THE CAMARIÑAS LACE AND ITS HISTORY. An old legend tells about a youth sailor in love with a beautiful woman, but they were so poor that they could not marry. One day, dreaming in front of the sea, a siren appeared to him. She fell in love with him and she invited him to go with her, however the youth spoke to her of his lover and about the problem that prevented them to be together. The siren, sympathizing with the lovers, gave him a fantastic shell that every time that his girlfriend listened to it, it inspired her to create lace and so, she teached her neighbours how to make it. Another of the known legends about the origin of the lace in Galicia, tells that one of the many Italian ships that passed in front of the costs of Camariñas shipwrecked due to a strong swell, being very few the survivors. In gratefulness to the help given by people of these lands that provided them accommodation and food, an Italian lady taught the bobbin lace art to the women of Camariñas, from where it was spread to the whole Galician coast. The intense commercial coming and going between Italy and Flandes at the end of the Middle Age, could propitiate the origin of the lace in our country, since the Italian merchants, besides selling us their laces, left models that the lace makers incorporated to their handmade crafts. These merchants were also the buyers of these works before the lace makers dares to sell it in the near districts, as Mario Gallego affirms in his study "Os encaixes" (Vigo,1989). Neither we can forget the importance that the pilgrimage way to Santiago had for the introduction of varied cultural elements coming from all Europe since the Middle Age. During the centuries of its height, kings, noblemen and an anonymous multitude traveled to Santiago where they left their offerings to the Apostle, for, in many cases, to continue to Muxía -neighboring village of Camariñas - and Fisterra, where the mythical Finisterrae was reached. The entrance of flemish lace, that takes place from final of the XIV century, is evidenced in the churches inventories carried out due to pastoral visits, in those the presence of flemish lace in the sacred ornamental clothes are appointed. There are references to pieces of varied lace, in use and size, in inventories and other documents of the XV and XVI centuries. Antonio López Ferreiro, XIX century historian and canon of Santiago's cathedral, reveals haw much extended is this craft in our lands when he says that in the XV century "...Another important industry was the cloths making, because they were knitted some very good ones, like it is appreciated by those that took the names of Padrón, Coruña, Allariz and Neda, the places where they were manufactured. Also good laces are made, especially in Corcubión, Bergantiños and Mugia..." We can assume there were not palace or rich trousseau without good cloths ornamented with lace. Toward 1520 The count Fernando of Andrade went to Flanders, to participate in the wars that occupied Europe in that time, with many Galician noblemen and a numerous army of the district of Pontedeume (A Coruña), where the castle of the Andrade family is. When they got back, these men didn't only come with models, samples and laces, but rather they also returned married with women that knew the practice of this work. This way, new models and techniques were introduced and they will spread easily along the Galician north coast. It is also known that in the first quarter of the XVI century and from the village of Muros, as probably from other ports, many ships left that took long trips to Portugal, Andalusia, France, Flanders, England, Italy.., all them work places or reception of lace. From the XV century the use of lace had extended in cloths and trousseaus, being in the XVI century when the nobility and richer classes imposed the fashion of wearing lace in the clothes, favoring its definitive spread due to the increase of the demand. Also the women of the rural nobility and of the bourgeoisie took as entertainment the elaboration of fine lace. During this century many laws were edicted trying to contain the unstoppable pleasure for the luxury, even ending up Felipe II to prohibit the use of the lace. These royal orders were not very well accepted since in the XVII century, and this time Felipe III prohibited again it use. In any case, people did not stop using lace in cuffs, collars, veils, handkerchiefs, sacred and domestic trousseaus. However, toward 1690 it is detected in Spain an important decrease in the production, mainly to the entrance of foreigner lace, French in their biggest part. The XVIII century begins with the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty and also begins an interest on the part of the State in boosting the national economy. However, it will be necessary to wait to the last quarter of the century to see the first planning of the Spanish industry, as "The Speech of the Popular Education" of the Marqués de Campomanes, published in 1774, reveals. It means a reflection of the erudite postulates, protectives and directed to mitigate the deficit in the Spanish balance of payments. In the preeliminar part of the speech on the development of the popular industry, he refers to the intention of promoting this industry by means of the "Patriotic Societies of the Friends of the Country", with the help of bishops, councils, ecclesiastical communities and parish priests of villages, being demonstrated that with the industry "the balance of the industrious country wins on the rude and poor in arts ones." Galicia already had an important linen production that was the base of the development of the Galician cloths and lace. Until this moment the spun was made with distaff, but the transformations, guided to the progress of the textile sector, will cause the potenciación of the use of the lathe, to obtain a bigger perfection in the spun. This way, the Santiago Economic Society of Friends of the Country, been founded in 1785, manufactured lathes and it distributed them among the artisans, besides establishing schools for the learning of its operation. However, beacause Galicia did not have a customs politic, or that it protected its interests, it was defenseless from the foreign trade or from other developed areas of the country. The Chief Magistrate of Ferrol provides, in 1770, a list of foreign products that enter through the ports of the department and among other data he says "... From the the Northen and Mediterranean countries enter in the Port of Ferrol, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and other ships, with velvets, damasks, stockings, caps, laces, thread... " The difficulties for the expansion of the home trade, mainly to the strong competition of other lace centres, are increased by the precariousness of the transport and the roads. Even so, in the XVIII century an expansion of the handmade lace making takes place in Galicia. It is even supposed that it was then when in Galicia embroideress's name was changed by that of lace maker or palilleira. The Church was also a great consumer of lace, the old pieces that have survided in more quantity are those belonging to sacred ornaments as altar cloths, sacramental vestments and dresses of religious images. The church got lots of these accessories through offerings and donations or buying them. In the inventories of the parish administrations, we can see the accounts of lace purchases for the Camariñas church of San Xurxo, since 1737 to 1846. Thay are lace pieces for priestly vestments. We find important data referred to the lace during this century in the "Catastro del Marqués de la Ensenada", minister of Fernando VI. It is a valuable census carried out by the middle of century that listed the wealth, assets and population of the Kingdom of Castile and León. It is known that, for instance, in the small city of Pontevedra (Galicia) there were 320 lace makers and 13 lace merchants and also the existence of teachers and skilled workers is mentioned, in spite of lacking an union regulator of the profession. Another fundamental work for the study of this craft is the one carried out by the economist Eugenio Larruga, that in its "Political and economic memoirs on the benefit, trade, factories and mines of Spain", published in Madrid among the years 1787 and 1800, he makes mention to diverse places in Galicia where lace was made and he points out that "most of the women train in making lace to decorate clothes, but there is not stable factory." In 1786 the General Board of Trade and Currency tries to establish a series of instructions adressed to all the Spanish factories, with the purpose of braking the fraud that foreign merchants generated in America selling as his products manufactured in Spain. These instructions indicate the actions protectives of the state with regard to the exports and it also locates the geography of the lace in Galicia. It is in the last third of the XVIII century when the colonial market opens up for Galicia, the emigration contributed in the penetration of the Galician products in the American markets and a great parallelism exists between the difussion of the lace and the geography of the emigration. The migratory phenomenon constitutes the aspect more characteristic of the Galician population's, mainly in the XIX century. The magnitude of the emigration of the first half of this century is ignored, it should not be very significant due to population's increase that registers in Galicia, but starting from the second half of the century an unstoppable exodus that will take to a great quantity of Galician to Cuba, Argentina and Mexico takes place. They will be therefore these, the main destinations of the Galician lace. The production had to be abundant for the data that José Lucas Labrada provides, in his "Economic Description of the Kingdom of Galicia" (1804), where he says about Camariñas "... in the whole jurisdiction three hundred women are devoted without stopping to the factory of ordinary lace, that benefit inside and outside of the country". It also contributes relating data about other towns in those lace is elaborated. Due to the abundant remained correspondence among the lace importer Manuel Miñones, from Ponte do Porto (Camariñas), and the commercial Argentinean firm Peña y Bernardo, it is deduced that toward final of the XIX century the presence of lace is increased in the American market. These letters contribute, also, other data that reveal the isolation as for communications that it suffered the district, the preference for the narrow lace edgings and the demand of quality in the products. They also inform us of the strong competition that existed, starting from the first years of the XX century, among the Galician exporters and Almagro or Catalonia. In 1901, Francisco M. Balboa, merchant of lace of Muxía, points out in an article that in the Camariñas district eight or ten thousand women and girls were devoted to the elaboration of lace. It contributes relating figures to the export :
These data show that the biggest volume of sales is carried out in Cuba, followed by Argentina, and in lesser extent in the other countries above indicated. With regard to the sales in Galicia, he calculates that the figure ascended to 50.000 pesetas. In the year 1905 the figures are increased and Alfredo García Campos facilitates the following quantities:
Of this information it is deduced that Cuba continues being the most consumer country of lace, possibly due to the rise of the price of the sugar, and that from the port of A Coruña it goes more merchandise to Cuba, and from Vigo to Argentina. It is interesting to point out the allusions that García Campos makes about the fraud that takes place in the American trade, since as he indicates, lace from other places were sold as if it was Camariñas lace. An anonymous writer affirms in an article of La Voz de Galicia in 1914, to have stores opened up in Buenos Aires, Río de Janeiro, San Juan de Puerto Rico and New York, and to send goods to Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, Cuba and Mexico. He says that the production of these lace generates in the Camariñas district half million pesetas in one year. This indicates the great dimension that the exports reached in this first quarter of the century. The Camariñas lace has suffered an historical organization lack, as much in the production as in the distribution, and the lack of a legal covering that aids to the sector. Since the Middel Age intents were made to regulate the artisans productions, the great quantity of royal laws about it are good proofs of it. In the beginning of the XX century, in the year 1915, are stablish in Madrid a Board and a Central Workshop of lace, directed by the Countess of Pardo Bazán and the Marqués de Figueroa, among others, that had as objectives the creation of a technical consulting, the realization of typically Spanish designs, the commercialization of the lace abroad and to start propaganda projects. They even visited the Minister of Development "to request grants for the establishment of lace industries." However these measures had little influence in the lace sector of Camariñas and, due to the strong state centralization, practically it didn't benefit of these initiatives. In these years, the magazine from Madrid Nuevo Mundo was interested in the reality of the Galician lace and it offered a series of reports that contribute a valuable information. It is known this way, for instance, that the wage of a lace maker in 1914 was of about six reales daily, that the Camariñas lace became essential, due to its acceptance, in the Argentinean, Cuban and Mexican trade, it shows that the Galician lace is elaborated by women of different social class, contrary to other places in those that the women dedicated to this work are, mainly, of middle class. Among other news, it also makes reference to the consequences originated by the First World War outbreak. Germany, France, England, the Netherlands and Belgium, among other, have to abandon the production and the export of lace due to the circumstances. Camariñas and other areas of the Peninsula took out profit of this circumstances and they improved their situation in the national, European and American markets. Only in the county of A Coruña there were in 1921 more than twenty thousand women and girls dedicated to the lace making and one year before, merchandise was sold for more than three million pesetas, receiving Cuba the third two parts of the total. This situation of prosperity lasted until the years 1926 and 1927, when the exports to America descended. The basic reasons for this market loss were the currency change in several American countries, the revaluation of the peseta and the commercial crises that Argentina and Cuba suffered during those years. The Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, in following decades, also supposed a recession in the Galician lace due to the consequent economic crises and to the loss of the traditional channels of distribution. Even so, the production didn't got paralyzed, since it was continued supplying to the interior market. The general Franco's dictatorship fomented the revaluation of the national crafts and beneficial measures for the promotion of the Camariñas lace were took. They were organized exhibitions in those that it was present the Camariñas lace and, in 1948, the Sección Femenina stablished in the village the School of Professional Training of Youths. This school not only supposed that many women learned the technique of the laceg, but also the recognition of the important work of the lace makers. This shop was uninterruptedly open until 1978. Starting from 1970 a resurgence of the craft and an important increment of the production takes place. At the end of this decade they took place in the Provincial Museum of Pontevedra two exhibitions that collaborated notably to the knowledge and diffusion of the lace among the population that was unaware of the environment of Camariñas. The erudite and writer Xosé Filgueira Valverde, director of the museum in that moment, wrote in this respect: "The Exhibition of Camariñas bobbin lace constituted a pleasant surprise, without a doubt it is one of the most motivating that installed the Museum up to now. The number and variety of pieces and the world of their work utensils, in their different phases, they make understand the popular part of the lace makers " From the beginning of 1980 the lace has been present in, practically, all the exhibitions, fairs and shows of Galician craft. At the same time they arise new shops and artisans' associations that organize courses, exhibitions, meetings, etc., without forgetting the institutional support that, without a doubt, it is necessary for the consolidation and promotion of the lace sector of Camariñas. It is necessary to point out in this respect the importance of the promulgation of the Law of Crafts of Galicia, in 1992 that supposed: . The establishment of the areas of crafts interest. At the present time the bobbin lace continues being an activity of great importance for the local economy and it is growing the number of artisans that are devoted to this work. Due to this, a centuries-old tradition that enriches the heritage of the country is maintained alive. As for the organization of the production, it has already been pointed out that the Galician lace sector lacked a structure that favors its development traditionally and, mainly that protects the artisans. In the begining it was a domestic activity that provided some fundamental incomes in times in those that, due to the bad wheater, the fishermen could not set sail and therefore, the income were limited. The lace was sold in the markets or local fairs. Since the demand and the production increase, the middleman figure appears and the artisans lose the control of their own work, undergoing the orders and prices that these merchants impose them. The lace makers did not got rich with their work, however many middlemen saw grow their personal assets. The fittings that were elaborated in more quantity, were the lace edging and the insertion. They could be counted almost a thousand of different designs, those most
used ones and many variants. They have gotten lost a great quantity of them
eventually and, partly, motivated by the market ; mainly those of more laborious
work and with thiner thread. Many designs of the lace works had own name
and until us those that are still made at the present time have arrived
: Simona, fieita, ganapan, maravilla, corredor de Camelle, centro
de Braño, rosario, campanas, peineta, gitana, ramo, etc.
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