Argusino: the people claiming their souls
A friend wrote me an email a few weeks ago in Mexico from the Sayago region, Zamora, Spain. He asked me to help him publicize a story. I spoke that their land was flooded by the waters of a dam a few decades ago by order of the authorities and that her memory of all the exiles a gap remained and now, using media, They intended to close. Some elderly people died voluntarily or sadness, they were given no option to remove their dead from the cemetery and gave them money that unilaterally decided the expropriating company.
And me, here in Mexico, I remembered when 15 years I went there, to the Arribes del Duero, to make a report for the Rural Tourism magazine with which he collaborated. And I remembered that after a first visit I returned months later, and that I saw cellars under the houses, and a silent hermitage, and a border river where tobacco and grapes were smuggled…
And I reminded Rocío Carrascal that with the generosity of someone who offers everything out of devotion, she let us stay at her house for a few days while she told us about her wedding, which was to take place on her father's farm.. And it smelled of oak and cork oak and in the sky the storks were making an effort to dislodge the roofs of the churches. It was field, empty, struggling not to fall into the trap of the cities. “I am glad that you try to give us this opportunity”, he told me when i told him i would post his quiet story. What I tell here is not mine, It is the memory of a region drowned in its own words. This is your story:
Argusino, the town of souls
Like other towns in the León region, progress made them disappear by decree. This town was located in the region of Sayago, it was far from the capital 50 km and its extension was 2.384 Hectares. The population was in 1950 the 477 inhabitants.
Like most of the Sayago villages, its people dedicated themselves to farming the land, combining it with small livestock.. It was very abundant in small game, due to this it was very visited by hunters from Vascongadas, Asturias and Leon. Life in the town was peaceful and orderly with its administration in the town hall, two schools with more than 70 students between boys and girls 6 a 14 years. There were two grocery and colonial stores that sold everything besides being a tavern and inn. The trades were represented by two forges – carpentry shops – shoemakers – millers and a miller who worked for the Sayago region and also for Ledesma and Lumbrales de Salamanca».
This is how the email they sent me begins that tells the story of one more town in that rural Spain until suddenly everything changed:
"In the years 50 We already see in Argusino working a team of topographers from Iberduero with the aim of measuring land and marking the level of the new project: a dam of 202 meters.
Argusino was going to be drowned and this news became official in the year 1954
Argusino was going to be drowned and this news became official in the year 1954. As of this year, the town stops all improvement projects and the population begins to decimate. After 1961 and until 1967 when Argusino ceased to exist as a town. 72 people had emigrated to Germany, France, Swiss, Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao. In some cases they left the little ones with their grandparents in the village. And 1967 Iberduero had qualified and valued the land and other properties of each neighbor.
Set deadline of 31 December 1967 to forcibly leave the village. To make this situation less dramatic, Iberduero had reserved a clause. It was about delivering 40.000 ptas. For each member of each family if they left the town before the 30 September 1967. With the exception of one neighbor, everyone agreed to Iberduero's offer and automatically when they left the houses they were demolished.
were about 108 neighbors the last inhabitants of Argusino. Their new habitat would be for the majority in Sayago villages. However, the largest group of 14 neighbors settled in Cascon de Nava Palencia , 12 in Villar del Buey, 13 in Villamor de Cadozos , 10 in Almeida, 4 a Cibanal, 3 in Trabanca, 4 in Torrefrades, 3 in Vermilion, and so on until 29 distinct populations.
The compensation of the properties of these neighbors were those that Iberduero marked
The compensation of the properties of these neighbors were those that Iberduero marked. Nobody would have left the town voluntarily for what they received. Most people of a certain age lived to the end of their lives in depression and some voluntarily hastened this end..
Not even the cemetery was saved
The residents of Argusino remember that when the waters flooded everything they could not even rescue their dead: "When the 30 September 1967 the last neighbors of Argusino come out, I only know of the Molinero de Inés family who would have transferred the remains of their parents to the Villamor de Cadozos cemetery». The rest stayed under the water and 50 centimeters of concrete that the Iberduero company placed on top of each grave.
Today those same waters of the Almendra reservoir have receded and have uncovered a story that was kept only in the memory of the elders. And the people, young and old in this border region with Portugal, have joined in the Asociación Argusino Vive and intend in this 50 anniversary of that downpour of oblivion that fell on their houses to recover the lost memory: "We want to maintain contact between natives and descendants and organize a tribute on the occasion of the 50 birthday", say. “Later on we will demand that the reservoir be called Argusino. Why Almendra reservoir? Perhaps so that Argusino would be erased forever and as soon as possible?».
Finally, the people of the Association request one last effort from the administrations and companies involved: «We want to remove the cemetery from the waters and put the remains next to the new hermitage».
50 years later maybe the time has come to do it.
Comments (1)
Luisa
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My words are that I agree that it will not be forgotten, what a political mandate did, It cannot be for the benefit of some and to the detriment of others. . If you have to make a dam, you have to see that no one is harmed and much less play with people's feelings, and leave their dead underwater. That they did have the courtesy of putting more cement on top of their graves than little disnity. I made a special on Facebook to a bridge «Andrés de Vandelvira» made of stone that was left under water, and it seemed to me that it was not correct, because with the help of local councils of the region it would have recovered, they did nothing and every many years sometimes the water goes down and is seen. This story they tell us is very different. I hope it works out and has a happy ending.
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