Records

Records

Irulegi Irratia

II-119b

  • Title:
  • Recording date: 1998-07-06
  • Owner: Euskarabidea-mediateka
  • Informant:
  • Researcher:
  • Main theme: Ancient horse fair in Pamplona and ancient celebrities.
  • View allowed: Free
  • Publication allowed: Limited
  • Sound quality: Good
Town Dialects Maps
Piece Length Temas Sumario
A01 00:00:00
00:15:36		 fairs: horse fair, jobs:, Sanfermines, smuggling Introduction: the horsefair took place during Sanfermines. (02:30”) Love of horses has been there since he was a kid, as he grew up among horses. On Sundays he used to go to church in a cart pulled by horses. His father was a laboror on the land but he also had some horses. He died when the speaker was only eighteen months old but at home everyone loved horses.At that time the horses were not put out on the mountainside, but kept at the house as they were needed for work there. He went to the horse-fair in Pamplona for the first time in 1950. Since then he has been many times. The dealers from Andalucia would come with all their family in caravans to sell old horses and to buy young ones.The fair began on the 7th of July and lasted three or four days. There would also be horses from there at the fair but they were smuggled ones, as it was not permitted to cross the frontier with horses. People from Hegoalde would collect them and deal with the Andalucians. Those people were very different, people would say that they looked like gypsies, but they had money to buy horses. Many horses from the Baztan area were also taken by them.About smuggling.(10:55”) The manner of doing the dealing was very different. They were people from a hotter climate and their way of life was very different. He never learnt to do any dealing. He would only go to watch. It was not easy to find a place to sleep but they would usually find a barn or something to sleep in. (12:50”) At that time the horses were only used for work.Those from the South would come with orders to buy fifteen or twenty horses, as there were few tractors in Spain then. In Pamplona at that time there would be a big number of horses. Nowadays the Fair is quite different.
A02 00:16:20
00:33:50		 Sanfermines He used to go with some of his other young friends. They used to go to Pamplona by motorbike, through the Izpegi Pass. The first time he went he went with two young men and two priests. They went with two curates from Baigorri in 1950.At that time not many people from there would go because it was not easy to do it. But he remembers his grandfather saying that he used to go to the fair in Pamplona by horse and cart. At that time the Sanfermin fiestas were not like they are now. Then it was people from the hotter parts who would come to have a fiesta. The atmosphere was very good. Even those who were not so young would dance to the sound of the tambor and everyone was welcome. The type of fun was different then. There were runnings of the bulls and bullfights in the afternoon. There were more injuries then than now, because the people would be drunk when they did the running of the bulls. (28:10”) the music at that time came from music bands from the different towns. (29:50”) His grandfather used to tell him stories about what they called “the forest” of Belate.(30:55”) They would go for three days and the first day would be the day of the horse-fair.They did not have any wives but the others would go and leave their wives at home. Nowadays there are more women than men.
A03 00:36:13
00:43:25		 animals: horses, smuggling They would take many old horses over to France for meat. The young horses would come from Iparralde to Hegoalde and the old horses from Hegoalde to Iparralde. All that was done by smuggling.They also smuggled over cows and other things. After the civil war in Spain nothing was left and they would eat even animals in poor health. After that the people did not eat so much horse meat in due to the bad publicity.
A04 00:43:25
00:46:41		 song Song.(44:35") Goodbye.
Pista Hear file Length
II-119b-B 46:41