March 8: Women’s Day
Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8. And on this occasion we want to pay tribute to a woman in particular and take a trip to our origins.
The concept of a working woman is a modern and current term for us today. Sometimes we forget those women who, several generations ago, challenged social prejudices and cultural obstacles and entered a world dominated by men and in which the difficulties they faced were difficult to imagine today.
Today we want to pay tribute to an enterprising and hard-working woman, a pioneer ahead of her time and the person responsible for the Sabinas Apartments being called that.
Today we want to bring you the story of Sabina, our grandmother.
Sabina was born on December 31, 1910 in Zegama, a small town in Gipúzcoa, near San Sebastian. My grandmother was a hard-working woman, of great courage and undoubtedly enterprising.
She and her five siblings were not born in an easy time. she When she was 14 she started working in the paper mill near her town. She Every day went down from the mountain village to the factory to work. At school they also only taught them how to sew. They barely spoke Spanish.
Carmen, her older sister, was the first to leave in search of new opportunities. She got a job at the Jauregi hotel in Fuenterrabia. It was the 1920s. It all started almost a century ago. Since then our family has always remained linked to the hospitality industry.
Fuenterrabía at that time was an important summer resort for the wealthy classes. Aunt Carmen’s willingness and effort allowed her to rise from apprentice to becoming first maid. That was when she recommended Sabina. They were there for several years.
Then came the Hotel Orly and the Hotel Maria Cristina (where the Film Festival is held every year) in San Sebastian. During this time they not only learned to serve, they also received intense training in protocol. The clients of these hotels were mainly aristocrats and high-ranking soldiers. There Sabina and her sister met Don Isidoro, owner of several hotels who offered them work in Saragossa.
Always together they accepted the proposal. The change was hard. Being a woman and working in hospitality in Saragossa was not easy, Don Isidoro was also very strict.
Years later the opportunity arose: the Hotel La Pampa was for rent. The sisters came together and undertook their first solo project.La Pampa was a pension-restaurant in front of the Central Market owned by an Argentinian. Sabina and Carmen (who was actually called María but she preferred to be called Carmen) saw a future in the project and called Modesta and Jacinta friends and neighboring sisters of Zegama.
It was then that his four partners changed the name of the place. La Pampa was renamed Laurabak, which in Basque means 4 united (Carmen, Sabina, Modesta and Jacinta).
Together they decided to expand the restaurant that was on the first floor with a bar on the street level. At that time the Central Market was the center of the city’s commerce and the bar became the meeting point for merchants.
Many transporters slept there and Laurabak became popular for its food. It was another way of understanding cuisine fusing Basque and Aragonese traditions.
Then came the war in which they suffered great difficulties and the business would be called Vasconia. The bar became a place frequented by soldiers famous for the good coffee it served. It was there where Sabina met my grandfather Antonio and it was in Vasconia where my mother was born.
Modesta married Manuel, a client from Madrid, and together with Jacinta, who would later marry Luis, they went to live in Madrid. It was the 40s, then Carmenchu and Dominica, Sabina’s nieces, arrived. Years later Carmenchu would take over the business with her husband Ramón.
Figures of the time passed through Laurabak such as the boxer Uzkudun, also pelotaris (a very popular sport at the time in Saragossa), Azarola (great pianist), or later Vasconia Jose Oto (famous Aragonese jotero).
On May 1, 1950, Sabina and Antonio bought the Posada de las Almas and started a new project together, always with Aunt Carmen. But this other great story deserves a separate chapter.
