A SUNDAY IN RADIQUERO 50-60S

August 2022

Early in the morning and smoke is already coming out of the local chimneys.

The master or mistress of the house got up early to start the first function of the day: lighting the fire. On the fireplace, on the ground and around the wooden bench. A large log on each side to hold the fire and in the center some fine branches from the bundles of the fireholder with some thin sticks to light the wood until it became embers. It was cooked with pots, pans, or casseroles hunged from the supports in the heat of the fireplace. Almost no one had charcoal or wood-burning cookers, let alone electric stoves and butane.

Meanwhile, the master was fasting for a glass of anise from Colungo with a biscuit or vanilla. They said it was to kill the bug.

After taking care of the animals of the house, horses, chickens, rabbits and pigs, came lunch for the family, sometimes porridge or beans that had been left over the day before.

Then came the rest because Sunday was sacred, normally there was no work, the third commandment of the Law of God was respected, which says "You shall sanctify the Feasts" which together with the first of those of the Church entails the "Hear the entire Mass every Sunday and Holy Days". In the middle of the morning the Mass was celebrated, three bell rings were spaced apart, first, second and on the third the Mass began.

Many people came and at the exit they alternated with the neighbours in the form of lively gatherings. The young men went down to the shop of José Madonar or Mairal to have a "barracha" which is a mixture of anise with muscatel accompanied by green olives that came in wide-mouthed carafe and were taken out with a wooden saucepan with holes. Meanwhile, if it was the first Sunday of the month the two mairalesas passed through the houses with a tray each and with a wooden little mallet they knock at the doors saying "las mairalesas". They collected the money that people could give and that went to the Church. The mairalesas were named and changed every year on the first Sunday of October closest to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Then came the match of Basque ball in the fronton, but as this has already been written very completely we are not going to go back to the same thing.

After the game, each one went home to have lunch.  In the afternoon the young men continued with the ball games and the older played cards at Pablo Sampietro's coffee, the women at home with their chores. There was also a rosary for those who wanted to attend. The girls sometimes went for a snack to the washer of Cananella, who was very nice and large. It is a pity that it was lost, I do not know why it had to be enlisted, now it would be a jewel of historical value, in almost all the villages they have recovered and preserved them since they are an important memory in the history of the villages.

At dusk, as the telephone and television had not yet arrived, the entertainment was on the road, waiting for the arrival of the line cars. Children, young people, young men and women went there. The very well-groomed girls, very beautiful in their best dresses, as they did not yet wear trousers. They walked arm in arm with each other covering the entire width of the road, sometimes even in two rows, hardly any cars passed. The children running and playing and the young men around the girls. Some separate couples courting because throughout those years there were about twenty weddings, all from the same village.

The arrival of the cars was the event of the evening. Huesca-Arcusa arrived first and half an hour later Barbastro-Adahuesca. They crossed paths at the Colungo bridge and there the mountain travellers from Barbastro made the transfer. You could go every day to Huesca and Barbastro, leaving in the morning and returning in the evening, there was a good service.

To end the day dance session in the office of the secretary of the council, now it is the current bar. The music was provided with a guitar and a bandurria by Pablo Sampietro and Mairal. The most popular songs were "María Cristina me quiere gobernar" and "estas que arrebatas preciosa". Later Manolo Gorgonio (father) bought a record player with vinyl records from the Regal house and His Master’s voice, the anagram of the latter was a dog with a very large megaphone.

A cable with a speaker came down from  the balcony of the dining room of his house and through the room window it was hung on the interior wall. They danced in pairs holding each other, loose dancing had not yet arrived. Manolo charged a modest amount; he had to pay for records and electricity, only the young men paid, it was free for the girls.

And so the day ended, on Monday to start the week and to work waiting with enthusiasm for the next Sunday to arrive to repeat more or less the same. With all those things I think we were happy.

mairalesa: in this area, woman who take care of the church

Some photos are from stock and do not correspond to the place or the moment