How did the family business start?

Marisa: I am the fifth generation. My great-great-grandfather Nicolás Goiburu worked in the establishment called Arrizabala, which opened its doors in 1820. They made and sold chocolate, candy and candles. Later, in 1856, he and his wife Rita Orbaiz bought the house where the store is currently located and opened the Goiburu store there. It was also a chocolate shop and a candlestick at first. Candy and candles have always been very united because beeswax was used to make candles and honey for caramels. Wax and honey were discarded in the same pots after cleaning well. Electricity reached the streets of Aoiz in 1893, so until recently there were in the villages and churches very necessary candles and many candlesticks.

Rita became a widow at 44 and her six children and had to run the business alone. They were good times and bought a small water mill and land to grind the chocolate. In the garden of Rita, still known by the name of the people, she had farmland, vinassos, fruit and chopsticks, so they started selling more food in the store: flour, fruit, vegetables, wine… There were many foces in the area. In Aoiz they became 60 wineries. For some houses wine was made for internal consumption and for others it was also sold.

Maria Luisa: our family continued with Kandel for many years. My father was the last candlestick here in Aoiz. I was always coming out of the factory with a huge headache, because it was very toxic. The common candles, the great candles, the squads were placed on the church's graves, and made beautiful candles decorated for baptisms and communions. The father had a very good hand to curl the wax with tweezers. Parents were always thinking about what else they could do to sell in the store. My mother and I, for example, were making jam. The women came with their pawns and we discounted and filled the weight of the boat.

More sustainable trade than today…

Marisa: Yeah, sure. Wax was also sold according to Lerma, for example. This means that people wore big candles to get them out in the biatic or in the processions, but they paid only for the wax they consumed. For this they weighed before taking them and returning. And then the kids would pick up the wax drop to the ground in exchange for some candy back to the store. This wax was discarded in a casserole for reuse. The exchange was also common. An 1839 invoice, for example, states that some carpenters were paid for chocolate.

Customer relationship was based on trust. In a letter, for example, a customer is told: “I send you the piece of fabric you liked. Cut off whatever you need and then pay me.” Many times we were promised to bring special things from Pamplona, like the rosary of communions. Today we continue to operate with the same confidence.

The second generation stage was darker. Why?

Marisa: A son of Rita, Thomas, my great-grandfather, took the tent. She married Margarita Irigoien and had five children, but Thomas died with Margarita only 38. She was a very enterprising woman, and she appears, for example, in a notarial document, in the creation of the flour mill and the factory that was made in the village as a partner, along with the Ortiz family. In all places only the names of men are mentioned, but Margarita was one of the creators, as the documents we have show.

However, it had serious economic problems. For example, after the construction of the El Irati S.A. sawmill, there were severe flooding that seriously affected its vegetable garden. It was tough years and business failed.

When Margarita died in 1926, my grandfather Juan had to mortgage the house to pay the burial and then they had to sell Rita's vegetable garden. From then on everything was working to recover the house.

How did they get the business back together?

Marisa: Doing a great job. Her grandfather married Dolores Okiñena, from the village of Juan Eneritz, and the dowry helped them return from scratch. They were hard times, but they came to the imagination, they created new businesses and roads, always geared to serving people.

He bought a car and started offering taxi service. The same was used for street sales. The work pants, underwear, food and all the things they were asking for were going to the towns of Aezkoa and Artzibar. In 1933 they opened a movie theater in the Plaza del Mercado, in the building that used to be the city hall. It had 200 locations where, in addition to the films, they offered blackberries and theatrical performances. In 1949 they were forced to close by a fire. There, too, in the basement, they had a warehouse. It was changing like the “ultramarines” of the old Goiburu store. Grandpa, for example, opened large windows. On the border with France I had seen that the shops on the other side had large windows and he did the same. He said the window was one more shopper.

Grandpa kept all the bills. We all have them since 1934, and in them you see what and where they bought and sold. Over 100 products.

Maria Luisa: we had to go shopping every week to the warehouses of Pamplona and we brought the genre in the buses of La Montañesa or on the Irati train. Then, from the station, the children of the village carried the load in procession to the store in exchange for some candy.

Christmas was the nicest time. We put a window full of toys and mazapans. We brought toys to order and kept them after the store. When I was little I didn't understand anything: women came, they paid for toys, but they didn't take them. We kept them after the store and then they appeared in the houses, distributed by the Magi.

Dad and mom were always thinking about what else they could do to get a little more money.

What was the war like?

Marisa: Very hard. There was a lot missing and everything was very controlled with the rationing cards. If they gave him more than he was entitled to, they would penalize him. The store closed us three months.

We have saved rationing brochures and coupons where you can see how people lived. Now the people of the village can see all this information here.

María Luisa: It was a very difficult time, but because we had an oven and flour, at least we had bread. As a child, the mother told us to eat snacks so as not to go out into the street, so as not to envy others.

And were they smuggling?

Marisa: We have little information about it, but it has come to us that the Birramona Margarita went down the mountain roads to France with crutches and men who brought gender.

Maria Luisa: they said of Margarita that she was a woman with a lot of ass and few seats, because she was very moved.

What is the secret of the good merchant?

María Luisa: It takes great diplomacy and sometimes rather thick skin. My mother said that the client should always be right so that, even if he does not have one, he will be happy. The right treatment, knowing people and wanting to provide the best service are the keys to small trade, because tomorrow we will continue here.

You have to listen, see and often silence. You have to keep it secret if someone can't pay or who drives in every house.

Once, for example, when I was little, a woman didn't come to pay the monthly bill, and my mother sent me to collect her home. He said, "What are you coming to?" “Looking for what you should,” I said. He brought me home and told me before an image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ that in his name he asked my mother to forgive the debt. However, I defended my own, but that's right, when I went back to the store, I told my mother not to send her back to claim the debts. But these have been some exceptions. Most people are good, if not, we would not have stayed here 200 years!

Has the work of women in this family been fundamental?

Marisa: That's right. All of them have been very strong women. We always say that our family is the story of strong women and good men. In hard times, our relatives have been friendly men who have not prevented women from moving.

Maria Luisa, what was your time like?

Maria Luisa: I've always worked hard both in the store and at home. In my youth, the wedding didn't catch my attention, but my mother didn't keep quiet and I finally accepted what my parents proposed to me. It was a concerted wedding. My parents and theirs came to an agreement and in January 1962 we made the presentation. So I started walking with Demetrio Aldaz from Egiarreta and everything went very well. We stayed in Pamplona to speak on Sundays and then came every Sunday to Aoiz on his motorbike in Egiarreta, which made a lot of noise... In October of that same year we got married, fast, because here we needed help and we managed very well.

I've read 14,000 times the first letter he wrote to me. He was more romantic than I was. It was very nice. The letters of the Nobial era now appear in the book. What a shame!

My late mother had a lot of character and feared him. Demetrius came from a family of farmers who had to get into the family business, but he was very hardworking and kind and people loved him very much from the beginning. It adapted well to the family and the people. Fortunately, everything has gone well.

And what is the current situation?

Marisa: Very difficult. Competition is enormous. At first the big shopping malls and then the internet have placed many limitations on us. In the end we have only been left with textiles. This is the last generation of the Goiburu store. I do not have children and I do not think anyone will continue when I retire, but I do not think about the future. It is enough for me to lift the shutter every day. I would like small trade to continue, because that brings a people to life, but I see it very difficult. Here in Aoiz, there were five butchers and there are only two left. Almost all major street shops have also been closed. We have completely lost our young customers.

I remain trapped by the profession. This is a poison. Trade is carried in the blood and we like it. The store is our home.

We have made a book, anniversary celebrations and guided tours to value this family history and reclaim the importance of small trade.

Fortunately we have a lot of documentation and all the invoices saved and with all this Kati Leache, from the company Karekin Kultura, has produced a beautiful book. All the economic returns will be destined for the Hidea Cultural Association, dedicated to the study of the history and heritage of the locality. We wanted to share all this with the people, because ultimately, local trade is an important part of the history of peoples. much.

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OFF THE RECORD

An endless merchant

Maria Luisa: In the store we sold everything: food, drugstore, Christmas toys, light appliances, straws, fabrics, sweets, school books -- sometimes my parents sold home stuff. Once a woman asked her son for a toy ox cart to give it away, and her mother sold her brother's cart on top of a closet. And look what he did to me: we made the honeymoon to Zaragoza and there we bought my mother a nice manicure box, but when the opportunity came, he sold it to a man who wanted a kind of gift for his girlfriend. He was a great merchant.