“Barroso is Not to Be Sold, it is to Be Loved and Defended” Affective Mobilizations for Land and Life in the Context of Green Extractivism

This article explores the affective and embodied dimensions of resistance in Covas do Barroso, a rural village in northern Portugal. Drawing on a yearlong ethnographic fieldwork and my ongoing, collaborative relation with this struggle since 2021, the article examines how inhabitants’ refusal to accept mining is rooted in a way of life intertwined with ancestral practices, communal property systems, and deeply affective connections to the terra. In Barroso, terra is not merely a piece of land – it is the living memory of sustenance of past and present generations, and an intimately known place. The intrusion of extractivist logics has triggered a process of reappropriation and politicization of this place-based way of life. Drawing on the concept of re-existence, the article argues that resistance in Covas is not only about opposing environmental harm, but also about affirming alternative forms of living, being, and relating to land. Grounded in decolonial ecofeminist frameworks, it highlights how resistance is sustained through embodied and affective attachments. Within the context of a contested green transition, this article reframes rural resistance as an urgent onto-political struggle for the preservation of place-based ways of life, rooted in the respect for land.