We arrived in Mendata in the early afternoon. It is a beautiful village on the top of rolling hills.
Marije then took us to her cousin Kepa’s (Pedro) house. He is the oldest brother of David and a grandson of Tereza. He was a contractor and has recently built his own beautiful home. He now is retired but makes his own version of the local wine (Txakoli).
At the town hall we met a wonderful lady who was very helpful. We were able to find civil records for most of Benita’s siblings. Remember that Benita, our grandmother, had 5 siblings: Nicasio, Leon, Sandalio, Tereza, and Maria, in that order. Benita was the youngest of 6. Her and Leon both came to America when they were young.
We arrived back at Lekeitio with tremendous gratitude for the events of the day, and excitement to meet many new relatives in the next two days.
Ramon, David Zabala Enbeita, Idoia Mallea Lamikiz, Marije Mallea Zabala, Valerie, Edna, Troy
Valerie, Cepa Zabala Enbeita, one of Cepa’s two dogs, Edna, Ramon, Troy
The Church is at the top of the picture with the town hall just to the left. This was not the Church were Benita and the family were baptized in, though it was closer to their house.
Below is a picture of the first page of the two page civil birth record of Maria, Benita’s sister.
A recurring theme happened at that point. The lady helping us at the town hall felt the Spirit of what we were doing, and she got on her phone and called local residents who she knew were descendants of the people whose records we were studying. Before we were done she too had tears in her eyes as she was part of the reuniting experience. It was one of many little miracles where the right people were in the right place at the right time for us to be able to find our relatives. She found some relatives who were close by, told them of our situation, and within minutes they had arrived.
Edna, Troy, Belen Zabala Enbeita, Ramon, Valerie
Marije then took us to the Mendata Cemetery. It turns out that in earlier days each family had a sepulcher in the Church in which family members would be laid. Over a hundred years ago they quit doing this, and began use of more traditional graveyards. The bones from the Churches were actually put in the graveyards. As in most of Europe, due to space issues, only relatively recent gravestones remain in graveyards, as space is periodically re-used.
One of the graves was that of Tereza’s oldest son Jacinto and his wife Itziar, the parents of 7 including David.
Next Marije took us on a short walk to a hill just above Mendata. She said in the meadow pictured below, Tereza would take her and the other grandchildren to play.
From the top of the hill you can look down and see the the town of Arrazua (Arratzu) and the Church Santo Tomas Apostol where Benita and all the family were baptized (the same Church we had visited the day before).
From the same hill you can look slightly left and see Guernica and the Ocean just north of Guernica. Marije said that from this hill, family members watched in terror as Guernica burned after it was bombed by Franco and Hitler’s Luftwaffe on April 26, 1937. It was market day and many of their family were there. Tereza’s house was destroyed and she moved in temporarily with Nicasio and then up to Mendata. While a number of neighbors died in the bombing, none of the immediate family perished.
He took us down to his gym sized garage, where he keeps his favorite toys, including a vintage U.S. Cadillac which really stands out compared to most of the small sized European cars. He also has a piano down there which he played for us. He is also coming to Boise in July to the festival.
Finally, as we started back to Lekeitio, we drove by the house in which Benita and her family were born and lived, the Caserio Urquiza. It is now owned by someone else, but they allowed us to take a number of pictures, two of which are below. It was a standard farm house (Caserio), optimized for agriculture.
Spain Trip - Afternoon, Friday, May 27