castile-la mancha. english

CASTILLA LA MANCHA. CEIP Santa Ana (Madridejos)

CASTILE – LA MANCHA

1.- LANDSCAPES IN CASTILE-LA MANCHA.

There are various factors that have influence on the landscape: relief, climate, vegetation,

rivers, and human beings actions that can change the landscape in many ways.

There are some kinds of landscapes: natural areas with a rich fauna and flora, and human

areas where the human factor is very important: areas dedicated to agriculture, or to cattle farming,

cities, towns, roads, railways…

Natural area Human area

1.1.- RELIEF:

Castile-La Mancha is in the Southern of the Meseta Central. It’s higher than 600 metres above

sea level. There are some mountain ranges, plains, and meadows near the rivers.

A.- MOUNTAIN RANGES:

A.1.- Our región is sourrounded by several mountain chains:

1.- Sistema Central: is in the North, where we find the ‘Sierras de Ayllón’ with ‘el Pico del

Lobo’ (the highest peak in CLM), and the ‘Sierra de San Vicente’.

2.- Sistema Ibérico, in the North-East of the region. Where is placed ‘la Serranía de Cuenca’,

‘la Sierra de Albarracín’, (source of Tajo river), and ‘los Montes Universales’ (source of Jucar river)

3.- Cordillera Subbética, in the South-East of the region. Where is located ‘la Sierra de

Alcaraz’ and ‘la Sierra del Segura’, where the Segura river has got its source.

4.- Sierra Morena, in the South. It separates Castile-La Mancha from Andalucía. There, we

can find ‘la Sierra de Alcudia’ and ‘Sierra Madrona’.

A.2.- Inside the region there are two mountain chains:

1.- Los Montes de Toledo (in the South of Toledo) that separates Tajo and Guadiana valleys.

2.- Sierras del Campo de Calatrava, in the centre and South of Ciudad Real. It’s a place with a

volcanic origin.


Map of Castile - la Mancha

B. PLAINS: These are the main plains:

1.- La Mancha, is the biggest plain in Spain. It takes up parts of

Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca and Albacete provinces..

2.- Campo de Montiel, in Ciudad Real. They are some high plains,

about 800 m high. (high plateau)

3.- La Alcarria, in Guadalajara and Cuenca. It’s another high plateau

with chalky soil. ‘La Mancha’ Plain

C. VALLEYS NEAR THE RIVERS: The meadows near rivers are plain and fertile places. The most

important ones are near the Tajo and Guadiana rivers.


1.2.- HYDROGRAPHY:

We are speaking about rivers, reservoirs, lagoons, and wetlands in our region.

A. RIVERS

The most important rivers in Castilla la Mancha are Tajo and Guadiana (Atlantic basin) and Júcar and

Segura (Mediterranean basin). They have got an irregular pattern.

Tajo river: It’s the longest river in the peninsula. It

has its source in Albarracín mountain (Sist. Ibérico)

and flows into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisboa. It runs

through Guadalajara, Cuenca and Toledo. Its main

tributraries are Jarama, Guadarrama, Alberche and

Algodor.

T

a

Tajo river at Toledo

Guadiana river: Its source is in ‘Lagunas de Ruidera’, it runs through Ciudad Real and flows

in Huelva (Atlantic Ocean). Its main tributaries are Jabalón, Cigüela, Záncara and Azuer.

Júcar river: It has its source in ‘Montes Universales’ (Sist. Ibérico), like its tributary ‘el

Cabriel’. It runs through Cuenca and Albacete and flows to the Meditarranean in Valencia.

Segura river: It source is in ‘la Sª del Segura’ (cordillera Subbética), it runs through Albacete.

Its main tributary is ‘el río Mundo’. It flows in the Mediterranean sea in Alicante.

B. LAGOONS, WETLANDS AND RESERVOIRES:

B.1.- Lagoons: are little lakes. Although our region is

very dry, there are lots of lagoons. Some of them are

formed on old volcano craters, others are from

underground waters (Lagunas de Ruidera), and other

because of the place is lower than the sorroundings and

water from rainfall stay there.

Lagunas of Ruidera.

B.2.- Wetlands are wide and shallow. They are shelter

for birds. They are filled with water from rivers. The main

ones are ‘las Tablas de Daimiel’ and ‘las Lagunas de

Villafranca’ in Toledo (water from the Cigüela river),

and ‘las Lagunas de Manjavacas’ (Cuenca)

Lagunas of Villafranca


B.3.- Reservoirs are artificial places to reserve water. Across the course of a river it’s built a dam to

contain the water from the river, so they can save or control the amount of water for agriculture, for

people, or to get electricity. In CLM the most important ones are:

.- Tajo river: ‘Entrepeñas’ and ‘Buendía’.

.- Guadiana river: ‘Vicario’ and ‘Peñarroya’.

.- Júcar river: ‘Alarcón’ and ‘Contreras’.

Channels carry water from reservoirs to irrigated lands,

or from one river to another one. ‘El trasvase Tajo-

Segura’ carries water from Tajo river to Segura, to the

‘Comunidad Valenciana’ and Murcia region.

Trasvase Tajo-Segura

1.3.- CLIMATE: In our region, there are two kinds of climate:

a.- Interior mediterranean climate: very cold during Winter (several frosts) and very hot in

summer. Sparse and irregular rainfall all the year but with dry summer (in the plains and lower parts

of the mountains).

b.- Mountain climate: very cold with warm summers, plenty of rainfall all year round and snow in

winter. This climate is over mountainous places of Albacete, Cuenca and Guadalajara.

1.4.- PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE:

Plant and animal life is related with the climate from a place.

Although most of the plains are dedicated to agriculture, there are

wild places with a vegetation adapted to dry climate like holm oaks,

pines, bushes and aromatic herbs (rosemary, rockrose…). On the

other hand, near the rivers there are poplars, black poplars, reed…

Gum rockrose

The wild animal life is formed by wild boars, hares, storks,

partridges, and great bustards.

In wetlands there are migratory birds, anphibians and fish.

Wild boars

In the mountains vegetation changes with the altitude. There are forest of pines, oaks… and on top

of the mountains there are meadows. The most important animals are birds of prey, deers, wild

goats, squirrels and foxes.

WILD PLACES PROTECTED: In CLM there are some natural spaces protected to preserve

wildlife and vegetation. Our region is very rich in these kinds of parks.


.- National Parks, like ‘Cabañeros’ and ‘las Tablas de

Daimiel’.

.- Natural Parks, like ‘Natural Park of Alto Tajo’, the

‘Lagunas de Ruidera’ and ‘el Hayedo de Tejera Negra’ (in

Sierra de Ayllón’).

.- Nature Reserves, like ‘las Hoces del Cabriel’, ‘la

Serranía de Cuenca’, ‘Lagoons of Manjavacas’ or ‘the

source of Mundo river’. Tablas of Daimiel

2.- INSTITUTIONS AND POPULATION IN CASTILLA – LA MANCHA

A. AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY OF CASTILLA – LA MANCHA

The Constitution of 1978 is the most important law for Spanish people. It says that there are

17 Autonomous Communities, one of them is Castile-La Mancha.

The word Community means many people with a common history,

traditions, culture… The word Autonomous means a degree of

independence and freedom to run and organize its own matters.

These matters are called Autonomous competences (health service,

education, tourism, transport, public works…

Our Autonomous Community has territory, population, and its

own institutions.

The Statute of Autonomy was approved in 1.982. It’s the most

important law under the Spanish Constitution, and speaks about

different aspects like:

Statute of Autonomy

1.- The territory: CLM is formed by 5 provinces: Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and

Toledo. The capital city is Toledo.

2.- The Junta of Communities of Castile-La Mancha, has

three government institutions:

2.1.- Courts of Castile-La Mancha, (legislative power) are

formed by 53 Representatives elected by universal suffrage.

They are in charge of creating legislation, controlling the

Council of Government, approving the budget and appointing

the President. Courts of Castile-La Mancha

2.2.- The Council of Government, (the executive) is formed by the President and several councilors.

They are in charge to govern and run the most important matters.

2.3.- The President , heads the Council and it is the representative of the autonomous community. It’s

elected by the Courts and named by the King.


Election process:

a.- People older than 18 year old elect their Representatives (that form the Courts of CLM).

b.- Representatives elect the President.

c.- The President chooses his Councilors, and they form the Council of Government.

3.- The symbols of Castile-La Mancha are the flag and the seal. The festivity of the region is on May

31st.

flag seal

B. POPULATION FROM CASTILE-LA MANCHA.

CHARACTERISTICS OF POPULATION:

In Castile-La Mancha live around 2,000,000 people, it’s sparce populated. Its population density is

about 26 inhabitants/km2, while the Spanish one is about 93 inhabitants/km

2.

It’s irregularly distributed: more people in capitals and big cities like Talavera de la Reina o

Puertollano, and less people in rural areas. Because of the industry , Albacete, Ciudad Real and

Toledo are more populated (Albacete city is the only one with more than 100,000 inhab.).

Guadalajara and Cuenca are sparsely populated.

.- There is a concentrated population (attached buildings) in towns in the plains. There are many of

them bigger than 5,000 inhabitants.

.- Dispersed population (living in separate buildings one from each others) in towns in the

mountains.

In the middle of the last century, there was a

rural migration to big cities (mainly Madrid

and the coasts), but at the end of that century

and during this one, population is increasing

because of:

1.- The number of births is bigger than the

number of deaths.

2.- Life expectancy is increasing.

3.- Emmigration is stopping, and many

emmigrants are returning back.

4.- There are people from other countries

coming to our community.

With the crisis all of this is changing:

The number of births are decreasing, lots of young people are going out to other countries looking for

a job, and some immigrants from other countries are returning back home.


C. ECONOMICAL ACTIVITIES IN CASTILE-LA MANCHA.

Active population works in three sectors:

Distribution of working population

in Castile-La Mancha .- 6% Agriculture…

.- 16% Industry.

.- 12 % Construction.

.- 66 % Services.

C.1. PRIMARY SECTOR.

Primary sector are activities to get natural products from nature (raw material): agriculture, cattle

farming, fishing, forest exploitation… in our community 6% of working population work in this

sector.

Castilla- La Mancha has the biggest

area in Spain dedicated to agriculture.

There are several types of activities:

a.- Dry land, like cereals, vineyard,

olive grove, legumes, sunflower and

saffron.

b.- Irrigated land, like vegetables,

(onion, garlic, tomato…) mushrooms,

beetroot, corn…

Cattle farming: sheep (the most

important) to obtain meat, milk, and

wool (Ciudad Real and Toledo). There

are poultry and pigs (meat and

sausages) farms all over the

community.

C.2. SECONDARY SECTOR.

Secondary sector are activities to transform raw materials into manufactured products: craft, industry,

obtaining of energy and construction. 28% of working population are working on this sector.

There are several types of industries:

1.- Heavy industries, transform raw material in other kind of products used by other industries like

iron, plastic…

.- Petrochemistry in Puertollano.

.- Chemical industry (Corredor del Henares)

.- Cement industry and construction materials industries (in Toledo and Guadalajara).


2.- Equipment industry, produces

tools, machinery, and vehicles for

agriculture… (metallurgy in

Guadalajara.)

3.- Consumer goods industry,

(products directly used by

consumers). The most important is

food procesing (cheese, wine, olive

oil, meat…). Other industries are

furniture, leather, footwear and

knives (in Albacete).

4.- Electric power production,

hydroelectricity, thermal power

station, or nuclear power plant (in

Trillo, in Guadalajara). Nowadays is

increasing the production of

renewable energies like wind power

and solar energy.

5.- Construction. It can be prívate or public works. About 12% of working population work in this

activity.

The most important industrial centres are:

.- Capital cities of provinces.

.- ‘Corredor del Henares’, (Madrid-Guadalajara road).

.- ‘La Sagra’ region, in Toledo (Madrid-Toledo road).

.- Other big cities like: Puertollano, Talavera de la Reina, Almansa, Hellín, Azuqueca de Henares…

C.3. TERTIARY SECTOR.

The main activities in this sector are public administration, trade, transport… About 66% of

working population is working in this sector.

1.- Public administration: like education, health

service, public administration (town hall…),

justice, police, fire-department…

2.- Trade: . It could be inside our region and

Spain, or with other countries, in this case we speak

about importation and exportation. In Castile-La

Mancha we import more products than we export.

We export food products (wine, oil, cheese, honey,

saffron…) footwear, furniture…

3.- Transport:

.- Terrestrial: through highways, roads or railways

(specially AVE: high-speed train)

.- By air: There is an airport in Albacete.


4.- Tourism:

.- Cultural Tourism: there are lots of monuments o places to visit: Toledo and Cuenca (are World

heritage cities), Almagro, Sigüenza, D. Quixote’s route...

.- Ecotourism: ‘Cabañeros’, ‘las Tablas de Daimiel’ and ‘las Lagunas de Ruidera’.

D. TRADITIONS IN CASTILE-LA MANCHA

In our region, there were living many different cultures, so as a result of that, nowadays, there is a

great variety of traditions and festivities.

d.1.- Religious holidays: in every town there are

festivities to honour its Patron Saint, Holy Week,

Corpus Christi (in Camuñas, Toledo…)

d.2.- Non-religious holidays: like Carnivals, ‘Saffron

Festival’ (in Consuegra)…

Corpus Christi in Camuñas

d.3.- Festivals and fairs: like ‘Grape Harvest Festival’ in

Valdepeñas, or the ‘Craft Fair’ in Toledo.

d.4.- Folklore: traditional costumes, traditional songs and

dances like ‘las Seguidillas’, ‘la Jota’, ‘el Fandango’, ‘los

Mayos’…

Saffron field in la Mancha

Traditional dances in Madridejos

d.5.- Craft: pottery from Talavera, cutlery from

Albacete, damascene from Toledo…

d.6.- Traditional architecture: like ‘los silos’

(underground houses), windmills, rural houses…

d.7.- Gastronomy: ‘pisto’, ‘gachas’, ‘migas’,

‘mojete’, marzipan’…

Traditional ‘Silo’ in Madridejos

‘Migas’ from La Mancha


GLOSARY-VOCABULARY:

landscape: paisaje to dedicate: dedicar cattle farming: ganadería

railway: ferrocarril Southern: al sur mountain ranges: cordilleras

meadows: prado, pradera to take up: ocupar where is located: donde se encuentra

chalky soil: suelo calizo source: fuente, nacimiento Atlantic basin: vertiente atlántica

to flow: desembocar, fluir tributary: afluente Irregular pattern: régimen irregular

to run: correr, discurrir lagoon: laguna underground waters: aguas subterráneas

sorroundings: alrededores wetlands: humedales wide and shallow: ancha y somera

shelter: refugio reservoir: embalse irrigated lands: tierras de regadío

dam: presa to carry: llevar, transportar frost: helada

to be related with: estar relacionado con sparse rainfall: precipitaciones escasas

although: aunque holm oak: encina bush: arbusto

rosemary: romero rockrose: jara poplar: álamo, chopo

reed: junco wild boar: jabalí hare: liebre stork: cigüeña

partridge: perdíz bustard: avutarda bird of prey: ave rapaz, ave de presa

deer: ciervo wild goat: cabra montesa fox: zorro squirrel: ardilla

wildlife: vida salvaje law: ley degree of independence: grado de…

freedom: libertad own matters: propios asuntos universal suffrage: sufragio universal

councilor: consejero budget: presupuesto to be named by: ser nombrado por…

to choose: elegir seal: escudo inhabitant: habitante

less people: menos gente attached buildings: edificios pegados unos a otros

to increase: incrementar death: muerte life expectancy: esperanza de vida

to return back: regresar raw materials: materias primas to look for a job: buscar trabajo

vineyard: viñedo, viñas olive grove: olivar legumes: legumbres

saffron: azafrán garlic: ajo mushroom: champiñón, setas.

sheep: ovejas wool: lana poultry: aves (avícola)

craft: artesanía several types: varios tipos iron: acero, hierro

cement: cemento petrochemistry: petroquímica tools: herramientas

furniture: muebles leather: cuero, piel footwear: calzado knives: navajas

power: energía eléctrica renewable energy: energía renovable wind power: energía eólica

nowadays: en nuestros días trade: comercio town hall: ayuntamiento

highway: autovía, autopista railways: ferrocarril high-speed train: tren de alta velocidad

health service: servicio de salud world heritage city: ciudad patrimonio de la humanidad

patron saint: santo patrón Holy Week: Semana Santa grape harvest: vendimia

craft fair: feria de artesanía pottery: cerámica traditional costumes: trajes típicos

cutlery: cuchillería damascene: damasquinado windmill: molino de viento

marzipan: mazapán

castile-la mancha. english

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castilela mancha

castilla la mancha

mancha plain

source of tajo river

guadiana rivers

toledo guadiana river

segura river

important rivers