Gabarrero
The word gabarrero can be considered autochthonous and almost exclusive to the Sierra del Guadarrama (center of the Iberian Peninsula). It refers to the person who takes firewood from the mountains on horseback and transports it to sell it. This trade, so unique and at the same time so hard, has provided livelihoods for many families during difficult times.
Currently, in the Segovian municipality of El Espinar, the Fiesta de los Gabarreros is celebrated in March as a tribute to those hard men who worked in the mountains from sunrise to sunset.
The day of the lighters began early, around seven or eight in the morning, depending on the time of year. They always procured food for their horses, as these were their most faithful companions. On the way to the mountain they were grouping up at the exit of the town. Then, already in the mountains, each one looked for his path and his favorite routes. They tried to load as much firewood as possible on the backs of their horses. At noon, the obligatory stop for lunch, prepared by the woman and consisting of omelette, fried eggs, bacon, bread, etc., comforted the gabarrero. The day lasted until well into the evening when around six or seven in the evening the lighters met again on their way home. The way back was made between jokes and some song like the following:
“Lady hairy,if you buy wood
buy it from me
I bring her good”
Over the years, the gabarreros learned to transport and place firewood in the most ingenious ways, while enlivening their work with beautiful Castilian couplets and jotas and creating their own vocabulary full of beautiful words and sonorous place names. And furthermore, they achieved such dexterity and strength with the ax that many of them stood out as magnificent axemen, winning many national championships. Currently, the few gabarreros that still survive in the area have gone from being a typical romantic picture of the town to turning the gabarreria into a hallmark of El Espinar.