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Juan, Ploughing

Posted by Richard_Irwin (Belper, United Kingdom) on 19 February 2008 in Lifestyle & Culture.

Almost everyone in Yegen had large orchard gardens, where they grew vegetables amongst the trees, It was impossible to get tractors into a lot of the gardens, so people used the more traditional plough and a couple of horses. This shot is of Juan, aged about 16, having fun with the plough. About a dozen or so villagers turned up to have a go, there was much laughter and falling over as people had a go at controlling the plough, people would criticize each-others poor technique, and then offer the best way to do it, and then afterwards, everyone went to the bar for a beer and a smoke.

All images come from a photostory I made in the village of Yegen in the Alpujarra region of southern Spain. All the images date from the end of 1989 and ran through into 1990, and my last visit to Yegen was in 1991, so I do not know how much has changed in the following years. I picked Yegen as my study after reading the book 'South from Granada', by the English author Gerald Brenan. He described his life in Yegen, and the colourful characters who lived there, many of whom were still alive in 1989, and featured in some of the photo's I took. Back in 1989, this region of Spain was fairly remote from the holiday home buying Northern Europeans, so retained most of its unique culture and ways The terrain is very steep, with desert like ravines at the lower slopes and snow capped peaks above.
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juan
ploughing