Marbella’s oldest woman plants the last tree for the international year of the forest
The end of the International Year of the Forest was marked at Arboretum in Marbella on 29th December 2011 with a tree planting by the area’s oldest woman, Antonia Aranda Fernandez. 98 year old Antonia planted her favourite tree, the almond, surrounded by friends and family and recounted stories from her long and varied life.
Antonia is the mother of 5 children, grandmother to 11 grandchildren and great grandmother to 15 great-grandsons and one great-granddaughter. Born on 3rd February 1913, the third of 14 children in a farming family, Antonia has had a hard but rewarding life living in close contact with the land and in her own words “fighting like a lioness” to provide for her family. From the age of 12 she worked in the fields and then from 14 carried sacks of flour in return for bread and oil, becoming a cleaner in later life.
Her memories of Marbella are of a very different place than we see today, with the whole area covered in trees and full of bird song. She’s sad to see how few trees are now left and how little contact younger generations are having with the countryside. “My great-grandchildren don’t have a relationship with the earth and that’s not good. Having a connection with nature is important, you have to understand it and know what it can give us. To us as children trees were everything, our playground and our larder. The disrespect that the younger generations show for nature is harmful for everyone and for the future.”