by Erica Leiserowitz, University of Vermont
Over the last week our team all split up into groups of two or three and went to different campos (farms) outside of Cochrane. My group included Lily and Sophie from Team Tero, and myself. Our campo was situated only 20-30 minutes outside of Cochrane, and was run by a younger couple. Their names are Leo and Modesto. Modesto worked with lumber, and Leo ran the rest of the campo. They lived with their youngest daughter, Camila, who is 6, almost 7. Their older children were working in Coyhaique or going to school in Cochrane. During our week stay, we spent a lot of time entertaining and being entertained by Camilla. She is an incredibly sassy and funny person, with a hard opinion on everything. She painted our nails, made us little meals with her toy cooking set, and implored us to play tag with her. She is learning English in school, and we practiced colors with her.
Erica and Camila modeling “Old Man’s Beard” lichen
The campo had everything: tons of chickens, ducks, sheep, cows, dogs, and one goat. In addition to their animals, they also had at least 4 greenhouses that grew lettuce, basil, cilantro, strawberries, tomatoes, and cucumbers. It was one of these greenhouses that made Leo and Modesto’s campo incredibly unique to the area: it was soil-free. Leo grew basil and lettuce with aquaponics. She won an award for her hard work, and that award was this system and a trip to Santiago to take a course in this style of agriculture.
Basil grown with aquaponics, unique among the campos of Patagonia.
Most of our work during the week was in these greenhouses. We weeded, made planters, and picked lettuce and other produce to sell in town. We got to milk the cows once, when Leo decided one day that we should make “queso,” which is fresh cheese curds with salt. When we weren’t working outside, we were helping in the kitchen to make rhubarb or apricot jam, sopapillas, empanadas con queso, and whatever we were going to have for lunch. Here on the campo, the biggest and most elaborate meal is lunch, and it is at least a 3-hour affair including cooking and cleaning. After lunch, it was time for siesta, which could last as long as we wanted. There were things that needed to get done, but the schedule was never set in stone.
One of the most amazing parts of the week was when Leo took Camila and us to the Calluqueo Glacier. It was basically in their backyard – only twenty minutes away. The three of us were in awe the entire drive up, and Leo and Camila were obviously amused by our total amazement. I think that they were so used to seeing these landscapes that our fascination with the glacier and the beautiful blue water and sharp mountain landscapes seemed funny.
Sophie (Wesleyan College), Lily (UVM) and Erica at Glacier Calluqueo.
We called Leo “La Mujer de la Lechuga de Cochrane” (The lettuce lady of Cochrane). When we would go into town with her to sell her produce, it seemed like she was a minor celebrity. The second she had service; her phone would blow up with messages and calls, asking to get lettuce. She sold to the largest supermercado in town, and she spent 1-2 hours in the farmers’ market, chatting to regular customers and tourists alike.
Leo and Modesto’s campo represents, to me, what modern campo life is like. They still have tons of animals, they drink mate, they grow or raise a lot of their food, and they work incredibly, impressively hard. However, their lives are less isolated than many traditional gauchos. Leo and Camilla watch a lot of telenovelas or the Disney Channel, depending on who is in charge of the remote. Leo and Modesto buy groceries regularly from Cochrane, and they spend a lot of time in town socializing with friends and family. There is a growing sentiment shared by gauchos who are annoyed by people who wear the hat, but don’t live like a “real gaucho,” in other words, people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Leo, to me, exemplifies the opposite. She walks the walk, and doesn’t need to wear the gaucho clothes to prove that.