Miyawaki forests (invented by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki) are tiny forests that can be squeezed into small open spaces (medians, backyards, schoolyards, etc) in otherwise developed areas.
The technique of planting saplings of many different native species (ideally 30 or more) very closely together allows Miyawaki forests to grow 10x faster, be 30x denser, and 100x more biodiverse than conventionally planted forests.
In addition to storing more carbon than monoculture forests, these forests can also provide habitat corridors and food for wildlife. When planted alongside roads they can help reduce noise and filter pollution.
One of the great benefits of these forests is that any community with access to a small patch of open land can get involved and reap direct benefits from their work.
On this day, 15 July 1954, the right-wing dictatorship of general Francisco Franco amended the 1933 vagrancy law to criminalise homosexuality. The amendment also authorised the detention of all those convicted under the law in labour and concentration camps (content note: sexual violence).
Over the next 25 years, around 5,000 LGBT+ people would be imprisoned – mostly gay and bisexual men and trans women. They were housed in specialist prisons in Huelva and Badajoz, and in a camp in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, and many were subjected to brutal sexual violence, and medical abuse like electric shock treatment.
Most of those prosecuted for breaching the law were working class, and historian Pablo Fuentes told the Guardian that it was “not uncommon to hear homosexuals from the upper classes and the aristocracy speak about the Franco period as a great time.”
After Franco’s death in 1975 and the subsequent fall of the dictatorship, political prisoners were released, but LGBT+ prisoners were not.
The homophobic law was eventually overturned in 1979, although those imprisoned because of it were not recognised as victims of Francoism and awarded compensation until 2009.
We are currently working on a podcast episode about lives of LGBT+ people under Franco. To learn more about how Franco came to power, check out our latest podcast on the civil war: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/
Pictured: Silvia Reyes, a trans woman who was imprisoned over 50 times. Image from lacuna.org.uk https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1475631362622009/?type=3
