A few weeks ago was celebrated the Architecture Week in our town. It was a good opportunity to get to know the history of Villanueva del Pardillo, to show the concerns of young people in terms of leisure time and town design, and best of all... it was an excellent experience because fourteen and fifteen year old students met Mrs. Carmen, a lovely woman whose life captivated all of us.
Carmen Moreno, the local government architect, organized the activities and let us know the creator of Hackity, a web application to raise social awareness an collaboration to improve towns and cities with hacks. So, thank you all!
And now, enjoy the chronicles of two 4th ESO journalists...
Plan de Regiones Devastadas
Alfredo O.
It’s where the new buildings were built after the
Civil War, because every single construction was destroyed, excepting La Casona, where the people sheltered.
This area has three main characteristics:
· 1. The streets are almost only for the
people to walk, instead of for vehicles. 2.There are lots of trees placed in the
streets, but mainly high trees, and some nightlights. 3. The design of the houses is different
from the one we have nowadays. They consisted of the main room, with a huge courtyard,
where plants and livestock were usually placed, and finally a little balcony on
top of the house. This kind of houses are no longer built.
Señora Carmen
Pablo G.
After
we finished talking about the maps and the town, we went on to talk with Mrs. Carmen. She was
an old woman who was born some months before the Spanish Civil War
started. She told us how life was in our town during the post-war. The
entire village was destroyed except one house. It was a big house, so all the
families went there to live; including her big family (she had a lot of
brothers and sisters).
She also told us
life was very hard at that time. There
was no water or electricity, and her siblings had to work hard to get ahead. When the
village was reconstructed, they were granted a house, where she continues
living nowadays (now it has water and light). She is married and she has 4 children.
To
end with, she explained the origin of the name of one of the streets in our
village, “Mr. Lodge”. He
was a man who worked in the United States Embassy.
He once came to Villanueva
Del Pardillo and gave all the families shoes, clothes… In appreciation of their hospitality, he gave the
village a television that was placed where later San Lucas School was built. The village thanked him by naming one of the main streets after him.
Finally
we all took some pictures with Mrs. Carmen. It
was a very good talk, she was very kind and we all learnt a lot about our town. ¡Gracias, Señora Carmen!
