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In search of another job

In search of another job
Circa 1954. Pepa Ortega as a girl with Dolores López, her father’s cousin, who had a tavern among the huts at Los Hurones dam. Los Hurones town (Cádiz). Photograph courtesy of Pepa Ortega
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In search of another job

The experience of working in Los Hurones meant, for many, the opportunity to learn rather than a source of income. Juan Fraidias (Algar, 1941) puts it well: «Before construction was finished, we left and set up a workshop in Algar. Later Portolés ordered from us a lorry load of timbering for the dam at Contreras. We earned little money working at the dam, but then we got it from Portolés when we had our workshop».

Many women also discovered that in other works they could earn more and in better conditions. Pepa Ortega (Algar, 1945), in the photograph, arrived at the dam aged 8:

«Aged 10, I started working as a babysitter for a mechanic, at 14 I worked as a servant for the doctor, and later with the works foreman. When the dam was finished, I spent 2 or 3 years in Sabadell (Barcelona) with my sister, working in a thread factory where I was paid 325 pesetas a week. I was really happy because at the dam I earned 150 pesetas a month».