A BABY born in a Segovia-province village has caused euphoria among locals – his is the first birth in Puebla de Pedraza since 1977.
Yerai is only just over two weeks old, but when he grows up, he will almost certainly learn how he has made history – and probably saved his village from extinction.
Puebla de Pedraza, in the sparsely-populated centre-northern region of Castilla y León, has just 46 inhabitants, and the average age of the population is 70.
No children have been born there in 43 years.
Rural Spain is gradually becoming empty, since working-age inhabitants move closer to larger towns or cities to get jobs, and if they decide to have children, they need to be near enough to schools and health centres and communities of other kids for their youngsters to have somebody to play with.
This means the majority of residents in small, remote villages are retired, and it is feared that within a generation or two, could become completely empty.
For this reason, Spain's government is seeking ways to create employment in the countryside and looking into setting up grant schemes to fund local services such as internet and phone lines – often absent in villages with a population count in two figures, given that telecommunications companies would not get a return on their investment if they set up infrastructure in these.
Rural tourism could prove the saviour – remote provinces thrive when they have something to offer visitors, such as Teruel in Aragón which lives largely off skiing in winter, but has to work hard to promote walking tours and other activities in spring, summer and autumn to keep working-age adults living there year-round.
At present, though, Spain's birth rate has fallen to its lowest since 1941, and the government recognises policies are urgently needed to encourage child-bearing.
Meanwhile, Yerai and other babies like him are treated as little local miracles – the infant became a village celebrity before his mum had even given birth.
Local newspaper El Adelantado published the above photograph of Yerai Moreno Galicia after interviewing mum Sandra, from nearby Cuéllar, and dad Javier, from Rebollo, who now live in Puebla de Pedraza.
