Poverty and subsistence agriculture

In many of the more isolated areas of rural Spain a precarious kind of subsistence agriculture persisted well into the mid-20^th century. The men had to emigrate several months a year to get the money they could not get from the land. During those months of “swallow migration”, there and back, the women took charge of all agricultural labour including ploughing.

Already by the 60s and 80s of the 20^th century permanent emigration to cities had increased, where large ghettos grew in the suburbs, while the rural areas became depopulated as is still happening now in underprivileged countries.