The book ‘pure race. 50 lives of the town ‘will be on the shelves of the libraries of Villaviciosa in a very little. The work … Set of writers Adolfo Sánchez de la Venta y Victoria Martínez Martín Combine history, tradition and collective memory in a notebook of just over a hundred pages that brings together the biographies of the fifty people more relevant in the history of the council.
It all started, curiously, through social networks. Sanchez used to publish, from time to time, small anecdotes and biographies of the occasional relevant neighbor. «It is as if the idea had emerged from nothing. It was written as curiosity of the town and people responded. They looked a lot, so it is almost as if the idea had begun by others, ”said Martínez.
With the acceptance of the people and the idea in the head, both proposed the theme to the City of Villaviciosa, and he replied finance the edition. «To the mayor, Alejandro Vega, seemed somewhat great. So we are happy, because without municipal aid this would not have been possible, ”continued the writer.
The main thing, Sánchez added, was not “to make known, but rather remind them, give them the space they deserved.”
Then the arduous research task began, in which, in addition to documenting through the Asturian written press, the City Council’s documentary archives, those of relatives, associations, magazines and different official websites were visited.
In some cases it was more difficult than in others. “Sometimes we started from a simple photo of the face and the date of birth written in a napkin, because there was no one alive to remember the role that his great -grandfather or great -great grandfather had,” said Sánchez.
Thus, in about seven months, they gathered in a single volume one hundred years of Maliaya history through characters such as The Watter Humberto Alonso; the engineer Juan Balart; La Llagarera Consuelo Busto; the businessman José Cardín; the businessman Ismael Fernández; the philologist Víctor García de la Concha; the gaiter José Ángel Hevia; or the folklore scholar Ana María Piñera, among others.
All of them, as written in the introduction of the book, “are very varied people who left an indelible mark on the memory of Villaviciosa.”
Their lives, their work in business, careers or experiences in historical events, “difficult situations” from 1920 to the present day, can nurture the “future generations” of Maliayos. “In our opinion, we should not forget them,” the two stand out.
second part
At the same time, at the end of the book a special space is dedicated to the apple festival and its four founders: Miguel Palacios, Sergio Álvaro-Requejo, Esteban Díaz and Pablo Sánchez, the four who turned to promote the fruit that turns Villaviciosa into the Manzanera capital of Spain, in addition to the cider.
A special chapter is also dedicated to them, in addition to talking about the importance of the festival, since it will be held this year when being odd and coinciding with the era of greatest harvest.
On the other hand, the two are working in the second part of the book, this time “expanding it and speaking not only of characters from the town, but also of the surrounding parishes, of the entire council”, until reaching one hundred entities “.
The presentation of the book will be made the same day that goes on sale, next Friday 9, at 7.30 pm, at the Villaviciosa Obrero Athenaeum.
