lidia alonso

COUSAS DE AVÓS

COUSAS DE AVÓS

Todos os días paso polo pendello dos meus avós, un pendello ateigado de obxectos vellos, rotos, sucios… Entre eles atopei uns un tanto especiais, eran enxeños feitos a partir de anacos doutros xa obsoletos. Estes obxectos son un claro exemplo da sociedade galega de hai unhas cantas décadas, unha forma de vida na que o autoconsumo e a reciclaxe estaban moi presentes e rodeadas de orixinalidade, imaxinación e moita creatividade.

Todos os obxectos pertencen aos meus avós e están totalmente feitos por eles. Un dos aparellos ten unha diferenza respecto dos outros. Trátase dun fouciño que foi creado para suplir unha carencia física. Meu avó paterno era dinamiteiro e nunha explosión non controlada perdeu parte da man dereita, conservando tan só os dedos anular e maimiño. Por ese motivo tivo que idear un brazalete para poder suxeitar o fouciño ao antebrazo e así poder seguir traballando nos labores do campo. O resto dos obxectos están feitos polo meu avó materno. Coas súas mans crea a partir dunha vara un calzador, cunha culler e uns paus unhas pinzas para recoller noces, cunha lata de sardiñas unha rateira ou cun par de matrículas vellas unha martabela para espantar os paxaros.

Os obxectos son produto da sociedade rural galega, unha cultura no que o autoconsumo está presente e na que todo pode ser reutilizado. Pero esta idea de reciclaxe xa case non se atopa e é unha verdadeira pena que todo isto se estea a perder.

GRANDPARENTS STUFF

Every day I come by my granparents’ attic. An attic full of broken old, dirty objects…among them I found some quite peculiar ones, they were gadgets made from pieces of already obsolete ones. These objects are a clear example of the Galician society of some decades ago, a way of life in which personal consumption and recycling were very present and surrounded by originality, imagination and loads of creativity.

All the objects belong to my grandparents and they are wholly crafted by them. One of the gadgets has a difference with regard to the others. It is a sickle which was created to replace a physical deficiency. My paternal grandfather was a dynamater and he lost part of his right hand in an uncontrolled explosion, being only left with his ring and little fingers. For that reason he had to think of a bracelet in order to attach the sickle to his forearm, and so to be able to work the land. The remaining objects are made by my maternal grandfather; with his own hands he crafts a shoehorn from a pole, tongs to pick up nuts from a spoon and some sticks, a mousetrap from a can of sardines; or a “martabela” to frighten away the birds from a couple of number plates.

The objects are the product of Galician society, a culture in which personal consumption is ever-present and in which everything can be reused. But this idea of recycling is becoming more and more difficult to be found and it is a real shame that someday all this will be lost.