For her neighbors she is still the Ana María of always but, outside her region, the alias Anita
La Cortijera
is already part of the digital culture.
There are hundreds of young people on Instagram who follow her daily adventures as a farmer and rancher.
Ana María Martos, born 18 years ago in Baza and raised in the small Granada town of Cantarranas (200 inhabitants), has become an icon of social networks bringing the field to the screens of the more than 61,000 staunch followers she accumulates on Instagram and Facebook, the only networks it has.
You just have to give a little review to Twitter to know that Anita
La Cortijera's
is much more than an Internet profile.
if you mess with anita la cortijera you mess with me pic.twitter.com/HZDDI2BShQ
- Ismæl (@tortilladpapass) August 19, 2020
You can be from the left or from the right, but if there is something we all have to agree on, it is that Anita la cortijera is the best person in humanity
- uncle to the balls 💫 (@pablxesc) August 18, 2020
I just want November to arrive to know if the goats of anita la cortijera are going to have chotillos or not
- He's not a policeman, he's a bustamante (@secragzenemij) August 27, 2020
Martos still can't explain what happened.
“People have liked me and I am very grateful,” reflects the young woman on the phone with
Verne
.
"It is a very strange thing.
I did Instagram two years ago but it was not with this intention, "he says.
It all started like any other day when she went with her grandfather to buy feed for her animals.
“We stayed for a beer and there I met a boy who was very like me, who liked the countryside and animals.
I did not see him again and how I saw him, as I said: this is not going to have WhatsApp or anything ".
As there was no way to find the boy, she thought "'Well, I'm going to do an Instagram so that the people of the town talk about me and see if the boy finds out that I'm interested.'
But his joy, his self-confidence and his desire for life in the countryside have led him to become the young voice of a rural world that is increasingly empty.
During the summer, this young woman's routine has consisted of getting up every day at six thirty in the morning to go to work the land, stop for a meal and continue until the end of the day at nine thirty at night .
On weekends she is a waitress in a town bar, an intense work life compatible with the institute and the EBAU that, she says, "has turned out very well" despite the arrival of the pandemic.
Her Instagram profile is an open book about farm work, something “that is less and less known”, in the young woman's opinion.
For this reason, Ana María Martos records herself planting broccoli, harvesting beans, collecting potatoes and tying garlic so that “the people of the cities know where what they have on their plates comes from every day”.
To explain, it explains even the reproduction cycle of goats and home tricks to avoid pests in crops.
See this post on Instagram
Watering
A post shared by Anita La Cortijera (@anita_la_cortijera_) on Jun 20, 2020 at 3:04 PDT
In addition to showing the reality of the countryside and claiming the importance of agriculture and livestock, Martos takes the opportunity to make tutorials on how to alpacar -bale the excess straw from the cereal-, milk, lay barley -separate the grain-, make cheese , prune vineyards and even how to dress to prevent the sun from wreaking havoc after a hard day in the field.
"I know of many young people who do not want to work in the fields because they are not called," he explains.
“And yet, now many write to tell me, for example, that they have gone to harvest potatoes with their grandparents and that they have loved it.
That already makes me satisfied ”.
See this post on Instagram
My people have already had a hole to set up the pool, you will see the video of how we have assembled it on YouTube.
Give thanks to @eurodisfraz and @puro_papuro for this gift. I remind you that on Saturday 15th the draw for the pool that is in your profile all the steps ends.
And you also have a 15% discount if you buy in their store and use the code ANITALACORTIJERA Good luck my people🍀
A post shared by Anita La Cortijera (@anita_la_cortijera_) on Aug 13, 2020 at 11:57 PDT
The closeness with her followers is such that Ana María Martos takes advantage of the dead time between work and work to joke about the difficulties of the countryside and the great differences between cities and towns.
In one of his most viral videos, with more than 120,000 views, he shows his “powder-colored” SUV that he uses every day to work: “Not everyone has a
powder-colored
car
,
you will not find this at any dealership.
How do you get it?
Well, very easy, you start taking trips up and down in search of water or whatever you are looking for and that's it, you don't have to take it to the workshop to have it painted ”.
See this post on Instagram
Good afternoon my people I present to you the powder color
A post shared by Anita La Cortijera (@anita_la_cortijera_) on Jul 19, 2020 at 6:04 PDT
In another publication, with more than 60,000 reproductions, he can be seen walking through a crop while joking saying: “My people, look, what a catwalk, these are the catwalks of the
garrulos.
What will the
posh
of the city
believe
?
Here we have a wonderful time ”.
See this post on Instagram
Good afternoon people, the walkways of the farmhouses.
Happy weekend ❤️
A post shared by Anita La Cortijera (@anita_la_cortijera_) on Jul 3, 2020 at 8:11 PDT
"We are what we are thanks to those who came after"
Although her practical videos and her talkative attitude have made her better known, Anita
La Cortijera,
as she called herself on Instagram from the beginning, made the leap to fame in mid-April after posting a video in a state of alarm calling out to all those who ignored the security measures approved by the Government to stop the coronavirus.
“This has happened so that we realize that nobody is eternal.
Nobody here is going to be spared from dying - not you, not the animals, not me - but now, whether we last more or less, depends on us, "she said from her corral in the video she posted on her Facebook, her.
"It bothered me a lot how some had taken the situation," he says months later.
In addition to raising awareness about the coronavirus, Martos took advantage of the video to underline the importance of workers in rural areas: “With this, you can all realize what we rural people do.
That milk that you are buying very soon in the supermarket, put in a nice brick, is the milk that my neighbors have milked.
You depend on us, so you have to be aware ”.
However, she is very aware of reality and wants to have an alternative in case things in the field do not have a happy ending.
“Life here in the country is very sacrificing.
You have to be working day and night and right now it does not give good performance, you hardly even earn to pay the expenses.
I'm going to study Social Education in Almería because we have to have an alternative ”, he reflects.
“I'm dreading the date.
I don't like cities, I don't know how to use a computer very well and I like being here in the country.
I want to come back.
I want to be where I have always been ”.
"Women in the field have to see each other"
The profile of this young woman on social networks is a breath of fresh air in the demographic challenge that the rural world has been facing for several decades.
If the population pyramid is already too inverted at the national level, in the countryside the imbalance is even greater.
According to data from the Municipal Register prepared by the National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2019 there were already 500 towns without young people between 20 and 25 years old and there are more than 3,000 with less than a dozen inhabitants in this age range (almost 40% of all municipalities).
The presence of young women and men in the field is one of the keys to the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, not only to reduce poverty and improve food security at the global level, but also to meet other goals such as growth inclusive economy, reducing inequality and combating climate change.
"There are many people who do not know what a simple plow is and they are things that should not be lost," says Ana María Martos.
"We are what we are thanks to those who came after us and we have to keep it up."
Teresa Fernández, president of the Federation of Rural Women's Associations (FADEMUR), sees pedagogy as the right path towards the recovery of young people in the town.
That is why she believes that Martos's profile, with her tutorials and her videos, is so important in social networks: “In the end, everything has to be taught and it has to be learned.
You have to step on it and not just listen to it by hearsay ”.
"I have seen school books that do not pay any attention to the towns and there are those who still believe that the countryside is useless," he laments.
Beyond being a magnet to attract young people to the field, Fernández sees the presence in social networks of a young farmer like Anita
La Cortijera
as a necessary breakdown of prejudices.
"People continue to think that rural women are submissive and reserved, but there are many women who want to make what they are doing known, who struggle to get ahead," she says.
"Since the mass migration to the countryside took place, it is as if many people have forgotten where they come from."
A thought that Ana María Martos also defends.
“Women have to see each other.
They believe that we cannot carry a tractor and we can do the same as men in the field.
You just have to have a pair of ovaries ”, she argues.
From a very young age, her father had already taken her to beat the olives.
Later, when she grew up, she taught her to drive the tractor she now uses every day.
“I don't care what they say.
Here all the women put on our pants: my neighbors have the milk factory, there is another farmer.
That is what matters and what people have to do ”.
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