The little-known history of the Pyrenees mountain women - BBC REEL

Between 1850 and 1930, almost 80,000 women from rural villages in Spain migrated across the perilous Pyrenees mountain range in search of work.
They were known as 'The Swallows,' and were vital to the thriving espadrille industries of southern France. Today, their granddaughters are retracing their footsteps in their memory.
Video by Nacho Larumbe
Commissioning Editor: Harriet Constable
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[@Kenan-Z]

I like such obscure stories coming to the light. These women should be very strong willed to bear all these hardships. Respect to them.

[@RealSalica]

That is SO interesting ! I wish you could find more regional facts like this one , so much life stories need to be recorded .

[@j.n.sloane]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this history.

[@CasimirLeYeti]

Entre 1850 y 1930, casi 80.000 mujeres de pueblos rurales de España emigraron a través de la peligrosa cordillera de los Pirineos en busca de trabajo. Eran conocidos como 'Las golondrinas', y eran vitales para las prósperas industrias de alpargatas del sur de Francia. Hoy, sus nietas siguen sus pasos en su memoria.

[@beautifulsight4145]

Gracias por compartir un video de historia tan necesaria para que la gente se acuerde que la vida era muy dura. Tenemos que estar agradecidos por la vida de hoy.

[@worstchoresmadesimple6259]

I have been to Roncal, Far Eastern edges of Navarra. The villages are near empty, the result of mass rural urban migration. Maybe they once did speak a weird Basque dialect in the 19th century, but given how difficult it was to reach Roncal through the deep valleys, ravines and mountains, the isolation was splendid and spoken Spanish, popular. That they worked in Mauleon and returned to their isolated villages for a meagre wage and used that to make local purchases, tells me a lot about the French. Same rural urban migration applies in Cantabria.

[@Despacitoporelmundo]

Buenísimo documental. Yo, viniendo de Navarra, no sabía nada de esta interesante historia. Chapeau.

[@christianfrommuslim]

Wow! Good story. Also do one on the hungry Swedish girls of the 19th century who hoped for a better life in America and were married by proxy in Sweden. When they arrived, they were shocked to discover that they were in polygamous marriages to their Mormon husbands. They were still poor. On top of that, they were outcasts who had to push hand carts across the country to Utah. They spoke no English and knew no one except their captors. They were trapped.

[@CasimirLeYeti]

A very sad story, always there were greedy, corrupt people to take advantage of the naivety and/or the poverty of others...

[@lynlee9446]

This is interesting and tasking.. I am proud of these women that went on this journey. But, i will like to know, how is it that its the men that is responsible to inform and see that they do so?!

[@rambla12000]

BBC can't tell us about border crossing 'cause there was not border crsossing. Pyrenees's been always common land.

[@germanderbelga]

Un apunte meramente histórico. Entre 1850 y 1930 no hubo ningún Franco en España (respuesta al minuto 6.00).

[@CasimirLeYeti]

Te equivocaste...

[@germanderbelga]

@@CasimirLeYeti Algo bastante humano.

[@manuelrichard4097]

The problem is that the gentleman is effectively saying (5.58) that you couldn't buy anything with francs (the French currency, even the euro), but the BBC subtitles say: "Under Franco's dictatorship you couldn't ( buy something with French money). Here is the problem. But there is also another problem here, because we are talking about a very long time from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. Because otherwise it is not possible for two men to present themselves as sons of swallows. They appear to be in their 70s, so their mothers were girls in the 1940s. That said, it is ridiculous to say that the people of those valleys did not have mirrors. And finally, it is also clear that they returned not only with things, but with French francs that could be spent in Spain. Well, historians and ordinary people like to think of the past as an idyllic backward pastoral way of life.

[@PLuMUK54]

These women crossed mountains on foot, probably without complaint. Today people moan if they don't have the latest phone. I am glad that story of these courageous woman is being highlighted. The world needs role models like this. I am reminded of my grandma. During the depression of the 1930s, she walked barefoot (she had already sold her shoes) from the village to the nearby city in order to sell her knee length hair to a wigmaker in order to put food on the table. The food kept the family going for another week. Apparently, she never once complained.

[@Happy_HIbiscus]

basque people?

[@Lacteagalaxia]

En vez de hacer lo de Melilla podían hablar de su país que está hecho una 💩

[@xx7101]

Lovely story