A love story

Isidre Aran has protected his herd in El Soleràs for 40 years and, in his struggle for survival, has encountered unexpected loves

Isidre Aran (right) with his son Isidre (left) and his current partner Carmina Pardo. © Albert González Farran

This is a true love story, worthy of a film script. It all began more than forty years ago when Isidre Aran, a lifelong farmer from El Soleràs (in Catalonia), had a pig farm that, with the pressure of international markets and large integrating companies, became obsolete.

His son, also named Isidre Aran, convinced his father to close the farm and dedicate himself to grazing. Without any experience or knowledge, the young Isidre bought three sheep. And after a very short time, two of them died. It seemed that the project was doomed to failure. But the boy persisted. He did not want to throw away ideals that wanted to show that the capitalism was not the only valid system in this crazy world. So he bought a dozen sheep of lower quality, until he came across an Spanish businessman who, surely surprised by the young teenager's convictions, entrusted him with an entire flock.

This story begins with a young entrepreneur's unconditional love for a way of doing things, for a way of thinking, for a way of living. He spent dozens of years loving his sheep and raising his only son (also Isidre Aran) to love them too. And that love grew until he met other traveling companions. Mayors and farmers crossed paths along the way and offered him their crops and vegetable scraps so that he could continue feeding his animals, which are now close to 2,000.

Isidre Aran, who is now 59 years old, recently met the love of his life. He did it, of course, thanks to his sheep, when he practiced transhumance in El Vilosell. Carmina Pardo lives there, with whom he now maintains a sincere relationship and to whom he has infected his fervor for an authentic life model and way of thinking.

This long love story, however, is now in danger of breaking up. Administrative bureaucracy and the few subsidies for extensive livestock farming as one of the pillars of safeguarding the territory are exposing his project to an unjust death. If society does not really believe in love stories, those that are real (not the ones that Hollywood wants to sell us), then we are damaging one of the most important legacies of our heritage.

If you want to know a little more about this story, you can read edition 665 of SomGarrigues.