The Almerian Revolution

One farmer´s response to the suggestion that Moroccan workers have fueled the "Almerian Miracle" -- a revolution in intensive farming involving the "green gold" of plastic roofing to increase temperatures. From Ian Gibson´s forward to El Ejido: la ciudad-cortijo
(my translation) (Alpujarra - a region of Spain South of Granada. Poniente -- district including El Ejido and a few other small cities).

"´You´re going to tell me that what I have I owe to the the Moors? Come on hombre, after everything I suffered?... Where were the Moors then? Come on hombre, and with us, the majority.´

This is true. If the self-exploitation of the Alpujarrian families 30 years ago has become exploitation of foreign manual labor, if misery and an economy of subsistence have now turned to riches, if from being a peon many have gone on to be the owners of corporations, something massive must have occured in the entire Almerian region of Poniente." (p. 16)

"But the Poniente can only be understood with regards to the first immigration of (Spanish) alpujarreños, mountain farmers who descended to the coasts of the sea; these were the farmers who, with their effort and sacrifice, with virtually no outside support, began to construct over the course of years the "sea of plastic" which today characterizes the region (with the greatest concentration of greenhouses in all of Europe)." (p.21)