Rural Woman of the Year awarded to María Jorge Cruz

Tiás Ayuntamiento last week awarded its Rural Woman of the Year award to María Jorge Cruz, a 75-year-old who has lived in Conil all her life.

“We worked the land so that we could live, morning to night,” said María, at an event held to celebrate the International Day of Rural Women.

As well as cultivating onions and tomatoes, María’s family would travel the 16 miles to Playa Blanca by donkey and camel “to sell whatever we had.” At home, she explained, she was constantly gathering grass or tending to goats, chickens, and pigs. “I remember my grandfather killing a pig and putting it in a barrel of salt so it would last for months. They were different times.”

María, who later worked as a cleaner at Tías Town Hall, fondly remembers the old fiestas of La Magdalena in Entre Montañas and Masdache, or those of the Sacred Heart in Tegoyo. Married to Emiliano she has five children and eight grandchildren. “I was born on April 4^th, 1950. I’m from Conil, and I haven’t moved from there since I was born,” smiled María.

Tías Deputy Mayor Nicolás Saavedra said “María represents the quiet strength of so many rural women who, without asking anything in return, have kept the hearts of our villages alive. Her story reminds us that our society is also built by the hands that sow, by the patience of care, and by the dignity of daily work.”