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Photo credit: Sancho el Sabio Foundation.
On 21 December, as every year, El Arenal and the Plaza Nueva square in Bilbao will be teeming with people enjoying the festive atmosphere of St. Thomas’s Market. Continuing a decades-long tradition, the baserritarras (farmers) and smallholders of Bizkaia will be there to showcase their best produce and thus bring the urban and rural worlds closer together.
This tradition dates back at least to the 19th century, when the tenant farmers went to the city to pay the annual rent to the owners of their farmsteads, the majority of whom lived in Bilbao. Given the closeness to Christmas, along with paying the rent, the tenants would gift the landlords a selection of the best produce from their land and their barnyards, as well as pork delicacies. According to the people interviewed, the farmers were treated to a lunch or a meal in return.
Women farmers at Mungia (Bizkaia) Market. Photo credit: Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
Yesterday, on 2 December and to mark Basque Language Day, Bilbao City Council paid tribute to the vendejeras [women selling their wares at market] who continue to bring their produce to La Ribera Market; in recognition of the many decades that they have bought the Basque language of their different areas to Bilbao, along with the produce from their vegetable gardens.
Nowadays, it is unlikely that many people under fifty will have ever heard the word “vendeja”. The vendeja is the fruit and vegetable produce that the baserritarras (women farmers) take to market. And vendejera is used to refer to the women selling their wares.
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