MIAMI, United States. – Some 18 Cuban migrants with Spanish nationality, including minors and a baby of a few months, joined the “Zamora Challenge”, a pilot project of the Junta de Castilla y León to repopulate small Spanish settlements, according to various media reports from the Peninsula.
“We want to repopulate all these towns that are so in need of our help, collaborate in their economic and social growth,” said to The Spanish Drisis Montero, one of the Cuban immigrants recently arrived in the Iberian country.
“We have come to the land of our ancestors, our grandfather and our great-grandfather. It is something very exciting to know that one day they made a very long journey to America and today we are returning here”, explained the Cuban.
The “Zamora Challenge” seeks to reverse the aging process and population decline that affects many predominantly rural municipalities in Spain.
In accordance with The Spanish, The Junta de Zamora covers the transportation expenses of immigrants with Spanish nationality and their families to the Iberian country, and provides housing solutions in the province. During the first three months, it also covers the accommodation costs, including rent, and provides additional support to facilitate the full integration of immigrants and their families.
Three Cuban families also recently arrived in the Spanish municipality of Paredes de Nava thanks to the “Arraigo Project”, another of the initiatives that seek to revitalize rural areas and promote population growth. According to statements by the mayor of Paredes, Luis Calderón, cited by the media The North of Castileit is an “organized and humanized movement”.
Two of the Cuban immigrants who arrived in Paredes de Nava already have arranged job interviews in the social and health sector, the same media reported. In addition, they have a rehabilitated house that the Consistory gives them and that is fully equipped for their beginnings.
Both projects, both in Zamora and Paredes de Nava, offer a new exit door from the Island, which lives one of its worst crisesand an opportunity for Cuban immigrants to start a new life in Spain.
