Ecología y cambio cultural en una comunidad del oeste españolTensiones en torno a los cultivos del tabaco y el pimiento en Jaraíz de la Vera

Abstract

Water and earth make up the essential substrate, the ecological infrastructure that has made possible the development of a prosperous society originally based on irrigated agriculture and orchard in Jaraíz, a municipality of the region of La Vera in the north of the province of Caceres (Spain). The buildup of the dam of Rosarito in the river Tietar and the launch of its channel infrastructure, makes viable the increase in crops of tobacco and pepper at the �vegas�, radically changing the lifestyle of Jaraíz and their habitants. This has generated a whole culture based on these two products which, although living in the same ecological space, generate significant ideological, cultural and symbolic differences. The crop of pepper is a traditional activity with its own dictinct culture, the result of an agro-cultural evolution that has been able to obtain a unique and singular product- the smoked paprika. The cultivation of tobacco is implanted afterward as an external decision and, although it generates important economic benefits, displaces other activities which began to be significant in Jaraiz, approaching the town to a model not exclusively based on agriculture. The current problems of the tobacco industry generates doubts on whether the (purely primary) model chosen was the right choice, and this creates tensions around different opinions and attribution of negative causes that explain the current economic downturn jaraiceño. This research makes and analysis of the lifestyle of the inhabitants of Jaraíz, and describes especially the cultivation and marketing processes of the two products (tobacco and pepper), through the etnographer�s observations and direct voice informants, trying to reflect changes that have occurred in the last century.