrative reform and approved the plan
of stabilization, the Spanish economy seemed equipped to clear the door toward a growth
of intense and maintained rhythm. During the government’s crisis of 1962, the
Comisaría del Plan de Desarrollo (the precinct of the development plan) came up with a
project that stimulated private investment through a mixture of indicative politics and
public investments. That first Plan of 1964 was followed by two more, until in 1973 the
Comisaría (Precinct) was transformed into a new Ministry that was extinguished with the
death of Franco.
The process of industrialization induced a movement of unprecedented
population: hundreds of thousands of Spaniards abandoned their place of birth and
residence and began to fill the trains that went to the large capitals, to the industrial areas,
or to France, Swiss, or Germany.
The interior emigration had more scope thant the outside emigration. Without
counting those younger than ten years, the total number of Spaniards that changed their
place of residence during the decade of 1960 surpassed 4.5 million, of which 2.6
abandoned the province where they resided. Slightly more than one million and a half
left municipalities of less than 10,000 inhabitants, which experienced a permanent
draining. This gigantic exodus reinforced the demographic weight of the Madrid-
Barcelona-Bilbao triangle, the growth of the coastal zones and the depopulation of the
central plateaus, while Extremadura, the two Castillas and some Andalusian provinces
suffered notable losses.
Ciadoncha reflects what happened throughout the rest of the country because little
by little it was left without any children and the schools were left empty until they
became closed. Then during the 1990s, there were so few children in Ciadoncha that
they had to go to the school of Santa María.
131