The series of books on the Patagonian plateau, Freddy Masera, the coordinator
Just published 470-page volume entitled "The high plateau north Patagonian rivers, water generated from the Andes to the Atlantic, closing a cycle that began in 1993 with the play" The Patagonian plateau of Somuncurá, a moving horizon. " Freddy has been the coordinator of the interdisciplinary teams who carried out research, comprised of historians, geographers, archaeologists, anthropologists, biologists, geologists, economists, writers, rangers and tourism graduates. During these two decades
Masera fought vigorously, no time for rest, against all kinds of administrative and budgetary difficulties to achieve each of the issues. The task was not easy and suffered a discontinuity of hierarchical political campus, which has been one of the most despicable of the sum of the various governmental efforts of Black River from 1993 to date, been inconsistent with the perfect continuity the party symbol in successive casts, because on the one hand the radical is said to remain in the offices but changes of players and the discontinuity of action plans has been noticeable, especially on issues relating to culture, research and planning.
However, overcoming obstacles and indifference (the latter perhaps more damaging than the first) Freddy materialized Masera 5 books under the label editor of the Secretary of Social Action and its current format: Family ministry. The last of the series, "Rivers high plateau ..." was released by the Ministry of Production.
But these publishers were successful only in form, as the financing of the prints, which were consistent format and style-was obtained through various sponsorship and commitment for the acquisition of copies by public bodies. What should be the result of editorial policy seriously and responsibly assumed by the State was actually the result of the tenacity of an entrepreneur, to the accompaniment of her motley team of collaborators intellectuals, pooling resources with a certain amount of chance. It is therefore important to give the floor to Ricardo Fredy Masera, recognize skills caster stubborn and letting his voice that we stand at the context. Plateaus
Why the analysis of the plateaus in particular? was the first question from the talk with this restless chronicler maker of books.
"Patagonia is made up of the Andes in southern portion, a whole region central plateau and the Atlantic coast. The central highlands fall steeply from the foothills to the sea. So the earlier book called "The Patagonian plateau falling into the sea: the coast of Rio Negro," because the cliffs you see are the plateaus are cut to the bottom.
These plateaus start at the departments of La Pampa and extend south to the north of the island of Tierra del Fuego. The term plateau, which always claimed, is widely used but sometimes confused. Because it is a term geomorphological and then plateaus can have wild places, or have the ground cover of mixed spinel with the forest, or may be steppe.
transition zones between two regions of different aspect is what is called the ecotone, and Somuncurá is very clear as to the south, the mountain turns into steppe.
The first book was referred to Somuncurá by my previous observations in the time I was living in El Bolson, traveled through the area, in addition to the references I came mysteriously through friends like William Serra Peirano. I read the previous studies exist, I realized I had been very busy for naturalists and archaeologists, but no material was written from the perspective of social sciences. So he approached the survey is Somuncurá, from a grant from CONICET to Ministry of Social Affairs, which had a very rough first edition in 1993, and a second cost in conjunction with the province of Chubut in 1998. "
Those who followed
" From the prestige that the book managed to gain Somuncurá , which reached us naturally to everyone who integrated the team and myself as coordinator, we face the continuity of the project. I had my eye on another plateau, the El Cuy, because I thought one of the most eccentric of the territory of Black River, with a huge population vacuum, a place where it never crossed the railroad, the old way of wagon tracks linking General Roca what today is called Jacobacci and other places in the area, and geomorphological features of interest. Advanced
The third book in another cut, on the basis of this idea to analyze the highlands in particular, but in this case allowed us to get into one of the ten lowest in the world, the second largest in the country after San Julian. The Lower Gualicho, where the relief is spent surrounded by plateaus, we offered all their questions and legends. We work with most modern satellite instruments and perform a depth measurement to check that is 72 feet below sea level at the point where we put two stones in two sites of the great salt, which we had the pleasure of baptizing (as explorers once did) with the names of the Peninsula Lions, as there are tracks about pumas, guanacos and islets, the presence of these fine camel unexpectedly appear and disappear nothing. The fourth book
departed from the multidisciplinary approach to the plateau, to give their own hierarchy several unpublished works of the archaeologist Carlos Gradín and was entitled, precisely, "The Archaeology of Black River" containing a series of descriptions of tremendous value, with notes by hand Gradín taken by himself in various archaeological sites in the southern region. In the next step
we deal with an issue that we were already talking on the computer: the study of the coast. When you start an investigation sometimes leaves the question of title to the end, but sometimes you start there, because it calls us like a goal that must be reached. This happened in this case, because the title was imposed alone. Thus began "The Patagonian plateau falling into the sea" with the analysis of coastal cliffs and all its components.
But there was no getting into the rivers. The proposal appeared as a challenge to the people of the Provincial Department of Water: why not get involved with the Black River?, And suddenly I thought about it more detail and noted that these rivers are our non-native in most of its length, ie who are not affluent, and discovered the common body, the rivers high plateau.
At the jagged plateaus by their respects as plant and animal species are endemic, meaning that only exist in one place on the planet, its geology and geomorphology, and the aspects that give independent identification. "
The oral narrative
From that first look in depth about the exciting field of Somuncurá each of the books devoted to the plains has a chapter devoted specifically to the testimony of people each site, which was called the "oral narrative."
Masera said, in this regard. "We knew that the Somuncurá'd find many people of indigenous descent and we were interested in the preservation of language, legends and religious traditions, including sacred places and the Nguillatun, something similar happened in El Cuy, and certainly in the Gualicho we enter the legend of the Salamanca and Don Bernabé Lucero.
"We do interpretive ethnography because it involves entering the linguistic and semiological variants, but we are very careful in the rescue of the faithful and accurate transcription of what they say those interviewed for oral narrative chapters.
One concern, in that sense, is not to make any modification or addition. So if the resident swallows 'S' and says, for example, 'the boy in school' copy it as is., And put the silence with an ellipsis, so that the reader can "hear" the people.
So it is natural that the oral narrative chapters are those with greater acceptance and know that in many cases are the only part of the book is read intensely. "
Sailing from the Andes
Let's see some more detail latest product of this series. It has 12 chapters which describes different approaches to the courses of the rivers Limay, Neuquén, Black and Colorado. These parts were written by Rodolfo Casamiquela (made his contribution and a few months before his death in December 2008); Laura Miotti, Monica Alejandra Beron, Gustavo A. Martínez, Estela Monica Cuneo, Eduardo Crivelli Montero, Luciano Prates, Hernan Cortes, Jane Lew, Anahí Membribe, Veronica Cortese, Ruben Garcia and Freddy himself, of course.
The subtitle ("water generated from the Andes to the Atlantic") reveals the poetic spirit of the coordinator, a man who admits deep admiration and respect for the strong currents of the river Black, which is adjacent to the coast viedmense. But besides Freddy Ricardo Masera (72) each summer participating in the competition of open water swimming and bridge to bridge crossing from bank to bank, so he says, with justifiable reason, "I know this river well inside. "
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