In the extensions of the Sayaguino fields, in the province of Zamora, many days of the year, a woman walks with a basket on her back through the plots that she inherited from her family: It is Olegaria, the potter from Pereruela. With the blow of a hoe, this woman tries to obtain small handfuls of red clay from the bowels of the earth that she will use as raw material in her work. “Well, in some private farms that the grandparents already had. It does not come out in all places . In some you have to bite many times, three or four places. Very tired, you have to dig very deep for the good to come out. If we find that we have already made the hole, that it does not come out good and it is stones, well, look how our body gets tired and we have to start over, to make another hole, and thus we may take an hour to take a little basket that does not give us to work the day, but ... this work is like that. " Olegaria does not store the land it needs. Every time he is going to make pieces, he prefers to work it fresh from the field so that it does not lose its characteristic texture. “Because he has a different complexion, he is more lumpy underneath. This one, for example, that I dig here is not worth it, it would break the piece. So, you hit a little deeper and the good thing comes out. This is a mud that you can already do, but you have to soften it. " Olegaria tries to select quality land in her own fields so as not to have to carry more weight to her house than necessary. “The most expensive thing is this, coming to work here, that we cannot put a machine because it involves the top and bottom and it breaks us. After putting in the work we don't get anything out. " Olegaria already has the amount of clay she needs for the next job. With the “bray” well tied around her waist to protect her kidneys, this traditional potter from Pereruela loads the basket with the selected clay on her back and takes it home to throw it in the “pile”. “Well, I have put the mud in the pile we call, so that it softens and tomorrow I can work on it. All night it has to be softening and tomorrow I have to mix it with another white, knead it and I start making pots, pots, ovens, whatever suits me. One day maybe I will do one thing and another I will do another. The Madoz Dictionary, when it talks about the pottery industry in Pereruela, already informs us that “the clay for manufacturing is of such quality that it hardens all the more it is in the fire." Indeed, the secret of the clay is in a white earth that gives the pieces the consistency and the characteristic refractory power. “To wrap with the red to make the pots or ovens, pots, jars, jugs, we do a little bit of everything. We call it resting, once we carry the mud that it takes us so much work to fix it, we have to choose it a lot and carry it, because then we get to rest doing, we say rest, look what a rest. " In the field itself, Olegaria takes out the stones and tries to get the earth as clean as possible. "Because that's how we already have it working and then wrapping it with the red one, it has to be very crumbled, it is that we remove all the pebbles it has." In Pereruela, pottery, despite its hardness, has always been a job carried out by women. Men are only involved in the cooking process. “This has always been the women, the men just to help us cook it, the rest were never done by the men, it made them ugly. Women were made more ugly, this was not men's work. Although it is very hard work, it is never men's work . A man who was left a widower whose wife died and they took a song out of him and everything because he started to make the pans to be able to eat. " “This is called the bray, some rags, a sack, something that we wear so that the basket does not damage our kidneys and so that it does not slip. The road is very long, the weight of the basket is a lot and then we have to try something. " Olegaria prepares the white earth already sifted, dry and crumbled, to wrap the red mud that has been soaked all night. "All night. We put it in around eight or nine in the afternoon, if it is in the winter time , as soon as it gets dark and we leave it until the next morning, so that it is very soft. Then now you have to wrap it with another white to be able to work on it. " Every day this potter kneads only the clay she needs for the pieces she is going to make. “Now I have to give it with my hand, again a lot because it is not yet well, but now it is better with the hand. By the way, as he has Chinese, they are being removed. For example, these are stones. Olegaria doesn't need anyone to knead the mud. And it is that, for the potters of Pereruela it was a humiliation that the men intervened in the process. "We were embarrassed if men touched us in the mud." Now is the time to make the pieces. Olegaria places a template on the wheel, which will serve as the basis for making an oval casserole. There are many types of traditional pieces of dinnerware for fire in Pereruela, but few units that can be made in one day. “Few, because it is very hard work and we have ... between the time you prepare the clay, when we get on the wheel to make the pieces we get to rest and it is to work. Until a few years ago, Olegaria worked kneeling on the ground. Today, the small low-leg chair provides comfort for this hard work. With the "phyto", which is a piece of wet leather, this potter smoothes the surface of the piece, trying to reduce the imperfections typical of a work made entirely by hand following tradition. “Damned stone. Now that I have made the casserole, it will come out here. I have to remove it, because when it dries, the pot breaks. " "Now I pass the" jañadero "because many ladies, after they see her at the door tell us: What a poorly cooked casserole, it seems to have waves. This one will make a beak to be able to add the sauce. To make the round pieces, Olegaria marks the template with water to center it on the wheel. The process also begins by preparing the bottom by beating with your hands. On top of it, apply a hand-pumped clay churro that, little by little, will form the wall of the casserole. To smooth the surface of the pieces, use the "jañadero" which is a piece of barrel wood. With the wet leather “phyto”, the potter polishes the clay so that the roughness of this type of ceramic is less noticeable. "I am going to make a miraculous cover, which we use to put on the kidneys, or the belly, the gut when it hurts, it is heated very easily over the fire, it is wrapped in a cloth and it is put on the gut or wherever have. Instead of an adobe or a brick the cover is put . " "That works very well, and it saves a lot of heat and is better than an iron." But Olegaria also makes some large pieces, such as the water jars, to which he applies a cord decoration. “For an ornament of the jar. They are called -jumps-, it is said we are going to put the jumps, instead of leaving it smooth which is uglier, because we put this mud on it. You have to put it on little by little. ” Despite the decoration and all the attempts to improve the work, the beauty of these handmade containers without a lathe is found, precisely, in that primitive flavor similar to that of the pieces. archaeological. And it is that, the pottery technique of Pereruela does not differ from the one used a few millennia ago. But the most important and traditional piece of Pereruela is the bread oven. Olegaria begins its manufacture, checking the thickness of the bottom with her finger. “To see how thick it goes. If it is overweight and not necessary, and if it is underweight, it may open up. " On the base, apply the clay churro, which will later become a wall. To make this piece, Olegaria does not use the wheel, now it is she who revolves around her work. This is the piece that takes the longest to work and the one that needs the most mud. The process of laying the wall is slow and must be done in two or three phases. “It has to be lifted little by little because if not, this mud falls to the ground. "The wall is thick, so that it keeps the heat to be able ... before the bread was made, now it is made into lamb." “More or less, Ya. Now I have to let it dry, and then when it dries, we put another piece of clay. " When the wall has already dried a bit, and the danger of it falling has passed, Olegaria raises another piece again, applying the clay churro on the edge, to later stretch it with her fingers, keeping the thickness throughout the piece. . “Now we have to put a little mud up here, but we have to hope that it is still a little wet and it can be damaged. The next day, when the work is dry, Olegaria prepares the oven door. “This edge is made to make it look pretty, because if we cut it in any way it seems to be uglier in the eyes of the people. even this nothing happens because you have to dream it, as if we were saying. This has to be covered with another sand, another mud and this is not going to be seen, but when you buy it and do it like this, it looks more beautiful. " "We make this hole because the air comes out, when we cover it up, it doesn't burst." With the splint, poke the edge of the wall to continue adding mud in this last phase. "It is a picau so that one mud sticks well to the other." When the mud on the wall is dry enough not to fall, Olegaria closes the oven. “This now, we have to take it and throw it away, or we spoil it and we take it to make it mud, because it is already hard mud, it costs you more than preparing another one ... And then we prepare it custom-made for the mouth , because if not this would be too poor for him. " As the potter finished the pieces, she spread them out on the ground to dry in the open. But a storm threatens and you have to collect all the work that is still raw. “Now if the storm comes, they get wet, they spoil me, because it's muddy. I have to hurry to collect because my work is spoiled. " Olegaria has come in time to cover the raw pieces, and thus avoid the water marks from being noticed or all the work being damaged. “Well, all the marks indicated, because they all remain marked, they remain later as when they are freckles on the body, you don't know what it is, they remain in the pieces. Well, they are ugly, they are not for sale. " This traditional potter from Pereruela is also in charge of cutting and carrying, little by little, the 80 bundles of scrub branch that she needs for each batch. "Well, now I'm going to manage this firewood to cook the casseroles. We used a broom, which is this, it throws a yellow flower, we used a broom that the broom is similar, only here it has spikes. and of course, since it hurts our hands, we prefer to take these. " “We need a bush, yes, rather low herbs, the broom, the thyme that is called, the rockrose, which in some cases we also use it, not much because it is very strong, it is very hot, it has a lot of trunk, and then what we want rather they are branches. " “The only thing is that this gives a flame and what we need is for the flame to rise to the last pot, and if it is a fat bush or a stick, it does not give us a flame, it is very hot, our pans suffocate for saying in some way, they pass cooked and they do not shine. “I go around cleaning the dust that they always pick up so that the glitter sticks to me. First I give him the toe, but it has to be clean of dust. As you can see, it always takes and you have to clean it a lot because if it doesn't break. "Now I am going to prepare the" juaguete " to give to the casseroles and then I will give him the vidriau, which is a kind of clay that has to be strained because otherwise it is very rough with these sands." “You have to give it juaguete, which we are going to prepare to cook. So, this is called giving the toe. " The "juaguete" is a mixture of natural earth with water, which is the base for the varnish to grip well. “Because if the shine doesn't come off. As long as the bun is not dry, the shine comes off . We can't stop giving the wet toe and then also the wet shine. " Before going on to the next process, which is varnishing, Olegaria leaves the pieces to dry in the open again. But the danger of summer storms continues to threaten and must prevent the work done from getting wet. “But a storm is coming, it gets wet and spoils everything for us. Even if they are dry, we have to pick them up and take them out again tomorrow. " The menacing storm turns into a heavy downpour. Cooked pieces do not alter when in contact with water, on the contrary, raw pieces could spoil. A piece has been left in the open and the water will undo it in a short time. When the weather allows it, you have to prepare the oven for cooking. Lázaro, Olegaria's husband , is in charge of cleaning it to fill it the next day. On the other hand, Olegaria is in charge of varnishing the pieces that are going to be used in the kitchen. “This is the glaze, potter's alcohol so that the pots, which have another view , shine . The housewife likes them better. It gives the same resistance without it, but it is only for the thing of sight, the brightness. This varnish, called “potter's alcohol”, is given just before firing, because if it is left in the open for a long time it turns into dust. It is given to cook tomorrow. Because it is a lot of work for the same day, if not, it is given and cooked. " This part of the process, of making the pieces, is the only one in which Olegaria's hands do not directly touch the clay, because she uses plastic gloves. "For not washing my hard hands afterwards, which have to be washed with sand so that it can be removed." Olegaria is the only potter in Pereruela that continues to cook in a wood oven. In this phase of filling the oven and in the cooking phase, they are the only ones in which her husband intervenes. In the early hours of the morning, Maribel, the daughter, helps them reach and place all the pieces, until the oven is completely full. The base is occupied by four bread ovens and the largest pieces, which are the ones that need the most fire to cook. There is no time to lose. Throughout the day you have to fill the oven and cook all the pieces. It is advisable to finish the enfornado as soon as possible to light the fire. Lázaro neatly places all the pieces that Maribel and Olegaria reach him, always with the inside facing down so that the fire can enter them well. To drive the flames, place some ceramic tubes in the center and tiles on the sides, following the furnace shaft. Olegaria takes turns with Lázaro during the wrapping, as this is a very heavy job that requires attention and patience. "Casserole ... That cover ..." "A little one of those you had around, Maribel, come on." When the oven is almost full, Lázaro becomes isolated and almost immobile due to lack of space, in the stairwell. For the fire to pull well and cook the entire work equally, the oven has to be completely full and Lázaro uses awkward but effective positions. These potters cover the final part of the kiln with upside down pots and pans, which better receive the last flames. "We are covering the casseroles with pieces so that the ones on top do not turn out ugly." Six hours have passed until all the pieces are placed in the oven. Now is the time to cover them with a layer of "chunks" or old rubble of broken pieces, so that the fire is retained and a uniform cooking takes place. Wasting no time, Lázaro turns on the oven. Cooking or "cooking" begins. Ahead are six hours of intense work. The first thing Lázaro does during cooking is to raise the temperature of the oven, tossing the dry bundles that are piled up around it. With the forcón, he pushes each bundle and allows it to be consumed inside the boiler. The next bundle of firewood will be thrown in once the previous one has been consumed, since what is important is that a lot of flame and high temperature be produced. As the furnace heats up, the combustion of the bundles is faster and the flames become more intense. When the temperature has risen, Lázaro goes up to the oven to see how the process is developing . During the first hours, the "chunks" or rubble turn completely black. The process is going well and you have to maintain the rate of combustion. Halfway through cooking, the color of the rubble turns whitish. All the pieces are red hot and every time Lazaro throws a bundle of firewood, the flame appears with great force from above. By sunset, the rubble has already turned completely white. The time has come to finish the cooking, but first, Lázaro checks that the pieces on the top are fully cooked. For this, it is governed, both by the tinkling sound, and by the greenish color that the piece has taken on contact with the air. From this moment on, Lázaro finishes adding fuel to the boiler. You just have to let the oven rest for two or three days, so that the embers fade away and the pieces cool down due to the action of room temperature. The crystal clear sound of the dishes indicates that the work is well done. Lázaro begins to take the pieces out of the oven one by one, while he goes over them with a piece of sickle. “To loosen the pans that are stuck together. They stick when cooking, with the bath. Olegaria began working with clay since she was a child with her mother. His grandparents were already potters. Until a very few years ago, he traveled through the towns of the region with the load on his shoulder or on horseback, to sell it or exchange it for other products. “Bad selling, as if we were to say, because there was everything, a lady might tell you have the potatoes or the bread, the casserole has not been cooked and another lady gave you a pittance of potatoes or bread or a piece of Bacon with mold from a month ago, which maybe she didn't eat it and had to throw it away and give it to someone who was going there with a good job on the ribs. " Finally, the time has come to remove the bread ovens, the most delicate pieces due to their size and at the same time the most expensive, both due to the amount of clay they carry and the many hours of work that have been invested in their manufacture. Casseroles, rotisseries, bread ovens, small reproductions, chestnut toasters, barrels, jars, miraculous lids, ... The already cooked pieces, prepared for sale in the market, await in Olegaria's warehouse, next to the raw work which will go into the next batch. But Olegaria does not stop in his activity. On a daily basis, he continues to go out into the field to collect the red clay, and he strikes the ground viciously, hoping for justice for this traditional craft. “As it is a very hard and expensive job, young people do not want to continue it. On the other hand, if you allow me, I am not going to say that those good gentlemen want to industrialize it for us, that is, this is an industry, working like that, because I don't think so. Now, if they see it, they charge us for this as an industry. Tell me if this can be so. "
