A Romanian Boy, his Village and his Work in Spain

Text: Simina Guga, Bucureşti
Photographs: Anika Büssemeier, Berlin

Vasile was only 15 years old when he left the village for a new life in Spain, in a small town near Madrid. He still remembers that rainy day in May when everyone was inside, the village looked deserted and his mother cried while hugging him for the last time. It was not only his bones that felt like breaking but also his heart, because the promise of a glorious future implied leaving behind everything that he ever knew and cared for in his life. His father accompanied him to the minibus, but it was not until the wheels started to turn that Vasile burst into tears. For the first time he had the impression that he was making a huge mistake and his dream of Spain was just a nightmare that should have ended that last morning when he woke up in his bed, just like the grey clouds would eventually leave the sky and the people would continue their work in the green fields of the most beautiful village in the world: his home.

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Vasile is one of the six children of one of the 350 families in Şurdeşti and one of the million illegal migrants that chase dreams of a better life outside the borders of Romania. When he left, he was too young and poor to think about a bright future in Romania or to hope that things would change one day. ‘My brother and sister had been in Spain for two years already, had a good job and the opportunity to think of the future. I was at home and had nothing to do besides working in the field, taking care of the animals and watching TV, as my parents couldn’t afford to send me to secondary school. When the idea of going to Spain crossed my mind I decided to make it real, because at that time there was no other way to deal with my life, or at least I was not able to think of anything else…’

He believes that everyone has to fight for their dreams and that compromises are just part of a greater plan people formulate and fight for throughout their lives. At the time being, his greatest plan is to go back home to Şurdeşti and start his own business there by buying two trucks that he would rent out for a while, until something better comes along and he will have enough money to build a house and marry a woman that he will really love and respect. The real plan though is the search for happiness, a feeling that Vasile does not associate with Spain but with the village that he left behind three years and a half ago.

To be poor in Romania is hard and sad but to be poor in Spain when you are an illegal stranger is even worse. This is something that Vasile knew before deciding to exchange the green fields of Maramureş for the rocky surroundings of Madrid. His brother Costan told him that life in Spain was harder than at home, because as soon as you get there you are on your own and have to work just like all the others: because no one is interested in your age, your family back home or your high aspirations. ‘They are just interested in your capacity to work as hard as you can and in exchange they pay you 10 times more than you would have earned in Romania.’

When Vasile got to Cimpozuelos where his brother and sister waited for him, he cried for the second time since he had left the village. For him the white houses and the crowded streets looked strange, the grass was yellow, the people looked different, the language was impossible to understand and the only thing he knew for sure was that home was 3500 km away. Maria hugged him and Vasile understood that this was going to be his family for the next 3 months, until he would return home for good. Since then, his brother and sister have become his foster parents. But soon enough Vasile became an adult that was working in the fields of Spain, just like all the other children, parents and grandparents do, when life sends them away for reasons they are not always completely aware of in the beginning. ‘I started working two days after my arrival in Spain. My brother made arrangements for me to work in the field as a potato and lettuce picker. After the first day I wanted to resign, but I didn’t have the money to pay for my bus ticket. So I had to continue doing what I went there for in the first place…’
Every morning, Vasile and Costan walked to the bus in small groups that enlarged as others, from different parts of the town, joined them forming a compact group of individuals, that were united in a common reality under the common sky of a far away town somewhere in Spain. This was the sign that announced the start of a new day, a new morning that looked just like the others that had already passed and the ones that would follow. The old bus always waited for them and through its dusty windows Vasile could see the seasons change and his arms getting stronger as he was becoming a man just like his father and brothers.

In the field he only had his bare hands to work with, but a few months after his arrival the boss introduced some tools that were supposed to increase productivity. Stripped to his brown skin, Vasile had to carry two aluminium tubes and a basket for the potatoes and the lettuces. He had some sort of a root digger, a metal claw in every hand and worked with both arms at the same time. The only thing he can remember is that he looked and felt like a human machine, a machine that had a constant back pain and scores of red marks from the tubes and the basket belts that for a year and a half were removable parts of his body.
Vasile promised himself that he would give up this job and go back home, but the money that he had saved was not enough to fulfil any of his dreams. He understood that Spain was just a concept that has a different meaning for everybody; for him it meant separation from his loved ones, hard work and the sort of freedom that far away places always give to people.

It was early October 2004 when he resigned his job in the field, ‘rented’ a whore because he wanted a woman, drove his first personal car without a driving licence because he didn’t care, and pierced his left ear with a fake diamond because of the need of doing something unusual. In the evening he met his brother and all his friends in a disco and partied the whole night, he cried, laughed, got drunk and watched himself in the bathroom mirror whilst promising himself that he would go home soon. It was then he realised that in less than two years he had grown up like others do in ten, even though this whole adventure was just a gift he offered himself on an autumn day in October when he celebrated his 17th birthday.

Vasile is still very excited when talking about his wonderful birthday because it was at that moment when he understood that his dreams would one day become reality But before that he needed more time and a better job. In the meantime he would go back home to visit his family and spend two weeks in his village. He was not afraid that he might not be able to come back or find another job because he really believed that things would work out fine for him from then on.

‘In the beginning it would have been impossible for me to find a job on my own. That is why I considered myself to be a lucky guy having my brother and sister here. I remember that one day Costan sent me to the supermercado and he didn’t give me enough money to pay for everything I needed to buy. So when I got to the cash register the woman told me that I needed to pay more for my purchase. I didn’t understand what she was saying and couldn’t explain anything, so I just left everything in there and ran away. When I got back home I started crying in hot blood. After that my brother sent me to the grocery store to buy a kilogram of patatas (potatoes) and manzana (apples) and I kept repeating those two words until I got there. It was not perfect but it was my first success.’

Vasile speaks very good Spanish now and he is very happy when he is able to help the newcomers by using his language skills. He realised that the first year a labour migrant spends abroad is the toughest because he has to get used to the local culture, language, lifestyle, customs, job tasks and requirements, the food, the prices and a lot of other things that are necessary for a foreigner’s adaptation to an unknown territory.

In late autumn 2004 everything was painted in green and yellow. The sky was blue and the sun was shining over the hills of the most beautiful village in the world, waiting for the bravest boy to come home. People were working in their gardens and the fresh air, this is why Vasile opened the minibus window just as they entered the village. He leaned out the window and screamed, laughed and greeted everyone he saw on the street or in the courtyards. ‘I had the impression that it was yesterday that I’d left the village and I was so happy to see that nothing had changed, it was as if everything had waited for me to come back and see its splendour’, he says as his black eyes suddenly become shinny.

Seeing his whole family gathered outside the house was just too much for Vasile. He had a feeling he had never felt before in his life, and for a week he didn’t leave the surroundings of his home. He worked in the garden with his mother, he milked the cows and fed the pigs, he picked up the eggs from the coop, he went to see the 30 sheep that his father bought with the money he had sent and told his family about his future plans that involved going back to Spain. Everyone seemed to be so proud of Vasile, because he was among the ones who made it and he had got a better understanding of the reasons why he was making one choice or another.

Together with his three brothers that worked in Spain, Vasile decided to invest his savings in buying animals and tools for working in the field. It was only when he got back home that he saw his investment and realised that his family’s life was significantly improved by the new mowers and rakes; at the same time they could rely on a steady income from selling sheep cheese and milk to the villagers. He realised once again that Spain hastened his growth and made him aware of the fact that nothing is for granted and people have to appreciate more the things they are given, even if these things are represented by money, family, power, good health or some sort of wisdom.

Vasile always considered himself a lucky boy in comparison to his siblings. His sister Maria married when she was 15 years old and has two children with her ex-husband and a two month old baby with a man that left her upon finding out she was pregnant. His brother Costan couldn’t attend his first new born baby’s christening because he was working in the fields of Spain and the baby was raised by his grandmother as Costan’s wife also wanted to come and work with her husband. Now they have two children, but because they haven’t seen the first one for two years, he doesn’t recognise them as his parents. The other one was born in Spain and has a very elegant name that his parents hope will help him in life: Alvaro Pablo.

Vasile’s family has been through a lot and each of them has an interesting life story. Still, Vasile is sure that his children will live in Şurdeşti, that they will have everything they might need, that they will go to secondary school. Meanwhile he is looking forward to going back to the village and finding a girlfriend, meeting her on a Saturday night at the disco in the village, where all the young people his age meet every week.

For the time being he has a good job in the construction field, building swimming pools that he will never use, mostly because he hasn’t had a chance to learn how to swim, yet.

At work, they are a Romanian team and enjoy themselves during their breaks, talking about far away news while drinking beer and eating Romanian cheese with corn mash that their families send every month in huge packets by bus. On Saturdays they go together to the disco in Cimpozuelos, which is considered to be only a temporary substitute for the one they have in the village, with good looking girls and Romanian music. Even though his job is still very hard, it’s compensated for by the fun they have at work and by the way in which Vasile thinks about his future, starting with the 1st of October when he’ll pick up his residency permit after three and a half years spent in Spain.

Vasile’s family are well known and appreciated in the village and even though his parents still regret the fact that they were not able to send any of their children to secondary school, they are proud of the way things worked out for everybody. Their five children were the ones that for years moved in between Spain and Romania without forgetting that they belong to Şurdeşti and fighting for dreams that others can’t afford to have. They chose not to invest any of their money in houses and cars, like most migrants do, but in animals and tools for working in the field. And they believe that the money will come one day and their village will not change that much for many years.

Vasile has only been back to the village that one time, but he wants to surprise everyone on Christmas when he will show up at the door with a mask, unannounced, two and a half years since his first and last visit home. He is choosing to spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with his family in the village because it is the time of the year when everyone reunites, and if you make a wish when a new year starts, that wish becomes reality. He didn’t want to reveal it because wishes should be kept secret, but those that know him have a pretty good idea what it is about. And maybe they wish the same things for Vasile and for the other people just like him that are spread all over the world chasing dreams of a better future that Romania can’t fulfil…yet.

Still, there is one secret that can be revealed. In the northern village of Şurdeşti they have the most beautiful winters, where everything is covered in white and the peasants have a different way of seeing things and of dealing with life as they are conscious of the fact that the future belongs to those that respect their identity and pass forward their knowledge and traditions to the successors. Even though sometimes they have to break apart, it is only as part of a greater plan that will eventually reunite them one day. Apart from that, Vasile has not seen snow in four years. And in Şurdeşti the snow covers the houses and the trees and makes everything look white, resembling a blank page that will then be filled with the story of one of the 2000 people, in one of the 350 houses, celebrating the Christmas of 2006 in a northern village of Romania.

We said our goodbyes sitting on the sidewalk in Cimpozuelos. Vasile promised that next time we’ll meet in the village, one day or another. He hugs me saying: ‘thank you very much for coming all this way to meet me. Even though we come from two different worlds, there are moments when everything comes together’…and he was right again.