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The heart of the "espartina."
The town of Mauléon in Zuberoa claims its place as
the capital of the espadrille or espartina in Basque.
Until the 1960's this industry employed 2,000 people working
in 30 factories in Soule (Zuberoa). "The Swallows"
as they were called, a talented seasonal workforce crossed
the border in large numbers from the province of Navarra in
Spain. The Chinese competition has taken over the industry.
Today there are only five factories in Mauléon employing
about a hundred workers making up 80% of the total French
production.
 One
of them, Jean-Pierre Errecart, regularly conducts tours of
its workshop and explains the seven or eight necessary steps
to making espadrilles. (Atelier Prodisio, route de Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port,
05-59-28-28-48, tours from March 1st to September 30th). One
association of shoemakers, Bigaya, was created to defend
the local production (05-59-28-12-49). They will explain why
the espadrilles of Mauléon, which sell for a starting
price of 6 Euros, having nothing in common with those large
numbers of espartinak sold by the large stores for nearly
one third the price.
Let's do our part to support the local artisans of the Basque
Country and maintain another part of the Basque culture.
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2002,
Pierre Igoa