The town is called Quintela and its last neighbor, Sergio Cela (70 years old). Their daily lives take place along paths where dozens of people used to travel, who now do not pass because they have grown older or have gone to live in big cities. So the town of Barjas, in Bierzo Oeste, is almost only for him. Son of a family with strong livestock traditionhas been raised among cows, cattle with which he has managed to support himself. “My parents had cattle, and I too, I have lived off them,” he says.
In an interview granted to The Newspaperexplains what life is like among houses without owners and without hope of seeing more movement than that of the wind that was reflected so well in the film As Bestas, which was filmed there. And tourists used to come to spend the summer, seeking in addition to the tranquility of this small town in rural Spain, more comfortable temperatures than the suffocating heat of cities like Madrid, Seville or Murcia.
“Before, people came and stayed for 15 days or a month, but now they don’t and they come less and less,” he declared. Even so, some do choose it as a vacation destination, “people are getting older,” he says. It is difficult to get there, and it makes you sad. “They have been deceiving us for years,” he says, referring to the poor condition of the roads. “Fixing it is a necessity… seeing it as it is” is a problem.
Retired but ‘working’ with 22 cows
Although he has been retired for years, he continues to take care of 22 cows, which he takes out to pasture in the mornings. In addition to this, he likes DIY and he himself keeps his home ready. And he has time to enjoy his car, another of his passions, as he declares in the aforementioned medium.
“I’m only at home to sleep, nothing more. Every day I take the SUV.” He likes to go out with his friends to hunt and eat. He takes his dogs everywhere and knows exactly what prey he can take home in which places.
Connected through a repeater
On Mount Ogrovio there is a repeater thanks to which Sergio can enjoy current events and, above all, politics, which is what he likes the most. When winter comes, he spends it as best he can, he knows that the temperatures are very low, reaching below zero, and that when it snows, it does so thoroughly, up to 30 centimeters thick.
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“Repopulating is not worth much if those who want to return or settle do not find the conditions for it, they say that we must repopulate, yes, but we will have to give money or aid,” he says in the interview.
He is mayor of the district, a position he has held for about 40 years and even though he wants to leave it, “they won’t let me,” he says. And a small role stands out in the film As Bestas by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. “It was something short, I was with my cows,” he says. He also points out that when they arrived he was not very happy but that in the end he ended up “very happy” and he especially remembers some moments with the actor Luis Zahera, with whom he ate on several occasions in Villafranca.