March 20, 2011

JAUN DE MARKELUS

MEMORIES. My great-grandfather, my grandmother's father, was the mayor of his town. He was a farmer that toiled the land from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays he put on his top hat and his cape and sat in the first row at Mass holding his mayor's cane.
He plowed and sawed with his own hands but also had two servants working in the house. Two of his sons and a daughter died from the Spanish flu after the Big War of 1914. With the proceeds of the cows that he raised he sent another son to study Medicine and another one became a Doctor in Theology. They didn't speak much Spanish when they left town but Theology was taught in Latin in those days anyway. May be it was the smartness running in the blood or simply the number of cows. They owned three other farms too, so it was not all the fruit of hard work. My great-grandfather's brother emigrated to Argentine. That was the custom at the time. The eldest remained in the house and the land. My great-grandmother only spoke Basque all his life. My great-grandfather learnt some Spanish while he was in the Carlist Army fighting in the Second Carlist War at the end of the nineteenth century.
Like in the Spanish writer Pio Baroja's novels, Juan Bautista Eceiza Eceiza was the "Jaun" of Markelus, the name of the house.
Albiztur

Mi bisabuelo, el padre de mi abuela, era el alcalde de su pueblo. Labraba su tierra de lunes a sábado pero los domingos se ponía su sombrero de copa y su capa y se sentaba en Misa en el primer banco con su bastón de mando.
Araba y sembraba con sus propias manos, pero también tenía dos criados para el campo. Dos hijos y una hija murieron de la "gripe española" después de la Gran Guerra del 14. Con el dinero de las vacas que criaba envió a otro hijo a estudiar Medicina y otro fue Doctor en Teología. No hablaban mucho castellano caundo dejaron el pueblo pero la Teología se enseñaba en latín en esos tiempos de todas formas. Quizá fue la listeza en la sangre o simplemente el número de vacas. Eran dueños de otros tres caseríos además, así que todo no era fruto del duro trabajo. El hermano de mi bisabuelo emigró a Argentina. Era la costumbre de los tiempos. El mayor permanecía en la casa y la tierra. Mi bisabuela solo habló en vasco toda su vida. Mi bisabuelo aprendió algo de español mientras estuvo en el Ejército Carlista, luchando en la Segunda Guerra Carlista a finales del siglo diecinueve.
Como en las novelas de Pio Baroja, Juan Bautista Eceiza Eceiza era el Jaun de Markelus, el nombre de su casa.

6 comments:

  1. Que interesante es adentrarse en la historia familiar, nos hace comprender el porqué somos lo que somos. Bonita historia, Pet.

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  2. sorry, i couldn't read your four last posts (hospital). i wonder why i had completely forgotten alain de bottom. i like to read the history of your family.

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  3. Une belle histoire, c'est un plaisir de te lire et de faire connaissance avec ta famille.
    Bonne soirée.

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  4. Lovely glimpse of those gorgeous mountains, and of your family history... My Grandfather lost his first wife ( his second wife was my grandmother) and also his sister to the Spanish influenza epidemic.

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  5. I love that you know so much about your family and, indeed, it is very interesting. So migrating was common for the second son? Kind of exciting, but to go so far must have been hard.
    My grandparents were farmers too, but often contracted out to farm other people's land to make some extra money. The family farm was sold before my Dad could inherit it. In the family graveyard, there are two others with my name on the stones. Thrilling in a gothic sense.

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  6. The family history is always so fascinating! It's wonderful to get more stories about them!
    Sometimes I do regret for not getting more info from my late grandparents...

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