Curiosity solved choosing a theme for a class assignment. The subject Cyberjournalism of the degree in Journalism at the University of Valladolid (UVa) involved a cybermedia project to develop the informative treatment of an issue, whatever it was. Yago Costoya and Rubén Aparicio, 20 years old, and Andrés Barreiro, 22, took the lead. What caught their attention?, they thought. The solution, on the road: those names of unknown towns, signposted on highway detours. The kids jumped in and discovered that rural world so often ignored by them and their generation. Thus they found decadent or exciting localities, a mixture that they try to explain in Rural Silence, a digital space that received the highest grade in the subject and was very exciting for university students. The authors want to maintain it to continue spreading, through TikTokInstagram, YouTube and a website, what's outside the cities.
The trio has become a quartet thanks to the signing of Diego Carreras, 20, attracted by his teammates' emphasis on taking advantage of gaps in the calendar to visit new municipalities. The four of them walk through small San Pelayo, whose 45 census-takers would fit comfortably in the UVa classrooms. Their fashionable sports shoes, thick feather coats and hair styled on the sides contrast with the customs and traditions of municipalities like this one, although no neighbor shows up to contrast the style. The place shocked them, surprised when they arrived and found colorful murals on the classic adobe walls. Girls playing soccer, a woman with African features, an old woman in a traditional house and more drawings adorned the charming San Pelayo, nestled between the gentle hills of the Montes Torozos. “San Pelayo helped us see something different and optimistic, instead of just seeing old houses there was hope, colors, murals and local initiatives,” describes Costoya, although the town also suffers from sunken and empty houses.
The tours to support the work of Cyberjournalism through Villavieja del Cerro, Velilla, San Martín de Valvení, Aguasal, Torrecilla de la Torre, along with the unpopulated La Granja de San Andrés and Honquilana, showed conventional rural scenes: few people, a lot of pessimism, decay and little strength to resurrect. The audiovisual contents have been accompanied by documentation on the demographic and sociological evolution of the province, tending to accumulate in Valladolid while its surroundings are emptied, including nuclei that were once the head of the region and with economic muscle.
The scenario changed in San Pelayo, where they arrived walking from Torrecilla de la Torre, since there was no direct bus and they did not have a car. On their way back, a colleague picked them up. Rural life and its imbalances. The satisfied mayor, Elisa Cerrillo, of Valladolid Toma La Palabra, values the affection received by the university students, who opted for her domains because they knew the festival Four cats, because despite the depopulation, concerts, meetings and cultural events are organized in the summer, well-regarded by dozens of attendees. “They came on a winter day during the week, already dark, not in summer, when things are very different, and they liked it anyway,” says the councilor, whose three children make up the entire local child population. Cerrillo has explained to them unprecedented scenarios in the city, such as depending on the car for any purchase, the difficulties in finding available housing and settling in the countryside, the slowness of public procedures or how their children end up scattered around the area to go to school or extracurricular classes.
What affects the most is what happens closest. So you don't miss anything, subscribe.
Subscribe
The students have certain personal ties to rurality and something sounded familiar to them, although there are aspects that also shock them. Barreira comes from La Valgoma, a village in El Bierzo (León) and the signing Carreras is from Tordesillas (Valladolid), with a certain poise but also aware of the progressive demographic punishment. The walks through the half-empty streets, at first, shook Aparicio: “Who do we talk to if there is no one there?” Little by little they located inhabitants and, after gaining their trust despite the initial Castilian suspicion, they received hospitality and stories from other times: “In Molpeceres they told us that the doctor rode down a hill with the medicines”.
So many little battles, some of them negative and others more exciting, are finding acceptance among their friends. “We are getting a lot of followers and views on TikTok!” celebrates the quartet, as many of their contemporaries had no idea about rural complexities. “The short and visual content attracts a lot of attention, some did not even know that depopulation was a problem and we are raising awareness, we want to give a voice to those who do not have one because there is always something to tell,” argue the members of Silencio Rural. The teacher, Pilar Álvarez, gave them the highest grade and they have decided to continue with the initiative, taking gaps in a not too demanding degree in Journalism to continue cultivating this genuine and unexpected interest not so long ago. The university students went to Madrid a few weeks ago to listen to the farmers mobilized with their tractors and continue learning about this scenario from other points of view, also honing their skills at street level.
Lately they have visited the also ghostly Salto de Castro (Zamora) and the Valladolid Molpeceres and La Santa Espina. Castilla y León has 2,248 municipalities, so they still have work to do if they want to continue reporting on all of them. At the moment, they are already planning a small documentary… also commissioned by another Journalism subject. Everything is to optimize efforts with stimulating reasons.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#uni #adobe #TikTok #rural #silence