Records

Records

Xorroxin Irratia

X-011a

  • Recording date:
  • Owner: Euskarabidea-mediateka
  • Informant: Felipe, Agustin, Margari, Manuel
  • Researcher:
  • Main theme:
  • View allowed: Free
  • Publication allowed: Limited
  • Sound quality: Good
Town Dialects Maps
Piece Length Temas Sumario
A01 00:00:00
00:16:10		 retired, travel On the 5th of April the pensioners will go to “Montecillo”, a place where there are some bullpens. They will visit the Ribera area in the south and there will be a meal and a dance. Three hundred and fifty people are going.The time of departure and the organization of the coaches.(05:10") Some pensioners are in Las Palmas at present. They will return tomorrow.(06:10") They are preparing the trip to Benidorm at the moment. There are eighty places. The pensioners like Benidorm very much. They organize two trips there every year. (08:25") They still do the physical excercises. They will go to the Anaitasuna gym in Pamplona to do excercises. There will be an exhibition on show and they will eat in El Toro restaurant.The next trip planned is a one day excursion to Lourdes. (10:40") Benidrorm is very quiet and relaxing and they like the beach. Some people had never been until they retired. About the hotel and the food.They go on one-day excursions but they prefer to spend more time at one place as it is more relaxing.(14:40") They organize card games of “Mus”.
A02 00:16:10
00:23:35		 lifestyle, miscellaneous Manuel was in the farmhouse for thirty-six years. It was a bad farmhouse and he went to Doneztebe/Santesteban to work. Agustín lived in the farmhouse until he was called to military service at the age of twenty. He was stationed in Santander doing service and he enjoyed it there. On his return he worked in Irati and on the French side of the mountains with his axe. Later on he entered the factory. He is single.Margarita left home at the age of fourteen to work as a serving-girl in Doneztebe/Santesteban. Then she went there to live permanently.Felipe was at home until he was twenty-eight. Then he got married and they opened a shop in Doneztebe/Santesteban. Until he got married he had always worked in the hills.
A03 00:23:35
00:28:00		 war Memories of the war years. Manuel: They used to go to the farmhouse next door to spend the night. The two men spent the night at the doorway on guard with their pitchforks and suchlike.They were often scared but they never went hungry. As they were at the farmhouse there was always something to eat. Felipe was born in Sundilla in 1932 and he was four years old when the war began. They cut down trees and used them to block the road. He suffered hard times but no real hunger.
A04 00:28:00
00:38:45		 school, work: They were very little time at school. In winter they would sometimes go but in summer there was a lot of work on the land. Now they can read and write.Agustín: They got up to milk the sheep, they went to cut the hay with a scythe and they were there until lunch time. That was his life until he was called up for military service.Margarita began to work as a serving-girl when she was nine years old as they were tenants and she was there for three years. Then she worked as a maid until she got married at the age of twenty-two. At that time they did not pay like they do today. In three years she was paid nothing. Felipe got his first job at fifteen in the county council. He went in short trousers and they sent him home again to put on long trousers. They paid twelve pesetas per day, and on the Sunbilla canal work he got paid eighteen. Later, working in the hills he got paid about one thousand two hundred pesetas per month. Felipe went to school up to the age of fourteen. He would have liked to have continued at school longer but it was not possible. He started work in the hills at the age of seventeen and there he went through a tough time. Agustín earned a thousand pesetas a month and could save without much effort, as the only free time he had was a Sunday afternoon. One time, Felipe spent a period of two hundred and fifty eight days without coming down from the mountain even once. The only thing they ate was beans. On Sunday afternoons they would have a bit of a meal: cod fish and chips with some tomatoe sauce. They came back down like wild savages.Margarita never suffered misery of that kind.Manuel neither, as there were more resources in the farmhouse. They used to bring bread from Ultzama by donkey.Agustín also only ate beans when he was in the mountain. He spent about eight years working up there. In the mountain and in America it was possible to make money as it was not possible to spend it on anything. They remember the hard life they had as young people but they also remember spending the three winter months comfortably at home.
A05 00:38:45
00:41:30		 anecdote, work: Felipe had a bad time up in the hills. There were times that he would cry.A sad anecdote.
A06 00:41:30
00:47:20		 family:, religion Felipe is always saying that his kids are better off than he ever was. When they were young they had a harder life than the young people of today.In the old days it was not so much respect that you felt for your parents but rather fear. The same happened with the priest and with the schoolmaster. The priest used to go every day to the school to teach the catechism. Prayers were said at home too. The religious atmosphere was there during the whole day. They never knew of anyone who was outside of the standard religious practices. It was necessary to ask for permission not to attend mass. Daughters of Mary.
A07 00:47:20
00:51:08		 dance They always had special clothes to wear on Sunday. On Sunday afternoons there used to be dances, but not any kind of intimate dancing ; only jotas and things like that.When the bells were rung they had to go home.At that time everyone liked to dance.Felipe was never fond of dancing. He began to dance only when he was much older.None of them know how to play any instruments. There was no chance to learn then.
A08 00:51:08
00:58:30		 courtship Manuel met Margarita one Sunday afternoon and that was the start of their relationship. They were going out together for four years.Agustín is single and he lives with a sister.Felipe had always known the girl, because she was from the same village. She used to go to learn sewing where Felipe’s mother also went. On New Year’s Eve at the wedding of a sister of Felipe’s, he saw her in the choir and told her to come down. The next day he accompanied her home after the dancing. They were going out for eight years but they did not see each other very often. The girl was sixteen, four years younger than him. From up in the hills he would write to his girlfriend and to those of some of his mates.
A09 00:58:30
01:00:00		 clothes, wedding Margarita got married dressed in black and her husband in a suit. They got married in Donamaria; the meal and the dance. They went on their honeymoon to Pamplona, Estella and San Sebastian.Felipe also got married in the same manner. He married in Pamplona and they spent their honeymoon in Pamplona and San Sebastian.
A10 01:00:00
01:03:30		 sexuality On the wedding night they were afraid to take off their clothes. Before getting married they talked about sex. And they also played about a little. The girl used to go ahead alone so that the people would not see them together.Nowadays there is a lot more relaxation about the subject. They had no preparation and they were not prepared. The French colleagues would ask them if they had no blood in them.
A11 01:03:30
01:11:55		 association They are very grateful to the Arkupe Association. They organize and prepare everything. They became members as soon as they retired.Felipe is the president of the Association.He got the idea when he was in the Ubarmin hospital where he was operated on his hip. The people there treated him very well and so he felt he should do something for others too. He started off with Manterola, Pablo and a man from Urroz. Nowadays there are about two thousand six hundred members.The beginnings were tough but now they are the first in Navarra.
A12 01:11:55
01:15:33		 association, miscellaneous Margarita walks seven kilometers every morning. Then she does the housework and they live a quiet life.Agustín has a vegetable plot and he goes over there a lot and takes strolls.(74:00") Arkupe has no dealings with the Town Halls. Half of their premises was paid by the Government of Navarra and the other half was paid by themselves.Goodbyes and thanks.
Pista Hear file Length
X-011a-A 75:32