372 CHRONICLES Revista d’Etnologia de Catalunya December 2017 Núm. 42

Bibliographic reviews Mountains of cheese Productive transformations and heritage processes in L’ and El Baridà, by Camila del Mármol

Georgina Marín Nogueras

he last century saw tor. Del Mármol looks in particular ways of thinking about this Pyrenean social, economic, depth at the social and cultural changes mountain area, from an outside per- productive, and related to agrarian transformations and spective as well as from within the place landscape trans- their link with new dialogues and novel itself. formations in the Catalan Pyrenees that are fundamental for understand- Ting the region’s way of life, how it is seen, and how it is used today. The anthropologist Camila del Mármol takes us through these and studies them in detail, particularly L’Urgel- let and El Baridà, geographical areas straddling the counties of L’Alt and La , on both sides of the River Segre. She focuses on their heritage processes, produc- tion of localities and exploitation of uses of the past.

Muntanyes de formatge. Transforma- cions productives i patrimonialització de l’Urgellet i el Baridà (2016), or Mountains of cheese. Productive trans- formations and heritage processes in L’Urgellet and El Baridà, is a review of the ethnographic research under- taken over recent years by Joan Frigolé (2005) and the author herself, Camila Del Mármol (2012), also in the context of L’Alt Urgell, and gives them conti- nuity. In this case, the thread that links them all together is an analysis of dairy and cheese production. This illustrates the end of an economic subsistence model centred on the domestic unit, in other words the home, as a production/ reproduction nucleus, the penetration of a capitalist agricultural model, and the reorientation of the local economy Book cover Muntanyes de formatge. Transformacions productives i patrimonialització towards tourism and the services sec- a l’Urgellet i el Baridà. Bibliographic reviews CHRONICLES 373

Methodologically, the monograph is ernments. In this sense, it is a distinctly initially revolved around meat, and based on an extensive ethnographic ethnographic work, a diachronic study milk production did not begin until study that seeps out throughout the that juxtaposes global political and eco- the early decades of the 20th century. work and which illustrates these social, nomic dialogues with local discourses, We must remember that in the mid- economic and symbolic transforma- practices and initiatives in the region. 19th century, milk drinking had just tions throughout the last century, been introduced among the Barcelona using many case studies. This ethnog- From the vineyard to the dairy bourgeoisie – influenced by its wide- raphy brings us closer to the history, farm spread consumption in northern Euro- lives, and experiences of individuals It is left to the historian from Alt Urgell, pean cities – but this requirement was and families from various valleys and Carles Gascón, to start the book. He fulfilled by the herds in the city itself; towns in L’Urgellet and El Baridà, gives us a historical introduction to the in the Pyrenees, at the beginning of the from dairy farms and cheese produc- economic and agricultural transforma- 20th century, milk consumption was ers. The author also documents and tions of the mid-19th to mid-20th cen- considered almost eccentric, typical of analyses the reorientation of agricul- tury. The emergence of the Phylloxera Barcelona society, and also associated tural policies and rural development plague in 1890 led to the immediate with medical prescriptions (Gascón, over the last decades and the effects of destruction of the vineyards in the in Mármol, 2016: 29). these changes, transcendental in the area and ended the period of relative productive transformation and herit- prosperity the agricultural sector had The figure of Josep Zulueta, a bour- age status processes under study. She been experiencing thanks to their spe- geois gentleman from Barcelona who places special emphasis on the entry cialisation in grape production. This is holidayed in the Pyrenees, and who of into the European Economic a key starting point in Gascón’s con- Gascón looks at in depth, is presented Community, today’s European Union, cise historical timeline. The end of the as a key player in the agrarian trans- and the repercussions this had on the vineyards led the way to a rapid recon- formations that were to take place in local economy and the direction of the version of the crop fields into livestock L’Urgellet and El Baridà in the subse- projects developed by the various gov- pasture. This commitment to cattle quent decades. Aware of various cheese

Arrival of the milk truck at Querforadat, L’Alt Urgell (1962). ACAU, Fons Gurri. FRANCESC GURRI 374 CHRONICLES Revista d’Etnologia de Catalunya December 2017 Núm. 42 and butter production projects that subsistence livestock rearing on small Santander by other Friesians from were emerging in the Pyrenees and commercial livestock farms through Denmark and Canada, with a greater close to the agricultural cooperative the voices of the land people. The sto- productive capacity. Also important movement, in 1915, Zulueta was ries she tells are used to analyse some for regional planning was the creation the driving force behind the La Seu of the most important changes that of fixed transport routes between vari- d’Urgell dairy cooperative (today accompanied the expansion of the ous towns and La Seu for the lecheras, known as the Cooperativa Lletera del dairy model, including fixed incomes the trucks that transported the milk Cadí). In the 1930s, both the coop- being introduced to family econo- churns and which offered the same erative and the La Seu d’Urgell dairy mies; the introduction of machinery service to people and other goods. This factory, founded by a splinter group like milking machines and tractors; capitalist transformation of the farms of cooperative members, began to improved hygiene; and the replace- coincided with a period when many incorporate cheese production, and ment, on some farms, of the cows from people moved to urban areas and the they launched a marketing policy depopulation of the mountain regions linking these products with the (more than 40% of the population rural world of the Cat- left L’Urgellet and El Baridà alan mountains. After between 1960 and 1986), the Civil War, livestock resulting in the closure of a farmers had to deal with large number of houses and the disappearance of many the abandonment of several head of cattle during the mountain villages. This is a Republican retreat. Prior- tendency that had begun at itising milk production, and the end of the 19th century in an international context and which, according to that made it difficult the author, was exacerbated to import cattle from by the economic policies abroad, they opted to promoted by the Franco obtain Friesian cows regime (Mármol, 2016: from Santander. These 71-72). black-and-white Can- tabrians would end up New concept of the replacing the brown region and entry into Swiss cows, turning the common market them into an emblem The new economic mod- of the agrarian econ- els in the Pyrenees were omy, dairy farms, and accompanied by a new the landscape in Alt political concept of rural Urgell. areas (Mármol, 2016: 80) that came about in The milk economy the late 1970’s through Over time, the new specific actions and laws, agricultural model from dialogues on the pro- focused on inten- tection and safeguarding of sive milk produc- these geographical areas at tion replaced the old risk of degradation, or dis- self-sufficiency poly- appearing. Del Mármol culture, experiencing proposes analysing how its particular heyday these global discourses between the 1950s and 1970s. Del Már- Poster from the Sant Ermengol mol’s dialogical work fair, showing a decorated milk transports us back to churn (2010). this replacement of ancient LA SEU D’URGELL TOWN COUNCIL Bibliographic reviews CHRONICLES 375 translate locally, favouring, in the like specialisation in meat cows and longer linked to its social and cultural specific case of the Catalan Pyrenees, the development of tourism and rural environment” (Mármol, 2016: 188). the development of a new local econ- holiday homes, in both cases promoted omy based on tourism and the services by the same organisations, and with This ethnographic research invites us to sector. It is impossible to separate this specific public policies. think about the way global dynamics new use of the region from the dis- act on local initiatives in the region. courses and values that accompany The patrimonialisation of milk It shows, in our opinion, the tension it and, in this sense, she looks at the and cheese between economic and rural develop- production of rhetoric on rural devel- Patrimonialisation, the raising of a ment models that are predetermined opment based on giving back value product to heritage status, is essential by or imposed from global contexts to the past, the idealisation of the in these processes. In this study, it is or supranational institutions, and the landscape and the rural way of life, approached as a key hegemonic dis- level to which these are adopted by and the concept of the Pyrenees as a course for the symbolic resignification the area’s inhabitants. The interest in recreational area. A process developed of the local reality that the new territo- exploiting uses of the past, insists Del from the centres of urban power to a rial model needs. The author explains Mármol, focuses on the desire of the rural periphery that had a bad name that certain elements of the earlier actors who live in the region today, the during many decades of the twenti- production system, previously con- present day local societies, to be “inven- eth century: “The local perception sidered obsolete, are selected, isolated tive when it comes to guaranteeing a of the region, built over time by the and exhibited, being reinterpreted in viable future” (Mármol, 2016: 193). n society that lived and worked in the the new context. “Tourist destinations” towns and cities of the Pyrenees, has are created to attract visitors to the area. been replaced by a new urban sensi- Del Mármol studies the role milk and bility, which interprets nature as a lost cheese has played in the construction of paradise whose return is longed for” heritage status in L’Alt Urgell from the (Mármol, 2016: 167). 1990’s – with a local economy already BIBLIOGRAPHY based on tourism – up to the present In this context, the social and economic day. She shows how “locally there has Frigolé, J. (2005) Dones que anaven pel món. Estudi etnogràfic de les trementinaires de la Vall repercussions of Spain’s entry into the been a clear will to identify the dairy de la Vansa i Tuixent. Barcelona: Generalitat de European Economic Community in past, and in particular the cheesemaker, Catalunya (Temes d’Etnologia de Catalunya, 1986, which end up transforming as a symbol of quality local production” 12). the region’s productive landscape, are and make L’Alt Urgell the Catalan Mármol, C. del (2012) Pasados locales, políti- fundamental. It was a situation largely benchmark for this product (Mármol, cas globales. Los procesos de patrimonializa- characterised by incorporation into a 2016: 139). She looks in depth at three ción en un valle del Pirineo catalán. Valencia: common market surplus and a Com- aspects of this patrimonialisation of Germania, AVA. mon Agricultural Policy that restricted dairy products, promoted by various Mármol, C. del (2016) Muntanyes de formatge. dairy production – a quota-based pol- local actors: the development of a new Transformacions productives i patrimonialitza- icy – and which had strong quality con- tradition of artisan cheese production; ció a l’Urgellet i el Baridà. Barcelona: Generalitat de Catalunya (Temes d’Etnologia de Catalunya, trols that were difficult for small farms the restructuring of the products from 27). to keep up with. Mármol presents us a the Cadí cooperative and the receipt of complex view of this new reality and EU quality distinctions; and the initi- its consequences. The incompatibility ation of projects aimed at recovering between traditional methods and the the county’s dairy past. An example of highly productive agricultural model this latter strategy is the musealisation promoted by the European agencies of milk and cheese through the Espai ended up making small farms disap- Ermengol Museum in La Seu d’Urgell, pear – many of them sold their quo- from which is offered, in the final pages tas to more powerful businesses and of the manuscript, a suggestive crit- stopped production – and this bene- ical analysis from the perspective of fited the more competitive farms, those romantic and abstract discourses on that could modernise and intensify the rural past and the subjectivation of production. This situation was accom- cheese that, in the words of the author, panied by alternatives to dairy farming, “seems to become a separate entity no