“How sad life is, but the
saddest thing is to sleep alone even though one has a wife,
Luis.”
– A tree carving, translated from Spanish
in Speaking Through the
Aspens
You’re walking through an aspen
forest and suddenly you see it on a tree trunk – a carving of a
woman’s body or a bird, and you know: A shepherd stood there,
accompanied only by his dogs and a flock of
sheep.
Thanks to J. Mallea-Olaetxe, an instructor
in Basque history at the University of Nevada, Reno, we learn more
about what he calls “arborglyphs” in his new book,
Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in
California and Nevada.Basque sheepherders
were isolated men: “This is so remote. What if something happens to
you?” the author said to one. “Remote, you say?” the sheepherder
replied. “God has yet to arrive here.” They pined for female
companionship; they pictured faces or sexual organs. Other images,
much like cave paintings, celebrate wild animals. Occasionally,
just a man’s name seems to say: I was
here.
Mallea-Olaetxe tells us he has studied
20,000 images lonely sheepherders carved on tree trunks, some more
than a century old. Once dismissed as mere “doodles” or graffiti,
he says, the carvings and poignant messages in Spanish and Basque
deserve to be recognized as living history.
Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in California and
Nevada by J. Mallea-Olaetxe, illustrated with photos, 256
pages, cloth, $39.95, University of Nevada Press, Mail Stop 166,
Reno, NV 89557-0076 (775/784-6573).
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Men without women.
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