Getxo - WHAT TO SEE - Juana Bizcarra – Route from Zugazarte to Las Arenas

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Juana Bizcarra – Route from Zugazarte to Las Arenas

Juana Bizkarra

Photograph on loan from Getxoko Liburutegiak – Getxo Municipal Libraries

Thanks to this story, all will be revealed about the life of Juana Bizcarra and her fellow nannies. They performed an invaluable service for the upper middle-classes here in Bizkaia that chose to set up home in Getxo, as these women were responsible for looking after their children, and sometimes even acted as wet nurses.

These añas (also referred to as nodrizas (wet nurses), amas de cría (wet nurses) or ayas (governesses) in the Basque Country) were responsible for taking the children for walks in the gardens along Zugazarte and Ondategi, a neighbourhood built between 1916 and 1935. The streets provided the backdrop for these starched white aprons and the laughter and games of the little ones, who looked upon them almost like mothers.

Accompany Juana on her route and discover other traditional trades boosted by this increase in population. Follow her steps -from Zugazarte into the very heart of Las Arenas- and admire the buildings, among the anonymous people and famous names that breathed life into this garden city.

JUANA BIZCARRA (1882- ¿?)

Juana Bizcarra Ubieta came to Getxo from Abadiño (a town in Bizkaia about 35 km south-east of Bilbao), in 1926 to work as an aña or nanny in a family home here in Las Arenas.

Juana wore a uniform, and she could usually be seen walking along the avenue Avenida Zugazarte and around Ondategi with her fellow nannies, wearing her long white or navy-blue dress beneath an immaculate white apron, her hair in a bun, and large earrings. Another "accessory" involved large English-made prams.

Aged 44, Juana was the eldest of the four servants (five in summer) that attended to the household needs of this family made up of a couple and their child. She worked for them for 24 months. We do not know anything about her life after that, but it would be nice to think that she held a special place in the memory of the child to whom she dedicated part of her life.

1. Cisco House I (1909, 1914, 1928)

Commissioned by Luis Arana Urigüen, a businessman and politician, to the architect Manuel Mª Smith, who gave it an original English air with very simple lines inspired by English cottages. It is one of the finest examples of residential housing in the whole of Bizkaia at that time.

2. Cisco Houses II-III (1948- 1955)

Inspired by Cisco I, the architect Eugenio Aguinaga sought to maintain the same stylistic line (colouring on the plasterwork, towers, chimneys…) and adapt to its privileged location.

3. Villa Lertegi (1907)

Designed by the architects Chatterton and Couch, it was commissioned by Ramón de la Sota as a family home. Today, Lertegi is part of the facilities belonging to an engineering firm called SENER.

4. San Joseren Palace (1914)

Designed by José Luis Oriol Urigüen, architect, industrialist and politician. The only ornament on the façade consists of the coats of arms of Urquijo Oriol Urigüen and Gordo-Sáez, some of its more illustrious occupants. In 1986, this palace was refurbished as a venue for events.

5. Villa Vilallonga (1916)

Built by Manuel Mª Smith, it is part of the first phase of the Ondategi urban development. It is the only one now surviving of the four original buildings, and despite its renovations, it still retains its original character.

6. Villa Anaibiena (1927, 1959, 1966)

Designed by Ricardo Bastida, it is one of the few cases on the Ondategi housing development in which the Neo-Basque regionalist style is replaced by an English-influenced style. Following a fire, it was rebuilt by M. Chapa.

7. Villa (1927)

Also designed by Ricardo Bastida, it reminds us of a traditional Basque farmhouse, a caserío, because of its shape with a large gable roof.

8. Villa (1927)

A highlight on the façade is the opening under the eaves, with a timber balcony-solarium, flanked by two small firewalls; the ground floor has a large rectangular porch with its own eaves, and above it, a continuous wooden balcony.

9. Villa Itxasalde (1927)

Designed by Ricardo Bastida, this villa has an L-shaped layout. An original touch is the presence of two English-style bay-windows on each side of the entrance.

10. Villa Ondargain (1928)

Designed by Ricardo Bastida, with an irregular layout, it has the same distribution as all the other houses in the development: cellar, ground floor, main floor, and attic.

11. Villa (1929)

It has a number of differences compared to the previous ones: it is by a different architect, Tomás Bilbao. although a more refined Neo-Basque style prevails, combined with English and stately features.

12. Villa Beti Alai (1930)

Built by the architect Estanislao Segurola, compared to its neighbouring buildings it is stylistically simpler on the main facade, which basically juxtaposes the plain plastered areas painted white with lintelled windows, an absence of projecting features, and an entrance under a lowered arch.

13. Villa (1929)

Designed by Ricardo Bastida, its most characteristic features are the false timber arrangements on the upper areas, and the windows in the middle of the facade.

14. Town houses (1985)

Designed by Escauriaza and Olabarri following the type of town houses that came into fashion at that time. It stands out among other examples of the architecture of the 1920 and 1970s.

Ondategi, the garden city (1916-1935)

In the early 20th century, Getxo went from being somewhere to spend the summer to the place chosen by the province’s upper middle-classes as their permanent home. This led to the birth of the neighbourhood of Neguri and, in due course, the garden city of Ondategi. The latter is a property development by Ramón de la Sota, who turned land that he owned on a pine-covered sandy terrain into plots and built spacious homes with gardens for his relatives and other well-to-do families. Following the architectural trends prevailing in the 19th century involving the "garden city" and the “healthy home”, the architect Ricardo Bastida planned the urban layout of this new neighbourhood.

The only sir who is not british.

Besides investing in his property businesses, Ramón de la Sota (1857-1936) also dedicated himself to politics and to mining and shipbuilding (his achievements include co-founding the shipping company Naviera Sota Aznar and founding the shipyard Astilleros Euskalduna). During the First World War, he placed his fleet at the service of the British Crown, and King Edward VII rewarded him with a KBE, which is why he insisted on being called Sir Ramón de la Sota.

Traditional trades.

The upper middle-class’s move to Getxo prompted a greater demand for certain trades, such as porters, road sweepers, mattress-makers, stonemasons, postmen, seamstresses, hawkers of ice...and an increase in others related to the winter: poultry breeders and coalmen... Moreover, as these wealthy families also required domestic service, there was a growing need for nannies to look after their children. The candidates did not only come from Las Arenas itself, but also from the surrounding areas, and even from more remote villages in the neighbouring region of Cantabria, and further afield in Asturias and Galicia.

An example of selflessness, the añas.

These women, who left their families for a time to look after another one, were hired either as an "aña seca", or dry nurse, for looking after and providing company for the children in the household, or as an "aña fresca", or wet nurse, for nursing babies when a mother found it physically difficult or simply did not want to do so. This practice continued even into the 1950s.

"Cisco", what a name!

The Cisco houses do not take their name from the family that built them...but instead from the first owner’s yacht! Luis Arana Urigüen was a businessman, politician and enthusiastic yachtsman. Everything suggests that "Cisco" comes from the name of one of his sons: "Fran-cisco Javier", although it is true to say that he always appears in documents simply as Javier... Some sources mistakenly state that the name refers to the cisco or coal-cellar in these houses, but this is not very likely.

Mapa Ruta Juana Bizkarra

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¿Ganas de saber más?:

You still have another 13 routes, with the following being the closest:

Felipa Bustingorri

Manuel M.ª Smith

Elvira Larrazabal