Orreaga Ibarra

N-020

  • Record: N-020
  • Piece: A02
  • Time: 00:05:20 - 00:19:25
  • Themes: America , jobs:
  • Summary: Other young men were going off to America, just like him. They would go on a three-year contract. They were put in charge of two thousand sheep. They would move from place to place wherever there was pasture land. The owner would bring food up to them but they had to look after themselves and do the cooking and even make the bread which was the hardest part. The owner would give them flour and yeast but they had to make the bread themselves. There were times when they had a lot of time on their hands, but other times, especially when the sheep were lambing, when they no time for anything. They had to wake up earlier than the sheep so that they would not be scattered about. The black sheep were the ones who controlled the others. It was impossible to count all of them but to see the black ones was easier. When one of them was missing they would tell the owner that a sheep was missing. Then the owner would go down and rent a light plane and find the sheep easily. When the sheep from one flock got mixed in with those of another flock the owner would not say anything to the other owner. But as the sheep had a brand on their back it was easy to distinguish them from the light plane.Sometimes he would get together with other shepherds. There were a lot of Greeks at the shepherding. They were forced to learn English. But as most of the owners could speak some Spanish, the Basques did not have the same urgency about learning English.When the contract was up they asked for the residency papers so that they could stay on. But one morning the foreman came along and told them that they had to be in Madrid within two days. They returned to the town and got themselves ready and the next morning they headed back to Madrid by plane. At that time working in the mountains was paid at about fifteen thousand pesetas per month. As there was no place that they could spend the money, they would save it. They would send the money home twice a year.