While around sixty people are currently in Pigüé, in Argentina, on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of the city, 140 years ago, by Aveyron residents, a look back at the very strong bond that binds the Rouergats and their cousins from the Pampas.
Jean Andrieu, a retired Post Office executive, now lives in Espalion where he was born seventy-eight years ago. He is one of the founding members, around the former mayor of Saint-Côme Jean-Raymond Palous. On December 4, 2024, the 140th anniversary of the founding of Pigüe in Argentina will be celebrated.
Jean Andrieu, for forty years, you have maintained this strong link between Aveyron and Pigüé.
Yes, this story has always fascinated me. My great-grandfather was on the Belgrano, among the first migrants. And in 1984, on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the Aveyronnais in Argentina, the mayor of Saint-Côme, Jean-Raymond Palous, created the Rouergue-Pigüé association. There were four of us at the beginning. Including Spanish teacher Raphaël Georges.
Today and for more than twenty years, it is Nathalie [Auguy-Périé] who chairs the association following Jean-Raymond Palous, who, before passing away, had briefed him and made him want to take up the torch.
We did a lot of things with her. People were able to find each other thanks to the work of a genealogist and we organized cousins between Aveyron and Pigüé. There were school exchanges, we promoted the teaching of French in Pigüé… So many actions in twenty years that it would take a long time to list them all.
Where did the first Aveyronnais who moved to Argentina come from?
Clément Cabanettes, was from Lassouts, on the edge of Saint-Côme. With François Issaly, who came from Saint-Félix-de-Lunel, they created the Aveyron colony. There were people from North Aveyron, Ségala, Bassin, not so much from South Aveyron. They had advertised in Aveyron hotels and published articles in local newspapers to offer concessions to people interested in settling in Pigüé.
Cabanettes said: “I will make you millionaires”. Some believed it. But not everyone got rich. There were successes and failures, obviously.
The context, in 1884, was more than four hundred thousand inhabitants in Aveyron, many large families in a very rural department where small farms could not support everyone. So some went to Paris, we know the Aveyron diaspora in the capital well, two hundred and fifty thousand people. Others emigrated to San Francisco, starting in 1830.
You had to dare to embark on an adventure 12,000 kilometers from Aveyron…
Clément Cabanettes said: “I will make you millionaires”. Some believed it. But not everyone got rich. There were successes and failures, obviously.
These people took a chance. You had to be very reckless. At the time, you had to pay, I think, a thousand francs to go to Argentina. So some borrowed from their families to be able to buy their concession. Plots of one hundred hectares, initially.
And the first forty families left in October 1884.
The first emigrants, some of them, had already been to Rodez but not much further. They had never really left their countryside. So imagine these people on a steamboat, departing from Bordeaux, in third class, for a journey of almost forty days… With water problems, seasickness and even tensions with other passengers . It was very difficult. A real adventure!
Your grandfather was also one of the first migrants.
Yes, my great-grandfather, Jean-Raymond Palazy, originally from Castelnau-de-Mandailles, was on the boat, the Belgrano with the first migrants. He let himself be seduced by the proposals from Cabanettes and Issaly. He wanted a better future for his family. He had rented a concession in Pigüé with a guy from Bordeaux. He was a carpenter and even a bit of a cabinetmaker. He worked on storefronts in Buenos Aires and Mendoza. But it didn't go very well because they didn't want to follow. He returned to Aveyron to die twenty-four years later. I still have very distant cousins in Argentina today, some of whom are at the head of one of the biggest bodegas in Pigüé. Today, the cousins bring together three or four generations.
You yourself have often gone to Pigüé.
I went there seven or eight times to accompany the people of Aveyron. For the hundredth anniversary, for the hundred and tenth. We always made a gesture of friendship: we brought books, equipment to the hospital… This year, Christian Triadou, who is currently on site in Pigüé, will make a donation to a school where French is taught.
On the Argentinian side, do we also cultivate this link?
Yes of course. Today, Pigüé has around seventeen thousand inhabitants, including around five thousand of Aveyron or French origin.
Thanks to the Rouergue-Pigüé association, we organize numerous exchanges. For example, we received a lyric singer, Constanza Cepedano, a soprano who performs around the world, who came, thanks to our architect friend from Pigüé, to France and Aveyron to sing.
The local choir also came to perform a show on the founding of Pigüé… We hope that the younger generations will continue this strong bond and exchange.
“Aveyron is still very present”
How is the Aveyron presence in Pigüé manifested today?
When you arrive, you have Avenue de Rodez, Saint-Côme Park, the Café de Paris… And the Alliance Française near which is installed a huge map of Aveyron. Aveyron is still very present. And for the celebration of the hundred and forty years of the arrival of the first migrants, on December 4, I think there will be between fifteen and twenty thousand people around the traditional giant omelette. People come from all over the Pampas.
Two groups of Aveyronnais are currently on site in Pigüé.
Yes, a group of twenty-three around Christian Triadou and another of thirty-seven with Sylvie Pullès and the Traveling Friends.
It's important to keep in touch with our Argentinian cousins. What we hope with the Rouergue-Pigüé association is that the teaching of French will continue there, and that the younger generations will continue to perpetuate this link. It's their story. They know it.
Reproduction – Aveyronnais
Between the Marcenacs and their Argentinian cousins, the beautiful story continues
Summer 1983. Yvette and Henri Marcenac – now aged 78 and 81 respectively – have a surprise visit from their cousins from Pigüé, who came from Argentina to trace their roots, in this hamlet of Reyrolles, commune of Mouret, cradle of the Marcenacs.
“But we were in the fields taking care of our goats. So they left us a little note under the door. And some time later, we received a letter inviting us to the centenary of the town of Pigüé,” says Henri Marcenac. “This is truly a very important event, we would like you to be with us,” the letter said. “But we, as young farmers, didn't have the means. But my mother [Maria]was really interested. But she didn't want to leave alone. So I discussed it with Yvette who told me that she could take care of the farm on her own during the trip. And when I told my mom that I could come, she was very happy.”
And so here is Henri Marcenac and his mother, Maria, who arrive in Pigüé, in the middle of the Argentine pampas, far from their Aveyron countryside, to celebrate, with their distant cousins, the centenary of the founding of the city, with a handful of Aveyron residents set off on an adventure in 1884.
A week of celebration in Pigüé
These settlers, embarked in Bordeaux for a thirty-eight-day journey across the Atlantic Ocean, of which the first Marcenacs were not part.
“Originally, it was a couple of winegrowers and their three children, from Marcillac, who left in 1888. Phylloxera had just arrived and the father found himself without work. He tried to find work in the area but did not succeed. He had learned that people from Aveyron had left, so they went to take the boat to Marseille”, says Henri Marcenac who discovered Pigüé where his ancestors settled, almost a century later. early.
“It was incredible! A week of celebration! And bonds were created that year with Miguel, Roberto, Jean-Pierre, our cousins – there are five boys and two girls – who are from our generation,” he remembers. A significant trip for the Aveyron breeder who then returned to Argentina four times, accompanied by his wife Yvette. “When we arrive in Pigüé to see our Marcenac cousins, the welcome is always wonderful,” rejoices the latter.
And some time later, “practically all the siblings came to Aveyron to find their roots. In this house where we live, which dates from 1784, a hundred years before the Aveyronnais settled in Pigüé. They are all passed here and felt the love of the country, with a lot of emotion”, explains Henri Carcenac.
Strong bonds that endure
“When I went to pick up Miguel,” he remembers, “we went through Villecomtal and, on the road, I stopped at a place where you could clearly see the hamlet where the house was built. And I said to him: “Miguel, Reyrolles, it’s over there.” He had tears in his eyes… And when he arrived in the courtyard, he was really very moved.”
And these links have continued, in Aveyron thanks to the Rouergue-Pigüé association and in Pigüé thanks to the Alliance française.
“We communicate regularly with Roberto and Miguel by WhatsApp,” notes Yvette Marcenac. “And our children, Virginie, Élisabeth and Vincent, also went to Argentina. And Roberto’s sons, Georges and Diego, came as part of an exchange with La Roque high school.”
Communication made all the easier as the Marcenacs of Pigüé speak French. “Marcenac's mother, Alice, born near Saint-Geniez, was a French teacher in Buenos Aires, so exchanges were easier,” recalls Yvette Marcenac. “We are also bilingual, French-Occitan,” she jokes.
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