Last Saturday, March 7, took place the presentation of the book“Voces Masoveras” in the hall of the Town Hall of Tronchón. The book is part of thePlan for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the Masovera Culture of the Heritage area of the Region.
The Region of Maestrazgo, with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, through the Grants for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage 2026, publishes: “Voces Masoveras”, a book with interviews about the intangible heritage linked to the masadas of its territory . This publication is part of the set of actions of the Plan for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage of the Masovera Culture that the area of Heritage of the Region has been developing since 2024. Its content compiles numerous testimonies of masoveros, masoveras and close people who describe the work, celebrations and beliefs that shaped a particular way of life and that constitutes an irreplaceable part of the signs of identity of the region.
The content of the publication consists of a selection of ethnographic interviews carried out during the years 2024 and 2025 and in which the experiences and memories of 22 people interviewed (11 women and 11 men), with direct information relating to a total of 32 farmhouses and 10 of the 15 municipalities of the region. The person responsible for this work has been the ethnographer Félix A. Rivas, member of the cooperative Atelier de Ideas, who has been carrying out this type of projects throughout Aragon for years.
The book is presented with an introductory chapter explaining its objectives and the process of elaboration, followed by the transcription of the eleven selected interviews. It ends with a brief epilogue text, as well as a rich glossary of words and expressions typical of the area, although probably little known outside it.
It is possible to appreciate a great diversity among the profiles of the people interviewed, since among them are those who continue to live in a traditional masada, those who moved to the city or to a nearby town when they were young, and those who have returned to masovera life, recovering the family tradition. Another important factor of diversity is the different experience of those who owned the farmhouse and have always lived in it, compared to those who, being in it as tenants or as medieros, have successively lived in different farmhouses, sometimes located in different municipalities.
As for the topics that are being related by the interviewees, they are all of great interest, especially after having preserved to a certain extent their oral character and the richness of the speech of their protagonists. But perhaps some of them stand out because they have not been treated very much in the publications dedicated to the subject until now. They are for example the use of blankets and sheets as a method of communication between farmhouses that were in sight, the existence of certain specific reliefs to know the time according to the shadow that the sun projected on them, legends like that of the Mala Ventura in Fortanete or stories like that of the witch of a farmhouse of the departure of the Vega in Cantavieja.
It is, in short, a book of excellent design and layout that, as expressed in its title and subtitle, serves to highlight the value of the “masoveras voices” themselves, ignored and even silenced for many years, as well as to pay tribute to the rich intangible heritage linked to this way of life so typical of Maestrazgo.
The presentation also served as a way of publicly thanking the people interviewed and, in general, all those who have kept and maintain this rich legacy, taking into account that the advanced age of many of them gives reason for the need and urgency of making this type of records and publications. It is foreseen that, later on, new presentation events will be programmed in other towns of the region.
