Impervious to the irritation of drivers who pulled out from behind and raced past, he tapped the horses with his whip, which was less like a whip and more like a fishing pole with a thin leather strap on the end.
Cuenca, in a dark cashmere sweater and plaid English riding cap, called out “Taño. Tañooo.” He was talking to 'Castaño,' a seven-year-old Breton who was misbehaving in some way indiscernible to the uninitiated. Cuenca squinted his entire face in an effort to prevent his large glasses from falling off. A balled-up wad of cotton was wedged in his left ear and he had to turn his head in order to absorb questions through a single, tiny hearing aid. “He’s very restless, young. I call his name to wake him up. The other one—his name is Guapo—is about 15 years old. I don’t have to remind him.”
Cuenca spoke in the sing-song accents of Andalucia, ending most sentences on a high note, as if counting off a list. “Horses are never happy working. It’s better for them when they’re eating. These are poor horses; they have to work. You know what a rich horse is? I’ll tell you. A rich horse is one who eats without working. He doesn’t even know his own name, that’s how foolish he is. If I see a poor horse, and I have a bonbon, I give it to him. But not to a rich horse. He doesn’t deserve it.”
At that moment, Castaño halted, followed immediately by his co-worker, Guapo. Again, Miguel saw something not quite obvious. “Vamo. Pish, pishhhh. Pishhhh, Tañooo.”
Just then Castaño blasted the asphalt with a stream of urine that sounded like a string of firecrackers. Nearly two minutes later, when the horse had finished, the carriage began to move forward again. Miguel touched him gently with the whip. “Anda que es guapo. Anda que guapo.”
At the beginning of the 20th century, traffic in Barcelona was primarily a horse-drawn affair, much as it had been for nearly 2,000 years. Heavy goods and trams, private carriages, stage coaches from outlying pueblos, all moved by horse—as did the taxis. In 1908, there were nearly 13,000 registered private and industrial vehicles, according to the Barcelona Register. And Professor Enric Ucelay-Da Cal, of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, cites the 1921 general Spanish census figures that counted 34,583 horses plus almost 27,000 mules and asses—this being at a time when automobiles had already begun to replace draft animals. That industry has long since evaporated and all that remains is the concession (Andres Pujadas, S.C.P.) for which Cuenca works. The owner of that concession, Alejandro Pujadas, comes from a long lineage of draymen that he traces back to his grandfather’s grandfather.
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