MATAVENERO, EL PUEBLO ARCO IRIS

The village of Matavenero, in the north of Spain, was gradually abandoned during the twentieth century. While local inhabitants left the village in search of a better life in northern Europe, a group of incoming migrants from the Rainbow movement moved in the opposite direction, leaving behind the rhythm of modern urban societies for a more consciously natural, agrarian mode of living. Thus Matavenero experienced a renaissance throughout the 1980s, playing host to a new and ethnically diverse cohort of migrants' committed to the principles of ecological living.