Campillo de Ranas, the town in ‘empty Spain’ where love became an industry The mayor of this municipality of 60 inhabitants in Guadalajara, a reference point for the LGBTQI+ community, explains the economic boom thanks to same-sex weddings but warns of new threats: neither rights nor relationships are guaranteed forever Saturday, August 10. In Campillo de Ranas, a village of 60 inhabitants in the province of Guadalajara, English, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, and Spanish are being spoken. There is a wedding at the Town Hall, where Diana Jiménez and Regina Valenzano are tying the knot.
Neither of them is from the village. Diana, 34, was born in Madrid, and Regina, 30, in Bari, southern Italy. Both work in the international cooperation sector, were looking for a place to celebrate the ceremony, discovered Campillo on the internet and a video call from this beautiful village of black architecture, because of the slate used on the houses, convinced them.
“The wedding,” Regina explains, “had to be in Spain because it is not allowed in my country.” The Socialist Party (PSOE) mayor, Francisco Maroto, who has been in office for 24 years, has already lost count of the couples he has united in his municipality. Campillo made the international press for staging more weddings than it has inhabitants, and the village has become an example — imitated by others — of how to begin to fill the so-called España vacía, or “ empty Spain .
” In Campillo de Ranas, love is an.