Men and environment
In the region of Los Pedroches from the end of the 18th century it was allowed to cultivate the communal lands, the preferred crop was the olives trees . This occurred mainly between 1808 and 1823. The "Sierra" of Los Pedroches stopped to be communal when passing into private hands in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Many cottages or "cortijos" were constructed during this period, because the distance to the nearest villages was great, thus the people spent long periods of the year in the cottages. We can say that the culture of the Pedroches derives from this link between men and olive trees groves. Many people spent most of the year in the mountains. Both, the life and work of the people who lived here were very hard as they had to live far from their villages. Therefore, the "cortijos" were owned by the people that worked in the fields.
The previous name of our cortijo was "Cortijo de los Aceituneros". The people who picked up the olives during the winter are called "Aceituneros".
The cultural expressions associated with olives have been many and varied, either for their work ( manijero, gañán, varareador, veor, faneguería ...), as well as olive handicrafts (cestos, aliaras, dornillos, ...) and above all the diverse and popular traditions (traditional songs, dances and special parties )
It is necessary to take into account "Cancionero del Olivar de Los Pedroches", it is the collection of songs that people sung during the winter. This songs is named " jotillas " that are the songs that were sung in the olive groves with different subjects. These songs were sung in the cotttages at the end of the working day.
