Carmelina and the lavadero

This is my good friend Carmelina who is one of only two women who continue to use the public washing space, known as the lavadero.

Carmelina is a direct link to another age in her dress, customs and language, and has rarely left this pueblo in her 70 odd years. I found this fact out by accident a few years ago. I'd walked my dog to the lake which is less than a mile away, when I returned to the village I bumped into Carmelina and stopped to chat.

She asked me where I had been and I told her, to the lake. I asked her if she ever walked to the lake and she said she had never seen it, and had no desire to as "there is only water down there". (I should point out here that the lake is surrounded by mountains and is one of the most beautiful places in this part of Andalucia!). I asked her where she had travelled to and she said "as a child I used to walk to market to sell vegetables". The market she mentioned is about 2 miles from this village.

The lake

Carmelina lives with her older sister, neither has ever married. She's dressed in black because she lost her elder brother last year. In the photograph above, she looks stern, even angry, but she's not. She's wondering why a foreign man who she can't undersand, has dragged her in front of a neighbours door and is taking her picture.

One small detail I've noticed on Carmelina is her liking for watches! Apart from myself, there aren't many watches in this village. Carmelina must have dozens in all shapes and sizes, she changes them daily and even has a digital chronometer that beeps on the hour.

As I said, there are only two women who continue to use the lavadero. Washing takes place early in the morning and I was lucky to catch her at 9am today. The wash house is spring fed and the water is cold all year, but in the winter it's painfully cold.

The lavadero is an important place in the village. It's maintained to a high standard, blessed by the priest several times a year and decorated with cut flowers and pot plants give it colour.