Beware of the Deadly Eel Dish: The Léone Onativia Affair

Leone and Manuel Onativia were married in 1922 in a small village in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa. They devoted their first years of living together to running a furniture factory, but following bad business, the company went bankrupt and the two spouses decided to cross the border in search of a better life. Good son, Manuel, brings with them his father, José Francisco, whose meager retirement pension is hardly enough to fill his plate. The trio first settled in the border village of Sare, before taking up residence two years later, in Anglet, in an old house in the Ardoy district, at a place called Les Pontots. A boy will come to light up the home where everyone works tirelessly, the father as a carpenter, his wife as a maid.

Arguments in this seemingly united family

In appearance, the couple gives the impression of being united, even if the close neighbors are sometimes entitled to noisy arguments in the language of Cervantes. In question, the presence of the septuagenarian father-in-law, whom Léon does not support less and less. This old man, whose age prevents him from claiming a remunerative job, nevertheless leads a very orderly life. He tries to make himself useful to both spouses by taking care of sweeping or preparing meals. Nevertheless, Léone nourishes, it is said, many grievances against her father-in-law. He spits on the floor, sometimes even, she says, drops bits of cigarettes into the dishes of the meal before wiping his hands on the bed sheets. So many seemingly venial gestures, but which give free rein to the anger and the acerbic remarks of his virulent daughter-in-law.