José Antonio Labordeta, grande.

José Antonio Labordeta died this week after a long struggle with cancer. He leaves a legacy of song, of integrity and love for his homeland, Aragón, and for the people of Spain. The city of Zaragoza has declared three days of mourning. Over 50,000 people lined the streets to pay their respects as his body lay in state in the Aljafería. From everywhere come expressions of love and sadness for this honorable man.





Polvo, niebla, viento y sol
Donde hay agua una huerta
Al norte los Pirineos
La tierra es Aragón

Al norte los Pirineos,
al sur la sierra callada
Pasa el Ebro por el centro
Con su soledad a la espalda

Dicen que hay tierras al este
Donde se trabaja y pagan
Y al oeste el Moncayo
Como un Dios que ya no ampara

Desde tiempos a esta parte
Vamos camino de nada
Vamos a ver como el Ebro
Con su soledad se marcha

Con él, van en compaña
Las gentes de estas vaguadas
Los valles de esta sierra
Las huertas arruinadas

Polvo, niebla, viento y sol
Y donde hay agua una huerta
Al norte los Pirineos
La tierra es Aragón

This song is "Albada," in the tradition of songs sung at dawn as people went out to the fields to work.


Here he is, acting as "pregonero," officially opening the Fiestas del Pilar in Zaragoza, evoking with love the thousands of years of history of his beloved Aragón and its capital Zaragoza (text here)





And the song that many consider the song of Aragón, Canto a la libertad




Letra:

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

Hermano, aquí mi mano
será tuya en mi frente
y tu gesto de siempre
caerá sin levantar
huracanes de miedo
ante la LIBERTAD

Haremos el camino
en un mismo trazado
uniendo nuestros hombros
para así levantar
a aquellos que cayeron
gritando LIBERTAD

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

Sonarán las campanas
desde los campanarios
y los campos desiertos
volverán a granar
unas espigas altas
dispuestas para el pan

Para un pan que en los siglos
nunca fue repartido
entre todos aquellos
que hicieron lo posible
por empujar la historia
hacia la LIBERTAD.

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD

También será posible
que esa hermosa mañana
ni tú, ni yo, ni el otro
la lleguemos a ver,
pero habrá que empujarla
para que pueda ser.
Que sea como un viento
que arranque los matojos
surgiendo la verdad
y limpie los caminos
de siglos de destrozos
contra la LIBERTAD.

Habrá un día en que todos
al levantar la vista
veremos una tierra
que ponga LIBERTAD.

Aragoneses in the western United States

Growing up in San Francisco, we sometimes ate in family-style Basque restaurants. I later learned that Basques had immigrated to California and the West to work as shepherds, but didn't know much about this history of three generations. As it turns out, now Basques in California own the herds, and immigrants from other countries such as Chile or Mongolia are hired to do to do this hard, lonely work (see these pictures in a BBC feature). Since 2001, laws have been put in place to ensure minimum pay and better living conditions, and herding sheep continues to compete with other land uses for water and resources.
A little know chapter of this history is that a smaller number of immigrants from the Pyrenees came from Alto Aragón, the villages of the northern mountains of Aragón, between the '30s and the '70s. Like the Basque-speaking immigrants from Spain, they too settled in the United States. Carlos Tarazona has filmed a documentary called "Borreguerros" in which 18 of them (including a man who has just turned 100!) tell their stories. The film will premier in Ansó, one of the towns from which they came, according to this story in El Heraldo de Aragón. Here's a clip (h/t Purnas)
In the category of "I did not know that" also falls the fact that the breed of dog known as the Australian shepherd is actually a dog bred by Basque shepherds in U.S. that then was brought to Australia.