Lake Effects Transnational History and the Making of a Valencian Landscape By Sarah R. Hamilton A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (History) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Dario Gaggio, Co-Chair Associate Professor Douglas Northrop, Co-Chair Professor Gabrielle Hecht Adjunct Professor Richard Tucker If the Albufera is not cared for it will disappear, but its disappearance will not cause anything else to happen. There will not be any geological cataclysm; nor any sort of catastrophe, or anything like that. Moreover, the physical destiny of the Albufera is that it will disappear. The lake, abandoned to itself, with no sort of attacks upon it or any efforts to care for it, is irretrievably condemned to disappearance. But this is the fate of any historical or artistic monument. Every building, for example, is condemned to disappearance, just as the construction of extinguished civilizations disappeared, and just as little by little the castles, chapels and monasteries lost in the Spanish geography are disappearing, important victims of carelessness, theft, and hooliganism. Restoration work is undertaken in order to alleviate this inexorable fate as much as possible. This is why any monument or work of economic or cultural interest is object of a permanent guarding and conservation that will allow such legacies of our parents to pass to our children. There is no explanation, then, for the abandonment and pillage that an area of scenic and cultural interest such as the Albufera has undergone. We have a responsibility to our descendants that this patrimony is not lost; that the cultural wealth of the Albufera, in the broadest sense of the word, passes intact to the generations to come. from José Manuel Benet Granell, “La Albufera de Valencia: Datos para una política de soluciones,” Revista de Obras Públicas, February-March 1983, 179. Copyright 2013 Sarah R. Hamilton All rights reserved Dedication To the farmers, scientists, administrators, and activists who helped me understand the Albufera, and to the eels, who made me want to. ii Acknowledgements I am extraordinarily grateful to all of my interviewees, and especially to the many Valencians who went far beyond my expectations in their generosity and enthusiasm for this project. Victor Navarro, Guillermo de Felipe, and the rest of the gang at Acció Ecologista-Agró offered endless assistance and companionship, as well as access to their extensive documentary collection on post-Franco environmental movements. Ricardo Martínez offered early encouragement and considerable help sorting through maps at the city planning office, adding his personal files and ideas as the project took shape. Maria Consuelo Reyna also contributed both memories and a substantial personal collection of clippings, reports, photos, and memorabilia, while Vicente Ramón Quiros and Miguel Ramón Quiros gave me full access to their father’s papers and offered context for what I was looking at. Pepe Segarra provided an informative tour of Sueca and introduced me to several contacts in the farming community. Sergio Carbo repeatedly welcomed me into the AVA press office and assisted not only with document retrieval but also with a big-picture perspective on contemporary farming in Valencia. Three individuals in particular profoundly changed the way I approached this project and warrant special mention. Miguel Minguet was my first contact in the Valencian farming community and, over an outstanding paella made from rice grown on his family lands, made me rethink my assumptions about the relationship between farmers and the park. Francisco Pérez Puche maintained an extended correspondence with me throughout my research, and his iii introductions opened doors to many sources I could not otherwise have obtained. And Joan Miquel Benavent sacrificed countless hours over the years to give me an extremely thorough guided tour of the Albufera Natural Park, from the Muntanyeta de Sans in the south to the Pinedo canals in the north, and through all the hidden corners in between. His scientific expertise, personal experience, and good humor were high points of my visits. I am also deeply grateful for the friendship of my extended Spanish family. I want to thank the entire Peña-Chimeno clan for welcoming me into their homes, and especially Gema, without whose frenetic energy and cheerful companionship I would have gone completely crazy. Paco Sánchez Aguado’s unrelenting enthusiasm for life and encouragement in all things has been an inspiration for many years, and it is to him that I owe much of my interest in the Spanish environment. Finally, I want to thank the stateside colleagues, friends, and family who have gotten me through grad school. My eclectic committee pushed me in all the right directions to make this project the best it could be. Dario Gaggio was right when he told me I needed more people and less politics. Doug Northrop got me into this whole world history mess in the first place, for which I am eternally grateful. Gabrielle Hecht made me rethink my approach to STS and challenged me to think more deeply about the stories I had found. Richard Tucker was my touchstone for environmental historiography and positive thinking. I am forever grateful to Minayo Nasiali, Rebecca Wall, Gene, Sara, and Rosemarie Cassidy, Trevor Kilgore, and Patrick Parker for six years of friendship, commiseration, and good times. My parents, Leslie and Larry Hamilton, offered constant love and support as well as sharp editing skills and statistical expertise. Finally, Ritch Melton tolerated my frequent lectures on eels and agricultural subsidies and kept me grounded in the real world, perhaps the most challenging task of all. iv Table of Contents Dedication ....................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ iii Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................. vi Table of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................ viii Introduction. Sedimentary Histories of a Valencian Landscape ..................................................... 1 Chapter One. Building a Spanish Landscape ................................................................................ 25 Chapter Two. National Regeneration and Valencian Irrigation ................................................... 53 Chapter Three. Environmentalism and the Environment Under Franco ...................................... 74 Chapter Four. “El Saler for the People”: Tourism, Development, and Environmental Activism in the Late Franco Period ................................................................................................................ 100 Chapter Five. The Albufera Natural Park: Regionalism and Europeanization in the post-Franco era, 1975-1989 ............................................................................................................................ 140 Chapter Six. A View from the Rice Fields: Conservation with Common Sense ....................... 164 Chapter Seven. “The Park is a Complete Disaster”: Crisis and Compromise in the 1990s ....... 185 Chapter Eight. Spanish Water Policy, the European Union, and Resource Conflicts on the Júcar River ............................................................................................................................................ 219 Epilogue. Rebuilding the Albufera in a Changed World ............................................................ 251 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 261 v Table of Figures Figure 1: Situating a transnational microhistory ............................................................................. 3 Figure 2: Early irrigation projects in Valencia. ............................................................................ 31 Figure 3: Tancat construction in the early twentieth century. ...................................................... 35 Figure 4: Changing perimeter of the Albufera lake, 1761-1970. .................................................. 36 Figure 5: Rice farmers and fishermen working in the Albufera in the prewar years. ................... 38 Figure 6: Rice-growing towns of the Horta and Ribera Baixa. .................................................... 41 Figure 7: Joaquín Sorolla, “Couples on Horseback (Valencia)” .................................................. 46 Figure 8: The Spanish Hydrographic Confederations .................................................................. 64 Figure 9: Pardo’s 1933 Plan for the Levante ................................................................................ 65 Figure 10: Booklet produced by “AEORMA Team 3” opposing development on the Dehesa, 1975. ...................................................................................................................................... 94 Figure 11: Development in Cullera. ............................................................................................ 103 Figure 12: Four views of the Dehesa ca. 1963. ..........................................................................