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🇦🇷 Argentina /Culture & Society

María García, 30, left Oviedo to live in an isolated mountain home: “Everything in the city felt empty”

From Clarín · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • María García left her urban life in Oviedo and bought an isolated, derelict house near the town where her mother lives.
  • She paid 6,000 euros for the property in 2020 and has been restoring it without mains electricity, using a small solar panel instead.
  • García says the experience has changed not only the house but also the way she lives, although she still has no bathroom.

The forest, silence and birds are María García’s work companions. At 30, she lives alone in an isolated house in the mountains near Oviedo, where the days begin with the sound of branches rather than traffic or neighbours.

I wasn’t looking for it. I always say the house found me.

· María GarcíaShe describes how she came to see the isolated house as her home.

“I wasn’t looking for it. I always say the house found me,” García told La Vanguardia. More than six years ago, she left her life in the city and began restoring a house that stood in ruins. The turning point came during the coronavirus lockdown in 2020, when she moved to the nearby village, where her mother lived, to isolate with her sister.

García had known the house before, but seeing it again during those months gave her the feeling that she had found a home without searching for one. The land was covered in brambles, and the front door could not even be seen. As she cleared the property, she discovered a washhouse supplied by its own spring. Once she entered the building, she called the owner and said she wanted to buy it.

I had a very urban life and had nothing to do with a village or the people here.

· María GarcíaShe recalls her life before moving to the countryside.

The sale was completed in September 2020. García paid 6,000 euros, or one million pesetas, a sum she considered symbolic because the property required extensive renovation. The house had neither water nor electricity. Connecting it to the power grid would have cost about 12,000 euros, beyond what she could afford, so she installed a solar panel.

It gives me enough to live, but not enough to connect a washing machine or refrigerator.

· María GarcíaShe explains the limits of the solar panel powering the house.

The panel provides enough power to charge her phone and computer or use a blender, but not to run a washing machine or refrigerator. At first, without electricity, she organised her days around natural light. She says she did not want to rush the process and saw the restoration as a way to rebuild her own way of living. She has made progress, but still has not installed a bathroom.

I wanted to enjoy the process completely.

· María GarcíaShe describes her approach to restoring the house and adapting to rural life.
About this summary

Originally published by Clarín in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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