The poor diet and general lack of hygiene meant that goiter, pellagra, parasitic worms and other, sometimes repulsive, diseases were common.

"[3] There was also no literacy in Las Hurdes owing to the harsh living conditions, as well as the distances and travel difficulties involved in reaching the closest centres of learning.

[7] As the centuries went by other Spanish writers would follow, casting Las Hurdes as a "bad and hidden place", thereby adding to the myth, the prejudice and the horrified fascination.

Even some serious chroniclers, like Pascual Madoz in his "Diccionario Geografico Estadistico-Historico", published in 1849, magnified the perceived savagery and moral degradation of the local Hurdanos, with statements like "religion is unknown (there)".

[2] In 1904 José María Gabriel y Galán composed the poem "A Su Majestad el Rey" in Salamanca, asking the crown for help in favor of his forgotten subjects in las Hurdes.

This poem was published in "Las Hurdes", a magazine issued for the first time that same year in order to create awareness about the needs of the region.

Finally Francisco Jarrín y Moro, then bishop of Coria, established a philanthropic society, "Sociedad Esperanza de Las Hurdes", in 1908.

This first organized move attracted many participants in certain key cities keen to take initiatives in order to alleviate the backwardness and superstition of the region's inhabitants.

[10] This study was read by Luis Buñuel, who continued the gloomy legend that cast a pall over the area by means of the modern media.

Screening of Buñuel's movie was banned by the authorities at that time, the Government of the Second Spanish Republic, for allegedly exploiting the misery in which the local people lived.

[11] During Francisco Franco's era las Hurdes entered a time of economic stagnation and population loss, as urban centers and some areas close to the coast were favored for development much to the detriment of rural Spain.

Following the dictatorship's Plan de Estabilización in 1959, the population declined steeply as people emigrated towards the industrial areas of the large cities and the coastal towns where tourism grew exponentially.

Fraga's plan was welcomed by Las Hurdes' inhabitants for the positive publicity and the fanfare it provided, but it met with scant success.

This measure was counterproductive for the traditional goatherders and beekeepers, for the new forests killed the smaller flowering bushes and aromatic plants favoured by goats and bees.

[15] It organized the "II Congreso Nacional de Hurdanos y Hurdanófilos" in 1988, where it sought to ask for greater participation of the local people in policies concerning Las Hurdes.

While Caminomorisco and Pinofranqueado have seen a certain measure of development, Nuñomoral, Casares de las Hurdes and Ladrillar are in recession, losing population owing to emigration to the cities and the ageing of those who remain in the villages.

[20] Las Hurdes sweets (buñuelos, hijuelas, bollos fritos (fried buns), roscas, floretas, socochones hurdanos and jeringas) are mostly based on the local honey, as well as lard and flour.