in the 1960s, Guitarte believes 40 years of state inaction in the democracy following Franco has meant it has not been reversed.

"Recently when I met the king, I reminded him how back when, as crown prince, he'd come to Teruel in 2000," he said. "We'd told him the region's biggest problems were depopulation and the lack of infrastructure.

"Nineteen years have passed and those problems become even more serious - and places like Teruel risk ending up completely empty."

Guitarte, whose own family left the region when he was aged 10 - "basically because they wanted us to live somewhere I could get some worthwhile academic qualifications, which was nearly impossible at the time in Teruel" - says one of Franco's ministers, Cruz Martinez Esteruelas, indicated the state's underlying intentionstowards his region back in 1974 when opening an education centre.

"He more or less said that if it was the destiny of the people of Teruel to emigrate to benefit other regions, we should at least get some schooling before we left.

The emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain Tomas Guitarte

"That's what's most scandalous - the emigration hasn't been natural, it was programmed, thanks to the state's lack of action, and despite Teruel's well-placed geographical location in the middle of Spain.

"That explains, too, why industrialisation back then took place on the Spanish coast, not inland in Teruel. After mining our natural resources, they shipped them away, in what was a