Concha Blanco, livestock farmer and peasant in Casa Bértolo – Castro, Carballedo, Lugo

Concha identifies herself as a woman with an ‘invented profession without solution of continuity’ in agriculture. Her main job consists of looking after animals, she says, what today is called ‘livestock farming’, but she understands that agriculture and livestock farming are inseparable: ‘the cows depend on the meadows, and the meadows need the cows to maintain themselves’, she says, forming a circle of land and animals that also includes the country roads ‘that are lost if they are not travelled’. She owns 100 cows and 100 hectares of land from which she produces cheese.

For Concha, her land represents more than a means of subsistence; it is a place from which they tried to expel her, like all her generation, sending her far away to be trained, with the intention that she would not return. However, she returned with an awareness of the lack of resources and opportunities in her place of origin, in contrast to the excess of events and cultural offerings elsewhere. Concha firmly believes that it is crucial to create entrepreneurial initiatives to meet needs where they arise, not in places where they need to be created. This approach is not only practical, but deeply linked to care and the feminine role, concepts that she both defends and criticises from her own experience.

Rejecting the accusation that her vision of rural and organic production implies a regression to ‘caves’, as she sometimes hears, Concha speaks of the past as a stepping stone to build momentum for the future, not as a place to stay or repeat. Despite adversity, her connection to the land and the environment is unbreakable, and she describes her soul as ‘glued to the fat black earth, laden with dew’. Her happiness lies in being in her environment, embracing the present and building the future from there.

Concha also reflects on the women in her family with whom she grew up, who were very strong but, unlike the men, had to mend their clothes, while the men received everything new. This inequality, though common, was never acceptable to her. She speaks of women as the mainstay of the rural household, saying that when a woman dies, many farms close because there is no one left to manage the essential tasks. It is a sign of the burden women bear, a burden she says should not be idealised as a natural sacrifice.

She also criticises women’s tendency to self-exploit, a phenomenon she considers normalised in her community. She underlines the fact that many women work long hours, not only to fulfil their professional responsibilities, but also their family and domestic responsibilities. For Concha, this situation is not sustainable; she advocates facilitating generational change, encouraging improvisation and the autonomy of the new generations, because the future depends on their ability to adapt to change.

Finally, Concha draws attention to the hypocrisy he sees in technical and political decisions, especially in the ecological field. During a meeting in Santiago, she argued that organic production is more than just food: it involves conserving landscapes, caring for territories and preserving traditional knowledge. However, she regrets that these values are being displaced by economic interests that promote macro-farms, big business initiatives and massive monocultures. For her, it is essential to listen to those who work and live in the countryside, it is necessary to give a voice to those who build the present and the future from their daily reality and not to uncritically assume the guidelines given by technical knowledge.