“La España vacía. Viaje por un país que nunca fue” by Sergio Del Molino y “Los últimos. Voces de la Laponia española” by Paco Cerdà

Abstract

In this text it is a discussion on the media hatching of the phenomenon of depopulation in rural Spain. The outbreak has taken place through various publications, mainly in the form of essays and novels, television and radio programmes and political initiatives. We have chosen two texts, probably those that have "lit the fuse", La España vacía. Viaje por un país que nunca fue by Sergio del Molino and Los Últimos. Voces de Laponia española by Paco Cerdá to analyze and reflect on the approach that prevails in these books. Our aim is to try to understand the phenomenon of rural depopulation as one more element of capitalist and post-capitalist development, and of demographic evolution, emphasizing the rational logic of this dynamic but without avoiding the probable erosion that can occur in our cultural heritage if the processes, which describe scientific and popular literature, culminate in the "real" disappearance of many of these small peoples. Our approach is based on the discussion of the inevitability of population reduction in rural localities and on the possible consequences that this decrease may have.