After fleeing to France to escape the Spanish Civil War, Amalia Romero’s family eventually managed to build a home on the south coast directly looking out over the Mediterranean. But today, the sea is gradually gnawing away at their refuge on a coastline that has grown vulnerable to the ravages of climate change. “It’s a harsh fate after we’ve devoted all our efforts, all our life, to having a roof over our family’s head,” Romero said. In 1939, she was among the exodus, or Retirada, of nearly half a million Spaniards who fled dictator General Francisco Franco’s forces and crossed the border into France, where many ended up initially in internment camps. Now 94, the cheerful, determined woman, who worked in the fish and agriculture industry, spoke at her house, built in 1956 at Vias beach, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of the Spanish city of Barcelona.

Eaten by the sea: Climate change, rising sea levels erode French coastline. (2021, Aril 16). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A11.