A propaganda newsreel on rural colonisation

In October 1939, just a few months after the end of the Civil War, the government created the National Colonization Institute (INC) within the Ministry of Agriculture. The new agency was part of the Francoist regime’s agrarian policy, which was directly inspired by Italian Fascism’s integral land reclamation policy (Bonifica Integrale). This consisted of the creation of almost 300 new villages within the country’s hydrographic basins and bringing irrigation to dry lands. In practice, this policy would benefit medium and large landowners more than the settlers.

The INC produced this propaganda film in 1949 to describe the existing situation in the countryside, explain colonization and its benefits, and highlight the generous and rational efforts of the state. The reality was very different. The selected settlers, about 40,000, were chosen for their political reliability, professional ability and for having large families. The house and the small plots they obtained were sold to them by the INC at an average annual interest of 5 per cent. Often when they arrived at new towns, they were either not built or the houses were unfinished, and the plots were in poor condition. Burdened by debts with the INC, during the early years their lives were very hard.

In the colonization villages, the traditional elites of rural society: the priest, the Civil Guard, the mayor and the local Falange leader, were joined by the representatives of the INC, the farm managers and the foremen. These technicians were charged with supervising the settlers, especially during the first five years of a new village’s life and ensuring that the settlers made the required payments in kind to the Institute. Together with segregated schools for boys and girls led by male and female teachers, they guaranteed a strict social control of the settlers and their families.

Many of the settlers showed acquiescence and consent towards the regime that had sold them things they had not had before. As with so many other aspects of the dictatorship, it was typical for settlers to hold feelings of both rejection and acceptance of various features of colonization, an experience marked by complexity and nuance.

GRR