“80-Year-Old Pastry Shop ‘La Manchega’ in Ciudad Real: A Sweet and Laborious Story”

We have seen it again, almost everything, walking through the streets that we crossed for a year from the barracks to the two squares, El Pilar, the statue of Cervantes on one side, and the City Hall, on the way to a cinema, a kiosk , a church, a cathedral… There are no more soldiers like before, like we saw them years later in Alcalá de Henares when we arrived at another destination without even knowing the day before where we would go; Not many people are there anymore, but we have been happy to learn that one of the old pastry shops called “La Manchega” is still there, in its place, where we went many happy afternoons, alone or with colleagues, to gobble up a shortbread or a Swiss bun. or a mille-feuille, depending on whether we were quartered…

Ciudad Real already seems another, especially more of a city, since we used to go shopping as a family, once to see the floats of the Queens and Ladies of many towns in La Mancha on the unforgettable Day of the Province with excursions from all over to witness the event , to play a soccer game, to visit our sisters in their years of Teaching… And, finally, the “military service” that already helped us to “conquer” the city, make friends and get to know the newspaper where we began to imitate our father… saving a lot of distance, of course.

We have seen it again, almost everything, walking through the streets that we crossed for a year from the barracks to the two squares, El Pilar, the statue of Cervantes on one side, and the City Hall, on the way to a cinema, a kiosk , a church, a cathedral… There are no more soldiers like before, like we saw them years later in Alcalá de Henares when we arrived at another destination without even knowing the day before where we would go; Not many people are there anymore, but we have been happy to learn that one of the old pastry shops called “La Manchega” is still there, in its place, where we went many happy afternoons, alone or with colleagues, to gobble up a shortbread or a Swiss bun. or a mille-feuille, depending on whether we were quartered… Eighty years ago it had changed its location until in the 70s when Emeterio and Ascensión, the third generation, took over something so beautiful and romantic, in addition to passion, dedication and love, how to continue the wake of Emeterio’s grandfather and father. We have remembered things, they have shown us pages of the local press, and they have told us that it all started in Almagro, the lace town and the famous Corral de Comedias; the typical bakery or tahona, whose smell always reaches the furthest neighbor and the nearest traveler… Or even the very bullring where Sacramento was not lacking in the fair —grandfather— and his children with their basket full of cakes, mojicones or madeleines , that not everything was going to be the famous eggplants. And so until they settled in the capital. Sweet and laborious story! The fame of “La Manchega” has reached Madrid, Salamanca, the United States and other European countries. “To La Mancha, manchega…”. And to something else.

We were invited by the city council and the López Villaseñor Museum (in memory of a great painter from Ciudad Real), to the presentation of a book that we have made for our father: “120 crónicas del ABC en su 120 aniversario”. Everything was emotional, entertaining, and there was our beloved newspaper Lanza, which will be 80 years old in May, and it gave us a wonderful chronicle, highlighting so many writings by the author, Miguel García de Mora, both in the Madrid newspaper and in several others and in the one in Ciudad Real where he began to collaborate in the 40s. We will also go with our “Walking and counting” to the same place in a few days. Thank you all! And to the writer and radio announcer Juan Martín, so good.

From Malaga, a lot too…
Holy Week did not catch us, so immense, but we returned ecstatic from Malaga, which has also changed since we visited it in… the 80s, on the way to Marbella. Here, in truth, it’s even a little sad to leave, as we told Manuel García Pérez, a taxi driver now, and so happy, but who has fought for himself since he was very young, putting his shoulder together —almost like a man— in the farmhouse where he worked his father. We always like to talk to a taxi driver, because they know everything about the place, the neighboring towns, sightseeing… We met Manuel when we set foot in this city so packed with shops, bars, terraces full of all hours that it is not known if they are having breakfast or lunch, and we say goodbye to him in the same AVE station that seems to be another city. In the middle, to wander, of course; The atmosphere is impressive, it seems like a party every day. And a park next to the great port to take it home. A gracious young waiter begs us not to leave without trying the skewers, and we don’t. He waves us goodbye with his hand on his heart, or vice versa. And the man from the kiosk, on Calle Larios no less, who once saw Sean Connery filming “You Only Live Twice.” And again Manuel, our friend now, who tells us where the statue of the great Chiquito de la Calzada is and we go to see it. And we promise to come back so that he can tell us about his experience in the construction of the Metro in Panama, or the extinction of fires in past summers. He was already a man…