El quehacer rural

Dictionary of peasant life. Own and close experiences of the world

Application of the dictionary "The rural task" dedicated to the peasant world.

The roots of my home were labriegas. My family worked the land in the town of Santomera, located on the border between the fertile Murcian garden, irrigated by the Segura River, and the arid dry land. And those hands, hurt by the endemic harshness of a soil so dry - and therefore poor -, were delivering in the furrow the seed for the setting of the stem and the plant, which so many times was not possible! The clouds "passed" without leaving us that fecund caress, which we hardly receive! In that environment they raised me and I grew up. I could see and suffer the tear of that emigration of mine, which was filling our solitary field with silence.

My grain of sand -collected from different places and authors- only wants to be a modest tribute to our intimate experience. "Grandfather, and this word, what do you mean?"

In this Dictionary, which I have given the title of rural work, I wanted to collect the words-less and less used-of that marginalized and forgotten world farm, and with them I wanted to also collect the experiences, their own and those of others many who were born in my land Murcia and other Spanish lands or overseas but inhabited by Hispanics.

Although I trust that the reading of this work may be of some help to the youngest, it seems even more necessary to me the oral transmission of the parents and of the grandparents -especially of the latter-, so that their children and grandchildren can know first hand, those unforgettable experiences that constituted, and still constitute in many places in Spain and the world, one of the oldest, most enduring and deepest modalities of human life in nature: rural work.

Before, I must say that ...

I have never wanted to look

differently

born in Catalonia,

like Galician, in Poniente.

And the same to the Basque people,

whose link turns me on;

as well as the astures,

Cantabrian and Aragonese.

Embracing Rioja,

of Castile, and Leon,

Manchegos, like Extremadura

and Andalusians, who offer me.

Borders and proximity,

as for the East,

that Valencian town,

captive of a rising sun.

But without being able to forget

Baleares del Oriente;

and, by far, very close!

Canary Islands, that vibrates and feels.

Beyond the Mare Nostrum,

that imposing Atlantic,

giving them their beats,

that upon receiving them, they understand.

In the Hispanic say

that our people took;

America, Central and South,

Latina everything feels.

Well, we just look at them

having everyone present:

Melillenses or Ceuta

since Hispania lives, always!

Also among Murcians,

although there is thirst, so many times;

but in close proximity,

Murcia is hug, and ardent.

---

Murcia, February 20, 2011,

day of my ninetieth birthday

Manuel Campillo Laorden