Dies at 99 Marina Vilalta, the longest-serving active shepherd in Catalonia

Girona"I was born among sheep and the sheep give me freedom." This is how Marina Vilalta summarized the spirit that had led her to be the longest-serving active shepherd in Catalonia. Born into a very humble family in Solanguit, at the foot of the Taga, almost a century ago, in 1927, she passed away this Sunday night to Monday at the age of 99, as confirmed by her family. Until her final days, she continued to lead her flock of Guirra sheep in Bruguera (Ripollès), on the other side of the Taga, through sun, rain, or snow. In 2022, ARA interviewed her on a rainy autumn day while she was grazing, shortly after she received the Creu de Sant Jordi for being an "example of the importance of work in the rural world, and of the resilience of the people who dedicate themselves to it."

The recognition was also a way to pay tribute to her perseverance and a trade that is fading away nowadays. As a young woman, she did not learn to read or write, but at the same time, she became one of the architects of the preservation of the oral heritage of the Ripollès region, collected by the Càntut project. Dressed with a wool hat, a walking stick, and a bag full of acorns, she led the flock with ease and patience. It no longer provided a living, but they understood that it was her passion and that the house felt like it was closing in on her if she stayed there all day. Vilalta lived until the end at Cal Sibí, in Bruguera, with her son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandson. The sheep had a luxury stable right across the way, in a house that could have been dedicated to tourism, but it served other purposes.

About to turn 100 years old, she had spent 94 years as a shepherdess. She began taking the flock out at five years old, accompanying her father at the foot of the Taga mountain. She still took them out every afternoon, and in Bruguera in 2022, following the Creu de Sant Jordi award, they dedicated a square in her name. One of the first to put her life into writing was Salvador Vergés i Cubí, father of the Garrotxa deputy for Junts per Catalunya Salvador Vergés i Tejero, who wanted to highlight one of the trades that can still be done without electricity. In 2023, the journalist Abraham Orriols also documented her life in the book A Life in the Mountains.