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A winter’s salary

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Posted on 2020-10-02 in

Courtesy of Fernando Hualde.

Let us journey to Zuberoa, to Maule (Mauléon-Licharre) and its surroundings. Back in the years, 18th-century flax and hemp workers specialized in the manufacture of a very particular kind of footwear: espadrilles. And it would henceforth be espadrilles which put Maule on the map.

Due to a strong increase in demand by Basque migrants and northern French miners of once handcrafted espadrilles, the industry underwent a process of industrialization in the mid-19th century, recruitment of cross-border labour being necessary. (more…)

The chevalier de Béla

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Posted on 2018-07-27 in
La pastoral suletina de 2018 escenificación popular de la historia del caballero de Bela. Fotografía de Gilles Choury

The 2018 pastoral of Zuberoa: popular staging of the story of the chevalier de Béla. Photograph by Gilles Choury taken from larepubliquedespyrenees.fr.

The 2018 pastoral play will be performed in Mauléon-Licharre on 29 July and 5 August and tells the story of one of its most illustrious sons: Jean-Philippe de Béla, born on 8 July 1709 and known as le chevalier de Béla.

At the age of eighteen he departed from Mauléon to enrol Louis XV of France’s army and in 1731 was sent to Sweden as an undercover agent. He was appointed lieutenant colonel, later a member of the order of St Louis, and had a somewhat troubled military career, taking an active part in the Polish and Austrian succession wars. (more…)

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