My sisters Lourdes showing off one of her dresses 
( Celebrating Santa Lucia the dressmakers patron saint. Many lovable faces and names in these pictures)
14 years old 1961 Year 1961, I am now 14 years old . My eldest sisters business grew steadily and I was going to school, running errands, delivering, shopping for the business and teaching the basics of patter design to the Academy students. It was interesting to realise that becoming a dress maker was a good profession to have, and many families thought that if their daughters were to learn the skill they could survive.
Learning the techniques to draw a dress pattern is not as easy as it may appear and many of the young women that came to learn the basics had had very little schooling and found the simple patter very difficult to understand. In order to make a plain dress pattern one needs to divide the collar measurement by 6 parts, the thorax by 4 parts, the hip by four and eight parts, and many of them could vaguely add up.
They also found that their fingers had never entertained delicate work in the fields and farms, and manoeuvring the thread and needle in delicate stitching was a hefty task. Many cried in desperation when they saw the result of their course and unsatisfactory work. Others persevered and achieve their title becoming the dressmakers for their villages.
When I now see the “pret a porter” cloths with beautiful button holes or perfectly stitched lapels I remember the difficulties we all encountered with poor thread, machinery and knowledge. An yet the paying customer demanded the best cut, design and latest fashion with unrealistic expectations. Today the masses are less meticulous and have moved forward to a different level where we can all be quite happy with something ready to wear. Equally, I also think that most women nowadays, in the develop world, have no idea about the effort needed to make a pocket or a button hole. Prove of this concept is Primark and its bad cut, poor finish and cheap quality materials.
Times were very hard, unemployment was extremely high and those that were employed were abused and very badly paid.I remember seeing morning after morning, hundreds of men of all ages leaning against the church wall, in our village, waiting for some employer to arrive and offer a day's work or an hour.
There was not much going on, deep recession was affecting all areas of society and the only preoccupation the government had was to cover their backs in case there was another up rise. Analysing old pictures in festivities of that time around Spain, one can see the Spanish Guardia Civil making sure their presence was felt by their uniforms, their three corner hats and their rifles.The attendance of religious processions enforced on all of us, kept the appearance of devotion for a church that had treated so many so badly.
Employers would ask for the strongest men among the group and take them away for a day's work and a pittance wage. It was not uncommon for these abusive employers to ask the waiting men to show their biceps to assess their potential power.
In this region of North Spain there were many mines and these very men were brave miners that had worked down the pit risking their lives before they were closed down. Poverty and hunger are stimulants to remain silent, keep a low profile and become obedient and subordinate.
As I have mentioned before, we lived by the main road, and there were many dispossessed families going from one town to another begging. I have vivid memories of a mother and child eating a plate of hot soup and a piece of bread that my mother had offered them. Many a time I gave my piece of bread away to passing children that wore no shoes and were much poorer than us.
This was the Spain of the sixties. In Spain we did not have the benefits of the Marshall Plan : (Relations with Spain in the late 1940s, under the government of General Franco, were strained. Spain did not join the UN until the mid-1950s and was not a member of NATO or the European Union until the 1980s, after the death of General Franco and the establishment in the 1970s of the democratic, constitutional monarchy with the present king, Juan Carlos.)
(1944 Approval of Marshall Plan. Two years later, the Bank issued its first, and largest, loan: $250 million to France for post-war reconstruction; an issue which has remained a primary focus, alongside reconstruction after natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict rehabilitation needs affecting developing and transition economies Seventeen European countries received Marshall Plan aid: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK.)
Franco made the decision after World War II not to participate in the U.S. sponsored Marshall Plan. It was one of the first, but certainly not the last, of Franco's decisions that eventually hurt Spain's economy. In 1951, several years after other European nations had taken advantage of the Marshall Plan, Spain received its first loan from the U.S. government. Later that year Spain and the U.S. signed the Pact of Madrid. Under the terms of agreement, the United States received permission to build military bases in Spain in return for considerable economic aid. In an undoubtedly related incident, many of the United Nations imposed economic sanctions and restrictions (due to Fascist associations and human rights violations) against Spain were lifted, opening the door to foreign investments and markets.
Franco and the church did nothing to abate the famine after the war. (The low export figures, combined with the nation's rising inflation rate, created a volatile situation for Spain's economy and Franco's government. In one year, the nation's rate of inflation rose from an average of 9.1% to 15.5%. In an effort to contain the problem, the Franco regime instituted a series of economic measures collectively known as the "Stabilization Plan."
A ceiling of 80,000 million pesetas was imposed on government spending during the coming year. Strict limits were enforced on lending by the banking system to the public sector. Transportation and public utilities prices were increased up to 50%. Limits were also placed on the amount of credit banks could make available to the private sector. Furthermore, additional efforts were made to attract foreign investors. )
Franco decided our destiny by assuming we were able to take the hunger for another 40 years before he died. And he was right some did survive, many others did not.
Attempts to remove Franco were made by various brave men, but they failed in the attempt and paid with their lives. We owe our gratitude to them.
5 People were machine gunned in 1975, the last of the Franco´s brutal regime. Three from the FRAP organization and 2 from militant ETA. Xose Humbert Baena Alonso, Jose Luis Sanchez Oteagui, and Juan Paredes Manot and Angel Oteagui. The world and the Spaniards manifested its disgust and condemned these deaths.
Soon after this sad episode Franco died, in bed, as most dictators do. Agnostics feel a sense of unfairness for they manage to scape punishment, and one somehow hopes that in the after live these criminals should feel in their flesh the pain they caused for so long,to so many.
In our vicinity there was the headquarters of the Guarda Civil.(Spanish police) We knew many of the officers. Some were good men in the wrong force, others were sadistic animals that enjoyed their power and privilege and took advantage of it when ever they had the opportunity. More than once the screams of young men were heard from our house when the interrogations and tortures were enforced. There was a particular officer named Porro who was well known for breaking legs with a truncheon, thus the name Porro.
Another man we knew had a vine plant around his front yard and he liked listening to “La Pirenaica”, this was an independent radio station, emitting from Romanian, ( before Chauchesco came to power). Listening to this station was prohibited, but men wanted to be informed about other European countries and their political situation, and listen to this enlighten radio station, hoping for a guiding light that would take us out of the inferno. He had the bright idea of wiring the vine plant and use it as an aerial. He enjoyed the improvised system for some time, but one early morning the Guardia Civil came to pick him up and he was never seen again.
Life just went on as best we could. My father felt disillusioned, he had lost two brothers fighting for the Republic against Franco, he himself had to go into hiding for a year. Then a sort of amnesty was announced requesting miners to come forward to reopen the old mines and start production. He was in a state of insomnia as were most of the men that had tasted freedom albeit for a short period.
The Republic of 1931 had been a eye opener of what Spain could have been. Nostalgia set in as the fashiest regime grew stronger and men had to succumb to bad working conditions, humiliation, bad management and pittance wages.
Overall, my father had lost his house with 10 flats ready for habitation, he had to leave his home town, his family and his roots, and he felt trapped in a system without hope. The mines were functioning with the most rudimentary conditions one can imagine. The proprietors, (many mines were privately owned) only understood profit and productivity. He worked very hard, drank very heavily and embraced the pub ambiance where men could feel some freedom talking about what could have been!.
Learning the techniques to draw a dress pattern is not as easy as it may appear and many of the young women that came to learn the basics had had very little schooling and found the simple patter very difficult to understand. In order to make a plain dress pattern one needs to divide the collar measurement by 6 parts, the thorax by 4 parts, the hip by four and eight parts, and many of them could vaguely add up.
They also found that their fingers had never entertained delicate work in the fields and farms, and manoeuvring the thread and needle in delicate stitching was a hefty task. Many cried in desperation when they saw the result of their course and unsatisfactory work. Others persevered and achieve their title becoming the dressmakers for their villages.
When I now see the “pret a porter” cloths with beautiful button holes or perfectly stitched lapels I remember the difficulties we all encountered with poor thread, machinery and knowledge. An yet the paying customer demanded the best cut, design and latest fashion with unrealistic expectations. Today the masses are less meticulous and have moved forward to a different level where we can all be quite happy with something ready to wear. Equally, I also think that most women nowadays, in the develop world, have no idea about the effort needed to make a pocket or a button hole. Prove of this concept is Primark and its bad cut, poor finish and cheap quality materials.
Times were very hard, unemployment was extremely high and those that were employed were abused and very badly paid.I remember seeing morning after morning, hundreds of men of all ages leaning against the church wall, in our village, waiting for some employer to arrive and offer a day's work or an hour.
There was not much going on, deep recession was affecting all areas of society and the only preoccupation the government had was to cover their backs in case there was another up rise. Analysing old pictures in festivities of that time around Spain, one can see the Spanish Guardia Civil making sure their presence was felt by their uniforms, their three corner hats and their rifles.The attendance of religious processions enforced on all of us, kept the appearance of devotion for a church that had treated so many so badly.
Employers would ask for the strongest men among the group and take them away for a day's work and a pittance wage. It was not uncommon for these abusive employers to ask the waiting men to show their biceps to assess their potential power.
In this region of North Spain there were many mines and these very men were brave miners that had worked down the pit risking their lives before they were closed down. Poverty and hunger are stimulants to remain silent, keep a low profile and become obedient and subordinate.
As I have mentioned before, we lived by the main road, and there were many dispossessed families going from one town to another begging. I have vivid memories of a mother and child eating a plate of hot soup and a piece of bread that my mother had offered them. Many a time I gave my piece of bread away to passing children that wore no shoes and were much poorer than us.
This was the Spain of the sixties. In Spain we did not have the benefits of the Marshall Plan : (Relations with Spain in the late 1940s, under the government of General Franco, were strained. Spain did not join the UN until the mid-1950s and was not a member of NATO or the European Union until the 1980s, after the death of General Franco and the establishment in the 1970s of the democratic, constitutional monarchy with the present king, Juan Carlos.)
(1944 Approval of Marshall Plan. Two years later, the Bank issued its first, and largest, loan: $250 million to France for post-war reconstruction; an issue which has remained a primary focus, alongside reconstruction after natural disasters, humanitarian emergencies and post-conflict rehabilitation needs affecting developing and transition economies Seventeen European countries received Marshall Plan aid: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the UK.)
Franco made the decision after World War II not to participate in the U.S. sponsored Marshall Plan. It was one of the first, but certainly not the last, of Franco's decisions that eventually hurt Spain's economy. In 1951, several years after other European nations had taken advantage of the Marshall Plan, Spain received its first loan from the U.S. government. Later that year Spain and the U.S. signed the Pact of Madrid. Under the terms of agreement, the United States received permission to build military bases in Spain in return for considerable economic aid. In an undoubtedly related incident, many of the United Nations imposed economic sanctions and restrictions (due to Fascist associations and human rights violations) against Spain were lifted, opening the door to foreign investments and markets.
Franco and the church did nothing to abate the famine after the war. (The low export figures, combined with the nation's rising inflation rate, created a volatile situation for Spain's economy and Franco's government. In one year, the nation's rate of inflation rose from an average of 9.1% to 15.5%. In an effort to contain the problem, the Franco regime instituted a series of economic measures collectively known as the "Stabilization Plan."
A ceiling of 80,000 million pesetas was imposed on government spending during the coming year. Strict limits were enforced on lending by the banking system to the public sector. Transportation and public utilities prices were increased up to 50%. Limits were also placed on the amount of credit banks could make available to the private sector. Furthermore, additional efforts were made to attract foreign investors. )
Franco decided our destiny by assuming we were able to take the hunger for another 40 years before he died. And he was right some did survive, many others did not.
Attempts to remove Franco were made by various brave men, but they failed in the attempt and paid with their lives. We owe our gratitude to them.
5 People were machine gunned in 1975, the last of the Franco´s brutal regime. Three from the FRAP organization and 2 from militant ETA. Xose Humbert Baena Alonso, Jose Luis Sanchez Oteagui, and Juan Paredes Manot and Angel Oteagui. The world and the Spaniards manifested its disgust and condemned these deaths.
Soon after this sad episode Franco died, in bed, as most dictators do. Agnostics feel a sense of unfairness for they manage to scape punishment, and one somehow hopes that in the after live these criminals should feel in their flesh the pain they caused for so long,to so many.
In our vicinity there was the headquarters of the Guarda Civil.(Spanish police) We knew many of the officers. Some were good men in the wrong force, others were sadistic animals that enjoyed their power and privilege and took advantage of it when ever they had the opportunity. More than once the screams of young men were heard from our house when the interrogations and tortures were enforced. There was a particular officer named Porro who was well known for breaking legs with a truncheon, thus the name Porro.
Another man we knew had a vine plant around his front yard and he liked listening to “La Pirenaica”, this was an independent radio station, emitting from Romanian, ( before Chauchesco came to power). Listening to this station was prohibited, but men wanted to be informed about other European countries and their political situation, and listen to this enlighten radio station, hoping for a guiding light that would take us out of the inferno. He had the bright idea of wiring the vine plant and use it as an aerial. He enjoyed the improvised system for some time, but one early morning the Guardia Civil came to pick him up and he was never seen again.
Life just went on as best we could. My father felt disillusioned, he had lost two brothers fighting for the Republic against Franco, he himself had to go into hiding for a year. Then a sort of amnesty was announced requesting miners to come forward to reopen the old mines and start production. He was in a state of insomnia as were most of the men that had tasted freedom albeit for a short period.
The Republic of 1931 had been a eye opener of what Spain could have been. Nostalgia set in as the fashiest regime grew stronger and men had to succumb to bad working conditions, humiliation, bad management and pittance wages.
Overall, my father had lost his house with 10 flats ready for habitation, he had to leave his home town, his family and his roots, and he felt trapped in a system without hope. The mines were functioning with the most rudimentary conditions one can imagine. The proprietors, (many mines were privately owned) only understood profit and productivity. He worked very hard, drank very heavily and embraced the pub ambiance where men could feel some freedom talking about what could have been!.
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