The history most intimate of the villages depopulated the province of Salamanca is not written, but recorded hundreds of cassette tapes. Hidden in the interior of the Campo Charro salmantino, at the height of Aldeatejada, the house of Eusebio Martin (The Maya, 1953) saved that treasure centenary: thousands of voices singing old stories about the peal that produces a bone on the teeth of one jaw, and look sharp, hit a kettle of copper or the dull hum that comes out at the waving of a piece of wood attached to a ball. For years, many of these songs no longer sing, which is why Martin runs from 40 years ago these people, tape recorder in hand, to collect and rescue from oblivion these hymns of Spain’s empty. “When a woman with 82 years old, without teeth and without memory you put [your music] the creeps, you say: ‘Here is something’. This is hard-drugs”, tells Martin as he heads towards Palacios de la Sierra (Burgos), to give a concert.
This buscacanciones, also a musician, has lost count of the number of hours that it stores on its tape, although estimated to be about 500. Some recorded decades ago and has not returned to listen to; others only have them registered in your memory. All contain stories of elders playing instruments, crafts, and singing about the meaning of rural life. It is not the largest file of Spain, but, he says, is the most pure. “We came in a time in which we were able to meet the last generation that preserved this oral culture by direct line of his ancestors, and was not ashamed of it,” he says. After the first recordings, he felt the responsibility of keeping that intangible heritage and publicizing it with the hope that others picked up the baton.
he did Not do so alone. The first step to compile and release this music on stage gave it, back in the eighties, with his wife Pilar Pérez after his previous group, Trunk, Dry, was dissolved. They decided to follow and found Mayalde (contraction of the name of the hometown of Martin and his wife, Maya -176 inhabitants– and Aldeatejada –with 1.795–). Together they visited the elderly, they built instruments and helped shape the project of recovery. Years later, they joined their children, Laura and Arthur. “Mayalde is essentially a family. There are some that are connected with the hotel industry or the grazing and we are all connected with the music.” A sample of their effort can be heard in today: they have composed the music of the campaign Post #YoMeQuedo that support rural entrepreneurs to market and publicize their products.
Post Market, a help to those who remain in Spain emptied
as Mayalde, there are many that have decided to stay on in villages of Spain, rural. For this reason, Correos has launched #YoMeQuedo, a campaign focused on your service, Postal Market, to support rural entrepreneurs. In this e-commerce platform, the courier company offers to small local producers to market and publicize their products in a more easy and secure. Emails makes use of your 2.396 offices scattered throughout the country, which facilitates the connection and reduces the times of the orders. The businesses that are part of this initiative has already exceeded 150, and, in total, they offer over a thousand products ranging from oil to cosmetics. Shipments are made to the whole of Spain without cost, which is a plus both for customers and for small-scale rural entrepreneurs. Below you can see the video you Post has produced on the history of Mayalde.
And is that your project represents the “resistance” of the Spain empty. Since 1996, the province of Salamanca has lost 21.547 inhabitants, according to data from the National Statistics Institute, and it is estimated that in the next 30 years will go another 90,000 more. In fact, the province that runs along Martin houses 181 villages totally depopulated. The abandonment of these houses leads to the neglect of the songs, but also of artisanal techniques and, with time, of recipes, products and crafts.
Several of the causes that experts have blamed this exodus from rural areas are the lack of employment opportunities, academic or economic crisis. Mayalde includes in that list “the mentality” that has long despised the rural life. “There was a time in which it was a shame to be out of town. We were told that we had to leave the field,” says Martin. Reason that this set of music, he says, continues to “fight” against those prejudices that say that in the field there is no future. This shows in their repertoire, which includes stories about the crafts of the villages and of how these were fundamental to the creation of rhythms and melodies, which today touch on the scenarios.
Crafts rural generated music
In his concerts, for those who have already been awarded with the National Prize of Folklore Martínez Torner of 2018, strive for the music to sensitize the public on the importance of the rural world and the current situation of those who remain. “It is a great responsibility to do this without betraying the essence of who we told it to, both of the yellow-crested as the earring in the nose, trap. We try to make the scenario remains the kitchen, the age and the forge. That is our job,” says Martin.
The lower of the tables, the members of Mayalde feel that their music are interested in. “There are boys of 17 years that we wonder why no one has taught them these stories and parents who tell us that what you have told your kid that now wants to go to the village to see her grandfather”, he explains. Why not leave it to burn discs and distribute them (also via the Internet) to spread his message and continue “trapping” people.
Eusebio Martin plays an instrument made of reeds and a skull at his home in Aldeatejada (Salamanca). POST
Scare away the fears
The lack of knowledge which has its public and, on the other hand, the fascination with shows during their concerts leads Martin to question why the culture of the people, “our history”, as he says, is not taught in school, not out in the tele or are not encouraged in the conservatories. The problem of not believing in that identity, he says, is what has led many people to abandon the possibility of staying to work in their village and make a life there. “If you don’t know your territory, you can’t love him; if you do not what you love, not what you defend, and if you do not defend, someone conquest inexorably. Before this there are two options: surrender or resistance. We opted for the resistance”, account.
In less than 50 years, the fear in the peoples proasted to be represented by the wolves, the frost or the hunger to embody the concern of not finding a fiber optic, you don’t make enough money and do not prosper in life. For Martin, to recover those songs that “have gained the position of being eternal” is the first step to return to our origins, to rate them and, in many cases, finding a happy life in the villages. “We have acojonado and we have devalued our culture. Why we’re not going to mount a bakery in a village or throw a sheep? I Espantemos fears!”, cries vigorously for the speaker of the mobile phone.
