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A poor corner of Spain, transformed by Europe

AFP, Caminomorisco, Spain
IN the 1930s the Spanish district of Las Hordes was a case study in rural poverty, immortalised by the filmmaker Luis Bunuel in his bleak documentary ’Land Without Bread".
But residents in this remote comer of the southwestern Extremadura region say it was saved by Spain joining the European Union - and now its leaders are anxious to translate that into votes in the European elections on May 25.
"This is nothing like the Las Hurdes of Bunuel," said local parish priest Angel Luis Lorenzo, pointing to the well-made slate roofs of the nearby houses. "Everything has changed. Look at the buildings. The people are more open, the roads are better."
For the classic film director, Las Hurdes was a "sterile" land—one of the poorest in a country on the fringes of Europe under the dictator Francisco Franco.
But Franco's death in 1975 and most of all Spain's accession to the European Union in 1986 changed all that. Locals here are still grateful to the far-away bureaucrats in Brussels.
"During the dictatorship we were
totally abandoned," said Gervasio Martin, the Socialist mayor of one of the main villages in the district, Caminomorisco, with a population of 1,400.
"Today we are proud to be a normal district, like any another," he added, largely "thanks to European funds".
Spain has received 300 billion euros ($410 billion) in aid from the European Union since joining.
The Spanish government estimates that seven percent of this has gone to developing Extremadura, a relatively small region of about a million inhabitants.
That helped partly reverse the exodus of young people who for generations had been leaving Las Hurdes in search of opportunities elsewhere.
"I got tired of Madrid so I came back here," said Soraya Conde, a 31-year-old town councillor, out putting up campaign posters for the European elections with other Socialist Party activists.
In the late 1990s, with EU funding, Las Hurdes got its first public high school.
"We were the first ones who were able to stay here for high school, instead of leaving at the age of 14," said a fellow campaigner, Noelia Martin, 31.