Fifteen to twenty years old
My third eldest sister Tina, was by now teaching in a convent school in Ponferrada, and staying with my second sister who had married there.It was 1962 a very bad year, as bad as many others, unemployment was very high and jobs were hard to come by. Even the dressmaking business had gone into decline. The parents of future designers were affected by the recession and had to withdraw them from the academy. My eldest sister married a miner and with the miners salary, helping with the farm and my sister's reduced dressmaking business they moved into their rented home.
Life was a bitch as paying rent is a burden that poor people find almost impossible to meet.
My mother, father, brother and myself moved into the new house that had taken seven years to built. Only one flat was finished but it was very nice. It was spacious with a yard at the front that led to the cow shed. We had cows, chickens and a vegetable plot. We also had a pig stay and a pig.
My father continued working in the declining mines and although there was a lot of activity at home it was difficult to make ends meet, life was very tough.
I helped my sister with dress making and in the farm. And continued worrying about my mother's health, work, and general poor home environment. She tried so hard to give us a better life and a stable home.
A year later my third sister (Tina) decided to emigrate to England to study English and perhaps return with one more skill to find a better job. The nuns helped her in this venture and she was actually sent to a very good part of the country Cobham in Surrey to work as a domestic in a boarding school for girls, Notre Dame School.
She did very well there and she learnt quite a lot to start looking for something that would pay better. She applied for a job in St Thomas' Hospital and started training as a cook. At home I was a teenager of 16 with few prospects apart from marrying a miner and start the same sacrificial life of my two eldest sister and my mother, or take a plunge and go to England.
Of course this was a big decision, emigration then was a sad affair, as it is now for those that come from Romania, Poland or Bulgaria needless to say Africa or many parts of Asia or South America.
Those that come to England from Spain today, as students or even as workers, have a completely different approach, as they come with an education, money in their pockets and something to go back to. The Spain that we survived offered us nothing at all, what ever I had my mother lacked.
The country treated us as very badly, without any concern for our well being, our education, our health or our future.
Emigration was also seen as tragic event for the family, for the unknown is always frightful. Lack of information, created a feeling of desolation.What to do in the worst scenario.! How can one deal with problems as such a distance?. -You see, when you are poor, the unknown is equal to fear and uncertenty.
Weighing it all up, I thought I had to take a chance and give it a go. My mother was a dilemma for me as she would be left alone with my brother who was 10 years old, and my father. My eldest sister, Gely, had married and her house was a short distance away. Lourdes, lived further in Ponferrada 20 kilometers away.
Life continued at the same pace with the cows, the hay harvesting, milking and selling milk, my father semiretired by now due to ill health etc.
On 14th June 1964
14th June 1964 I embarked for Tilbury in the Port of Vigo, north of Spain. The ship was a passenger-ship that took migrants from Spain to England.
style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">Although I was 17 years old, I looked like a 9 year old would look today, and to improve my appearance I had four milk teeth missing at the front.
I had actually saved from somewhere, enough money to visit the dentist once, to have my teeth repaired, as a teenager I was concerned about my dental appearance. I visited the dentist and he actually removed two on each side of my front teeth and left me with two gaps. I looked like a buds bunny.
style="color:#990000;">My brother- in- law had been to Madrid to do the military service and was seen as a man of the world at home, and he was the candidate to take me all the way to Vigo 450 kilometres away.
style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">The train journey was very exciting as I had only travelled short distances between Asturias and Leon. The world opened up in front of me and mile after mile I could see, houses, people and fields that went on and on...
As a young person one looks at ones surroundings with different sensations. The places that we could see from the train were poorly built and in a bad state of repair. The country side offered more of the same back home, agricultural workers striving to make a living, without effective tools, poor crops, bad seeds and not enough food for their families or animals.
The agricultural workers that one could see from the train window, wore poor clothing and one can only describe their situation as a miserable one. However, I remember being excited and full of new emotions and hope.
In Ourense, north of Spain, I remember we came off the train for a short period, and people were trying to sell different things to the train passengers, they spoke in Gallego and believe me,we were amazed as we could not understand anything they were saying. This was my first encounter with spoken language that I could not understand. And it was in our own country.
We arrived in Vigo and the first thing we did was to look for a cheap “pension”. The cheapest we could find was more expensive than we had anticipated. I am told, that I said to my brother in law, to take one room only, he was 28 years old, and recently married. Luck was on my side for he did not take my offer...
The next day we ventured out to find my ship and make enquiries. We were told it would leave in two days time. "Oh, well", nothing to do and lots of time in our hands. We decided to go to the beach. In Vigo the beach is not just up the road, although the city is by the sea,we actually had to take a boat to get to the it, all very exciting and new.
We had a swim and I decided to sit on the rocks to rest, while my brother in law, Isidro, continued swimming. The beaches were not supervised or controlled by the authorities in any way and we all took risks with our life everywhere we went.
I saw Isidro swimming among snakes that sprang their heads up as they went along in the water. When I saw this I thought I would die, for I am terrified of snakes. I screamed and begged him to come out of the infested water.
The people from this region are very secretive and introverted. They will not tell you where they are going or whether they are coming. And if you ask, are you coming?, they will answer no, I am going...
Any way, there were we sitting looking at all this strange sea in front of us, and we actually fell asleep, and we did not realize that the tide was coming in. Just before dozing off we noticed that people were looking at us in a strange manner, but as they did not speak we ignored them.
You will not believe this but it is true, we were left alone, on an island surrounded by water infected with snakes, and it was more than two meters deep by the time we woke up. I could not swim and my brother in law suggested he would go first with the cloths and then come back for me, I do not know why he did not suggest to take me first and then return for the cloths, but I would not hear of it, and I started screaming for help.
Fortunately a boat came to pick us up, and fully embarrassed we thanked them and removed ourselves as quickly as we could to change into civilian cloths among the corn leaves. We left the beach feeling desolate...( I also remember that we had no swimming costume and swam in some discreat underware)
Next day we decided no more swimming and we just walked the beach. We were hungry and on seeing small crabs running around our feet, we thought why not have a few for our lunch.
My third eldest sister Tina, was by now teaching in a convent school in Ponferrada, and staying with my second sister who had married there.It was 1962 a very bad year, as bad as many others, unemployment was very high and jobs were hard to come by. Even the dressmaking business had gone into decline. The parents of future designers were affected by the recession and had to withdraw them from the academy. My eldest sister married a miner and with the miners salary, helping with the farm and my sister's reduced dressmaking business they moved into their rented home.
Life was a bitch as paying rent is a burden that poor people find almost impossible to meet.
My mother, father, brother and myself moved into the new house that had taken seven years to built. Only one flat was finished but it was very nice. It was spacious with a yard at the front that led to the cow shed. We had cows, chickens and a vegetable plot. We also had a pig stay and a pig.
My father continued working in the declining mines and although there was a lot of activity at home it was difficult to make ends meet, life was very tough.
I helped my sister with dress making and in the farm. And continued worrying about my mother's health, work, and general poor home environment. She tried so hard to give us a better life and a stable home.
A year later my third sister (Tina) decided to emigrate to England to study English and perhaps return with one more skill to find a better job. The nuns helped her in this venture and she was actually sent to a very good part of the country Cobham in Surrey to work as a domestic in a boarding school for girls, Notre Dame School.
She did very well there and she learnt quite a lot to start looking for something that would pay better. She applied for a job in St Thomas' Hospital and started training as a cook. At home I was a teenager of 16 with few prospects apart from marrying a miner and start the same sacrificial life of my two eldest sister and my mother, or take a plunge and go to England.
Of course this was a big decision, emigration then was a sad affair, as it is now for those that come from Romania, Poland or Bulgaria needless to say Africa or many parts of Asia or South America.
Those that come to England from Spain today, as students or even as workers, have a completely different approach, as they come with an education, money in their pockets and something to go back to. The Spain that we survived offered us nothing at all, what ever I had my mother lacked.
The country treated us as very badly, without any concern for our well being, our education, our health or our future.
Emigration was also seen as tragic event for the family, for the unknown is always frightful. Lack of information, created a feeling of desolation.What to do in the worst scenario.! How can one deal with problems as such a distance?. -You see, when you are poor, the unknown is equal to fear and uncertenty.
Weighing it all up, I thought I had to take a chance and give it a go. My mother was a dilemma for me as she would be left alone with my brother who was 10 years old, and my father. My eldest sister, Gely, had married and her house was a short distance away. Lourdes, lived further in Ponferrada 20 kilometers away.
Life continued at the same pace with the cows, the hay harvesting, milking and selling milk, my father semiretired by now due to ill health etc.
On 14th June 1964
14th June 1964 I embarked for Tilbury in the Port of Vigo, north of Spain. The ship was a passenger-ship that took migrants from Spain to England.
style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">Although I was 17 years old, I looked like a 9 year old would look today, and to improve my appearance I had four milk teeth missing at the front.
I had actually saved from somewhere, enough money to visit the dentist once, to have my teeth repaired, as a teenager I was concerned about my dental appearance. I visited the dentist and he actually removed two on each side of my front teeth and left me with two gaps. I looked like a buds bunny.
style="color:#990000;">My brother- in- law had been to Madrid to do the military service and was seen as a man of the world at home, and he was the candidate to take me all the way to Vigo 450 kilometres away.
style="font-size:130%;color:#990000;">The train journey was very exciting as I had only travelled short distances between Asturias and Leon. The world opened up in front of me and mile after mile I could see, houses, people and fields that went on and on...
As a young person one looks at ones surroundings with different sensations. The places that we could see from the train were poorly built and in a bad state of repair. The country side offered more of the same back home, agricultural workers striving to make a living, without effective tools, poor crops, bad seeds and not enough food for their families or animals.
The agricultural workers that one could see from the train window, wore poor clothing and one can only describe their situation as a miserable one. However, I remember being excited and full of new emotions and hope.
In Ourense, north of Spain, I remember we came off the train for a short period, and people were trying to sell different things to the train passengers, they spoke in Gallego and believe me,we were amazed as we could not understand anything they were saying. This was my first encounter with spoken language that I could not understand. And it was in our own country.
We arrived in Vigo and the first thing we did was to look for a cheap “pension”. The cheapest we could find was more expensive than we had anticipated. I am told, that I said to my brother in law, to take one room only, he was 28 years old, and recently married. Luck was on my side for he did not take my offer...
The next day we ventured out to find my ship and make enquiries. We were told it would leave in two days time. "Oh, well", nothing to do and lots of time in our hands. We decided to go to the beach. In Vigo the beach is not just up the road, although the city is by the sea,we actually had to take a boat to get to the it, all very exciting and new.
We had a swim and I decided to sit on the rocks to rest, while my brother in law, Isidro, continued swimming. The beaches were not supervised or controlled by the authorities in any way and we all took risks with our life everywhere we went.
I saw Isidro swimming among snakes that sprang their heads up as they went along in the water. When I saw this I thought I would die, for I am terrified of snakes. I screamed and begged him to come out of the infested water.
The people from this region are very secretive and introverted. They will not tell you where they are going or whether they are coming. And if you ask, are you coming?, they will answer no, I am going...
Any way, there were we sitting looking at all this strange sea in front of us, and we actually fell asleep, and we did not realize that the tide was coming in. Just before dozing off we noticed that people were looking at us in a strange manner, but as they did not speak we ignored them.
You will not believe this but it is true, we were left alone, on an island surrounded by water infected with snakes, and it was more than two meters deep by the time we woke up. I could not swim and my brother in law suggested he would go first with the cloths and then come back for me, I do not know why he did not suggest to take me first and then return for the cloths, but I would not hear of it, and I started screaming for help.
Fortunately a boat came to pick us up, and fully embarrassed we thanked them and removed ourselves as quickly as we could to change into civilian cloths among the corn leaves. We left the beach feeling desolate...( I also remember that we had no swimming costume and swam in some discreat underware)
Next day we decided no more swimming and we just walked the beach. We were hungry and on seeing small crabs running around our feet, we thought why not have a few for our lunch.
We managed to catch quite a few and we sat on some rocks ready to enjoy our rich pickings. We came from in-land, and sea creatures were unknown to us, we did not know they needed boiling and started separating their legs alive...
The poor crabs squeaked and fought us in spasms, our masochist intentions were the consequence of hunger and we were looking forward to eating crab. After pulling and stretching and removing a limb or two, the flesh was inedible, hard and tasteless for which most of them had a lucky scape and crawled back to their life in the sand and the sea...
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