They met in Granada, where she was learning flamenco in the Sacromonte neighborhood.
They lived in Switzerland, where he studied jazz at the Lausanne conservatory.
They toured the south of France together in a caravan and a show that combined music and dance.
Until fate took Irene Guillén, 38, and Gabriel Kisfaludy, 40, to Faraján (Málaga, 270 inhabitants), one of the towns in the Genal Valley, between the Serranía de Ronda and the Costa del Sol. With two children, this nomadic couple has put down roots.
And it represents the hope of a region that is bleeding.
“Depopulation is our big problem,” says Isabel Vázquez, mayor of Igualeja, with 729 residents, 238 less than 20 years ago, who emphasizes that it is as important (and difficult) to attract new neighbors as it is to get those born here to stay.
This territory is home to 15 municipalities spread across chestnut, pine and holm oak forests.
Only two have more than a thousand inhabitants.
And up to eight have less than 300 inhabitants.
The vast majority loses population.
After suffering the rural exodus in the middle of the last century, the downward trend does not stop.
There are barely 7,600 people left, more than a thousand fewer—15%—than 20 years ago.
It is a great contrast compared to the province's overall population, which has gained 350,000 residents in the same period, leading the national increase after the pandemic.
With the capital in flux and the coast immersed in accelerated growth, in the Genal Valley no one is very clear about how to gain neighbors or how to retain those who remain.
City councils, the Provincial Council, foundations and the University of Malaga are promoting programs to achieve this – from improving roads to creating a center for digital nomads, rental aid or agricultural training for young people – with limited success.
The shortage of health, financial, social or public transport services does not help.
Neither does the mentality of many families, who consider it a failure for their children to stay in the town: success is in the city.
The Malaga town of Júzcar.PACO PUENTES
Irene and Gabriel fled from there.
A five-hectare farm next to a river and a half-ruined house were the arguments to convince them that they had a place in Faraján.
That was a decade ago, in which they have rehabilitated the house while working here and there.
Guillén even opened a bar in 2020, which he is now saying goodbye to.
“The business works, but the hospitality industry is very hard.
I didn't come to the valley to miss raising my children.
Now it's time for another stage,” explains the restless young woman, born in Lorca (Murcia).
In an interesting conversation—interrupted only by her constant greetings to her neighbors—she highlights the authenticity of life in the villages, the tranquility, the wisdom of the elders.
She happily reports that they already make her own oil.
They are small pleasures that collide with a complex reality, such as the hour and a half daily bus ride that her daughter needs to get to and from school—25 kilometers along a winding road and several stops—or the lack of services.
Whether it is the absence of a cashier, the traveling doctor or the only visit a week from the fishmonger.
These repopulators want to shape an organic farming project, but they have also promoted a theater project with another new repopulator, Raquel Subirana.
A 34-year-old Barcelonan, she lives ten minutes away, in Júzcar (247 inhabitants), the blue village that has lived off the Smurfs since 2011 and one of the exceptions: she has gained 22 residents in the last five years.
The work is called Errantes and tells the journey of the gypsy world.
They have already represented it in schools in the area with success.
“Here you have to undertake no matter what to get ahead,” explains the Catalan, who landed in Valle del Genal from Mallorca in November 2021 to participate in volunteer work.
The project did not work, but her studies in Social Education and the validation of her circus training as a Senior Animation Technician in Physical and Sports Activities helped her find a place teaching extracurricular activities in two schools in the region.
His contract recently ended.
“They call me crazy for living alone in such a small town, but here I have all the freedom in the world and I am happy.
In the long term I only doubt because there is a lack of young people.
At the level of mental health you need to interact with people your same age and here there are hardly any,” she says.
“And if I decide to be a single mother, for example, consider the plan: without a doctor, with a bus that only passes in the morning… that does not give peace of mind to stay,” she adds.
Aerial view of the Malaga town of Alpandeire.PACO PUENTES
“The mistreatment of rural people is amazing”
Some of these towns are nestled in a valley connected by narrow and winding roads.
Others are better connected, which is why Madrid-born Óscar Gómez (45 years old) and Venezuelan Natasha Milincic (33 years old) chose Parauta (272 inhabitants) to live from December 2022. It is just 15 minutes from Ronda and 45 from Marbella, where This couple lived suffocated by a “golden” city.
Now they can afford a home—they pay 400 euros in rent—and enjoy a quieter life.
They carry out work along the coast and have opened the only grocery store in the municipality.
“My son is very happy at school: there are only 15 children and the attention is personalized,” celebrates someone who has enjoyed the Parauta boom since the opening of the so-called Enchanted Forest two years ago.
It is a trail with wooden sculptures and fairy figures that attracts thousands of people every weekend.
“It has been a revolution: it has brought more young people and work has increased,” says the mayor, Katrin Ortega, who does not stop inventing projects.
“Each town has a different situation, but it would be great if we all came together, looked for common needs and focused there,” proposes her counterpart from Igualeja, Isabel Vázquez, only 29 years old.
The desire, commitment and capacity of each councilor also mark the municipal future.
They are there for everything and not everyone can take on such a workload.
Some do it alone: even the councilors live outside.
“We barely have support.
Those of us who are functioning are due to overexertion,” says Miguel Ángel Herrera.
He is mayor of Genalguacil (393 inhabitants), today converted into a museum town after 30 years of art meetings.
It is one of the most dynamic places in the area despite its isolation: its connection with the Costa del Sol – an hour away – was not completely paved until 2017. Herrera is also one of the most combative voices in the region.
With indignation he lists multiple problems to retain the population, such as the existence of a single ambulance for the entire valley.
“There is much more: for example, to get the DNI we have to go to Ronda, an hour away.
"Are we second-class citizens?" asks the councilor, embarked on the search for European funds to finance projects such as the one that analyzes the laws that negatively impact empty regions.
“The mistreatment of rural people is amazing,” he insists.
Natasha Milincic and Óscar Gómez, in the Malaga town of Parauta, on January 24, 2024. PACO PUENTES
Herrera, however, is optimistic.
“If we continue generating the favorable ecosystem, people will come and those here will stay,” he assures.
He has a good example nearby.
“María José daughter of Manoli”, as she appears in her phone book.
This is María José González, 20 years old.
She was born in the town and left to study first an intermediate degree in Pharmacy and then a higher degree in the Manufacturing of pharmaceutical, biochemical and related products.
Given the increase in rent prices in the city of Malaga, she saw herself sharing a flat, hopefully, until she was 30. Just when she finished her training, one of the restaurants in the town closed.
She saw her opportunity to start a business, because her mother is a cook and would help her.
She now runs El Refugio, where she serves meat salmorejo or ratatouille with egg.
“I'm very happy,” she says, convinced of staying in her town.
“Sometimes all you need is a little support to get started.
Not only economically, it also helps to make settling here easier for outsiders,” says Rubén Muñoz, 33 years old, who studies the quality of life of older people in Alpandeire (266 inhabitants) thanks to the Metapueblos project, promoted by the Malaga Provincial Council and intended for people who want to start an activity in rural areas.
Like him, while he is writing the report, he acts as a cultural manager, promotes a company that offers excursions and offers home barbering.
Beyond the scarcity of public services, Muñoz explains that the local population must also do their part to welcome those who arrive.
Not only because of distrust of outsiders, but also because there are numerous empty houses, but almost no one wants to rent to people they don't know.
“And so how is it repopulated?” the young man asks.
“You have to open your mind,” responds Irene Guillén.
“Because if more people don't come, these towns will go to waste,” concludes she, who sees a good future in the Genal Valley for her children.
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