Depopulation can be a serious problem – ultimately, a shrinking community can’t maintain its services. But asylum seekers are bringing ghost villages back to life
Walther Valbuena, a journalist and drag artist, had to leave Colombia. His best friend, a trans woman, had been murdered by a former lover who wanted to get his hands on their apartment. “My only crime was being her friend,” he says. “I was shot in the leg. When I went to the police, they dismissed it, saying it’s not serious. I explained that I was shot at during a robbery and they said, no, it was because you’re a maricón [poof].”
Valbuena, 37, is from Cali, which he describes as “the capital of salsa”; he now finds himself in the more sedate surroundings of Campdevànol, a village of 3,200 people in the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees, as a pioneer in the programme Comunitats Rurals Queer.
Continue reading… Depopulation can be a serious problem – ultimately, a shrinking community can’t maintain its services. But asylum seekers are bringing ghost villages back to lifeWalther Valbuena, a journalist and drag artist, had to leave Colombia. His best friend, a trans woman, had been murdered by a former lover who wanted to get his hands on their apartment. “My only crime was being her friend,” he says. “I was shot in the leg. When I went to the police, they dismissed it, saying it’s not serious. I explained that I was shot at during a robbery and they said, no, it was because you’re a maricón [poof].”Valbuena, 37, is from Cali, which he describes as “the capital of salsa”; he now finds himself in the more sedate surroundings of Campdevànol, a village of 3,200 people in the foothills of the Catalan Pyrenees, as a pioneer in the programme Comunitats Rurals Queer. Continue reading… Spain, LGBTQ+ rights, Europe, Refugees, Migration, Depopulation, France, Life and style, Society
