Although it is true that the rains of recent months have raised the level of reservoir water in Spain to 70% of its capacity (39,690 hm3), the truth is that at the end of 2017 the hydraulic reserve was at 37% of its capacity total and the expression pertinacious drought was heard again in our country . This expression became very famous in the early years of the Franco regime, when a very harsh period of drought between 1944 and 1954 was added to the hardships typical of the post-war period. With the level of the swamps around 14% of their capacity, many restrictions had to be applied in the supply of both water and electricity. Without a doubt, this endemic evil of our country was the origin of the construction of numerous swamps in Franco's time.
[…] It is very easy to rebuild and recover when economic aid of all kinds rains down! But we have not only lacked those economic benefits, but -mystery of Providence, which knows how far hard-working peoples resist!- we have seen our lands thirsty and our swamps almost empty due to the persistent drought, which has reduced our capacity production to unprecedented extremes. If we have enough will to work and we know how to level roads and build gigantic dams and canals, we cannot, however, make the clouds discharge at our whim. [...] (Franco's speech at Christmas 1954 )
In a society governed and directed by the dictator and the Church, it was logical that priests and nuns lend a hand in putting an end to the pertinacious drought with anti-drought prayers and taking the saints out into the street (I suppose because of the saying that "water is a gift from God"). Although sometimes there was a lack of faith, like when that priest told the parishioners about him...
Brothers, I told you that faith moves mountains, but I see that you do not have enough faith. We have come to ask the Lord for rain and none of you have brought an umbrella.
Worse were the religious and parishioners in the town of Castañas, in the state of Chiapas (Mexico), in 1883 when they suffered the pertinacious drought . Faced with the terrible drought that the town suffered and it seems that following to the letter "water is a gift from God", the mayor published this edict:
Considering that the Supreme Creator has not behaved well with this town once that in the whole of the previous year there has only been one downpour and that this winter it has not rained and, consequently, the chestnut harvest of which depends on the people, I decree the following:
1st.- That if it does not rain abundantly within eight days, no one will go to mass or pray.
2nd.- If the drought lasts eight more days, the chapels will be burned and the missals and rosaries of the town were destroyed.
3rd.- If it did not rain either the following week or the week after that, the friars and nuns would be burned, and pious and holy men beaten up. As for the present, license is granted to commit all kinds of sins and so that the Supreme Maker knows and understands once and for all who he will have to deal with in the future.
I suppose that the residents of Castañas had more sense than their mayor since there was no news in the following weeks of the burning of churches or priests... or perhaps the long-awaited downpour fell.
Source and images:Learn from the past – José Manuel Pina Piquer, Newspaper Library La Vanguardia