Vaquero highlighted the importance of the primary sector and the regional significance of a fair that attracts visitors each year from the Maestrazgo area and nearby territories, especially from the provinces of Teruel and Castellón. During her opening speech, she described the event as a fair that “looks to the past with pride, views the present with confidence and looks to the future with hope.”
A FAIR ROOTED IN ITS HERITAGE
The vice president, who took part in the opening ceremony alongside Cantavieja Mayor Ricardo Altabás, explained that the fair represents “pride in our roots, the strength of who we are and hope in all that we can become.”
In relation to the past, in addition to recalling the fair’s history of more than a century, Vaquero highlighted the generations that have attended it throughout its history: “Men and women who made hard work a way of life, who learned to work while respecting the cycles of the land, who cared for their farms, mountains and villages, and who passed on to their children not only a trade, but also a way of understanding the world.”
For the vice president, the Cantavieja Fair is “the heir to all those stories,” and anyone who visits it “will come into contact with the memory of this municipality in the Maestrazgo area of Teruel and also with the legacy of those who came before us.”
A FAIR WITH 350 ANIMALS AND 200 STALLS
Speaking about the present, Mar Vaquero congratulated all the organizers on a new edition capable of bringing together tradition, economic activity, livestock promotion and community life. She also highlighted its ability to attract numerous visitors from the Maestrazgo area and nearby territories, especially from the provinces of Teruel and Castellón. The event features nearly 350 cattle, sheep, goats and horses. It also hosts Aragon’s largest cattle auction, with 50 animals, the highest figure in the past 15 years.
The program includes the 41st Select Livestock Exhibition Competition, the 13th National Cattle Auction, the 31st Select Cattle and Sheep Breeds Auction and the 21st Morphological Competition and National Auction of the Ojinegra de Teruel Sheep Breed. Grants will also be awarded for the purchase of select breeding animals, thereby contributing to the modernization, improvement and continuity of livestock farms.
The fair also features nearly 200 stalls and commercial establishments spread throughout the streets of Cantavieja. Livestock activities are complemented by the sale of agri-food products, machinery, equipment and goods related to rural areas, as well as family activities, bullfighting events and musical performances for all audiences.
“These are very special days for local residents and also for those who come here. They are days when the streets show all their vitality and when the Maestrazgo area once again demonstrates its enormous ability to attract, surprise and move people,” she said. Vaquero also placed particular emphasis on the fair’s ability to “generate economic activity and benefit shops, the hospitality industry and services.”
TRADITION AND INNOVATION TO ENSURE GENERATIONAL RENEWAL
Mar Vaquero spoke very positively about the innovative nature of the fair and of a primary sector that “has managed to adapt, modernize and respond to new demands without losing its essence.” “Tradition and innovation are not opposing paths; in Cantavieja, they move forward together,” she stated.
The vice president also identified generational renewal as one of the sector’s main challenges, since “we need young people to see livestock farming as a genuine professional opportunity” and for those who wish to stay in or return to rural areas to “find reasons to do so.”
“Our purpose is very clear: to ensure that all citizens of Aragon can live in the place they have chosen. To achieve this, we cannot ask them to remain in our villages if we do not offer them opportunities, services, infrastructure, connectivity, training and support for those who wish to start a business,” she concluded.
