But since 1995, illegal wells and the amount of water each farmer can use has been strictly controlled. Twenty to 30 meters below the dusty furrows, there are enough waterways to irrigate and multiply production for all those suffering above ground. Everyone is aware that in the region of La Mancha, there have always been landowners and aguatenientes - water deputies as the residents call them. There is the water that falls from the sky and then there is the water concealed underground. Rafael Torres, president of the Virgen de las Viñas Cooperative, looks out the window of his offices in Tomelloso. It is unheard of to be irrigating in April and they don’t know if the permitted quota of water will last until August. That is why the Martínez family is laying the irrigation pipes among the low vines. However, they are so accustomed to dry weather that the native grape variety, Airén, used mainly for white wine, is particularly drought resistant. The rainfall here this year has been less than half of what usually slakes the thirst of this arid land. When it comes to farming, the only forecasts that matter are weather forecasts - not those of large financial institutions. “It’s the last straw,” says José Antonio Martínez from his vineyard on the outskirts of town. The president of the cooperative, Rafael Torres, says that he is “deeply worried” and that “the situation is really bad,” - that after the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which caused the cost of fertilizer, diesel and phytosanitary products to soar, all that was missing was a drought. The vineyards meant money, something that cannot be said today. After a good harvest, plots of land have been bought, machinery purchased, and facilities changed. The vineyards have generally come to the rescue and paid off any debts racked up by other crops. It also has the largest wine cooperative in the world - the Virgen de las Viñas, with almost 3,000 members. Tomelloso has approximately 36,000 inhabitants and more than 23,000 hectares of vineyards, as well as fields of barley, olives, almonds and melons. They are at the epicenter of the drought. With the lowest rainfall in the whole of Spain this year, the district’s inhabitants, mainly farmers, spend their lives looking upwards. They have already lost the entire cereal harvest, worth €25,000 ($27,500). The Martínez family are trying to save their vineyards using drip irrigation because there has been no rain in the municipality of Tomelloso, in the Spanish province of Ciudad Real, for 134 days. Patricio’s 17-year-old grandson, also called José Antonio, was not yet born during the last great drought that lasted between 19. He refuses to stay at home after a lifetime working the land, partly because he fears the worst. His father, Patricio, 75, is driving the tractor. It is still spring and, as he stretches the irrigation pipes between the vines, it occurs to José Antonio Martínez Lara, 49, that he has already lived through a similar scenario.
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