Michael was 34 years old and overfeeding of the city. Then did 778 kms. to change the 21,000 inhabitants of Picassent by the 20 neighbors in a village in galicia. Today pastors 240 sheep
In Spain there are 90,000 pastors and 16 million sheep. “To the people gives you vertigo the loneliness; the same is that they are bored of themselves,” he says. “Or worse: like they don’t like what they see”
ALBUM: A day with Miguel, the shepherd who left the flock
let’s Play.
As in these Language exercises in which grade school children are given a list of words and are asked to surround that does not belong to the group, here we are going to do the same.
The words are Netflix, Amazon, mobile phone, podcast, Facebook, Twitter, Black Mirror, Game of Thrones and… cagaditas of sheep.
What not would get in this list?
If you have marked cagaditas of sheep (which is what you have done, go), then it is that you do not think there are people like Miguel Angel Fernandez Ruiz.
it Was 2016, the valencian was 34 years old and have not found too many illusions to life. Then I took a radical decision: 778 miles to change the 21,000 inhabitants of Picassent by the 20 countrymen of Sabuguido (Orense); the string mounting for a rod of hazel; the company of the family for the solitude of the mountain; the mediterranean sun for the rain of galicia; a dog puny and squeaky with cojincito in the living room, he called Tobi by four mastiffs silent sleeping under the stars; the bathroom on the beach packed full of people for the plunge, naked and alone in the river Conso; and also did those 778 kilometers to change a large group of friends of the fauna is more varied by a herd of truth: with its 240 sheep, nine goats and even a cow stuffed animal.
The new pastors do not respond to the hackneyed cliché of the beret and the pot. Do not wear with a coat or carrying bag of leather. Don’t look to the sky and hit with the rain, what’s going. Not at all distinguish all of his sheep. Not to throw a stone from 30 meters and hit the target. Or to 20.
The new pastors as Miguel Angel walking with the cattle, putting an eye to the WhatsApp, manage the statistics of his sheep in agrarian offices virtual, are hooked to a series of gangsters such as Peaky Blinders, put on Pearl Jam or the Red Hot Chili Peppers in the van, listening to podcasts of science and culture, come poached in the city and -to die of envy in the capital, at this time of year, here in this region of Orense, do not come to that office which are the fields to the ten-and-a-half in the morning.
Then it will tell us the money that earns a month. The hours of work. But what makes the difference is this: “I laugh more here than when I was in Valencia… What Do you think? I get more laughter for anything.”
I laugh more here than when I was in valencia. I get more laughter for any thing
(…)
When I was 20 years laughing at least. Did not do too much grace to work in the factory of the pools PVC. Not found the happiness in the furniture factory in which he was after. Also in the enterprise where it made automotive parts, and in which his father worked.
So when it came to the crisis, laid-off 30 and he was without employment at the age of 28, Miguel decided to go to study those things that we really liked: an average grade of FP of forestry work and the other on livestock and farming.
“My father came to work to the factory parts of the car after being taking care of cows in the Valle de Conso, Orense. I decided to do the journey in reverse: I came out of the factory that employed my father to go to the mountains where it started.”
When he arrived with the suitcase to the region in the summer of 2016, Miguel Angel wore the determination of a Amundsen to conquer the South Pole and open the eyes of Paco Martínez Soria in The city is not for me, only in reverse: what was shocked there was so much silence and so much field.
One day I was working as a foreman forest in the village of Sabuguido and admiring the chestnut trees. Then he saw Jacinta with his flock. And fell in love.
Not Jacinta.
But of the flock.
So begins this story of love.
(…)
My father came to work at the factory after being taking care of cows in the Valley of Conso, I set out to make the way to reverse
“My husband and I jubilábamos and gave us the penalty that the herd is about to throw to lose, that is why what we sold for free”, says Jacinta.
“I Needed to leave Valencia, because in my life there was a disappointment, as days passed with no motivation or future. After that Jacinta offer me his flock, I spent a week pensándomelo”, says Miguel.
Should have been seen after shaking hands and sealing the deal. More than a year of practice, up and down, the odd couple: the pastor of the people by teaching all over the guy come out of the city.
“it is Not a work as a slave as people think. And less if you have a partner like me: Toño takes care of watering the grass, tractor, clearing, also of the animals… I Prefer this than before: this way of life of a robot in which you go to a factory or an office, you had a boss and a schedule, a holiday forced on a few specific days yes or yes… Here you become stronger emotionally, and also more free. I’ve removed the fear of loneliness, and I think that I want more.”
First advantage: only early bird in the warmer months. Second: you’re working at the side of the house. Third: in the summer let the sheep into the shade to that of the eleven, go home, you do your stuff, you eat, you pull the nap and don’t come back to the place where you left them until after six. Fourth advantage: here not spend on potatoes because they always give you, or tomatoes, or vegetables, or apples, or wood. Fifth advantage: the nearly 1,000 euros, which earns on average per month (selling lambs and thanks to the aid community) rife with more than 1,500 in Valencia. Sixth advantage: here’s as much your biggest enemy is a pack of wolves that kill to eat (five attacks, 10 sheep dead), much less dangerous in any case that the manga of bastards with a tie that neither would see coming in the company and who killed for killing…
Yes there is a big disadvantage. It has to do with the distance, is two and a half hours by car, responding to six letters and has the name of a woman: his girlfriend Sandra finished Political Science and lives by sticking to Santiago de Compostela.
“What do you think?”, opens the fridge, pulls out two Estrella Galicia cold, drink a drink. “There had no girlfriend or job and here I found the two things.”
Sandra is there even if it is not.
Is in the refrigerator door, lit with a magnet: Miguel is filling out one of those booklets of coupons that give for shopping at the supermarket to give him a turtle stuffed animal.
Is a phrase that is written on a whiteboard with black marker pen: “Querote learnt a lot, my girl.”
And may also be in the future, he says.
There are friends that say to me: ‘Oops, I could not do what you’. I tell them that what cannot be is his. The city is much harder than the field
(…)
In Spain there are around 90,000 pastors, 16 million sheep, six million goats and new professionals of the trade who think more or less what Miguel: “I’ve Never traveled to Madrid, the last time I was in Valencia was the last Christmas. Every time I come to a city, I think the same thing: I don’t know how you can live well in the society of the rush, with that smoke and that noise. Then back and I see this [opens arms, do not loose the stick, it points to the mount]: I think that people don’t want to be alone because she’s afraid to know itself. Have lost the recollection and gives vertigo the loneliness. The same is that they are bored of themselves. Or worse: like they don’t like what they see”.
What we see is a beautiful town without a bar or store that comes after half an hour of curves, a house of 30 square metres divided in two floors whose rent pays 75 euros per month, a floor of chestnut wood, two televisions (one above and one below), a Dell laptop, a mobile phone, Leeco, boots Dunlop water with neoprene on the inside, a book entitled The last stripe that tells the story of a cocaine addict pimpin that wears brand name clothing, a stove turned off and a man on.
two months Ago, her parents retired they came to the area to stay in Vilariño de Conso, a town that is only four kilometres from the son who left.
Tarcisius, which is orensano: “Go not cry when he was.”
Jane, who is from Jaen: “I did not ask her by phone if she was cold”.
This Tuesday, his brother Ivan has come to the region with a mission. Read thus, the sentence sounds a bit Middle-Earth of Tolkien. But the issue is less epic. Ivan, 31 years old, has had enough also of the city: instead of the sheep, the small wants to try with the bees.
(…)
A conversation by WhatsApp. A week after this meeting.
-Hello Michael. I have a doubt with the story. What brand was the van?
-A Berlingo
-What about the bitch?
Riba-already perfect [emoticon smiley face]
-How about you?
-I have been four days with Sandra León, Gijón and Oviedo. Very well. But I wanted to get back to work
In the image edenic and stereotyped, the shepherd guess the rain only to smell the air, has a tight control of the flock, only lives for his work and, amazingly, it distinguishes each and every one of his sheep.
not here, Here everything is a lot less hyperbolic: Miguel can pull an hour looking for a lost sheep, he forgets a jacket or a book on the mountain because is very clueless, you are given regular milk, it has “much to improve”, he says, will keep asking you to Jacinta for the best pastures or the best remedies vets and shows a better knowledge of the human of the raw material: it recognizes the sheep that always stays behind, that leaves you touch as if you were a dog and to which he always loses. Don’t ask about the other 237.
In the capital, the day ends when the clock and here when the sun sets or, more frankly, when it gets to the pastor.
as soon as you boot the Berlingo, white second hand, Miguel puts a cedé that is out there. It is one of Iván Ferreiro. Sounds like a song that is called House, now I live here.
let’s See.
This night is going to make curd with milk from their goats. Has finished the Red Bull. Think to order a headlamp for eBay. Has to call his girlfriend and his mother. To see what makes Thomas Shelby in the new chapter of Netflix. Believe that tomorrow, finally, is already playing, turn on the wood stove.
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