Without reaching 150 inhabitants, it is one of the least populated municipalities in all of Andalusia. Located in the heart of the Alpujarra, surrounded by a beautiful environment from which you can see the entire Sierra de Gádor and glimpse Cabo de Gata, this town whose past is linked to Arab culture, table grapes and the mine languishes year after year. year under the shadow of the feared depopulation, the staunch enemy of many other population centers in the interior of the province of Almería.
Those golden years are far away, between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th, in which mining was the great economic engine of this area that reached great splendor that it later lost, decade after decade, with the rural exodus caused due to lack of opportunities. Beires, which had almost a thousand inhabitants in 1920, currently barely exceeds a hundred.
Doña Elena and her students in 1940.
The future of this municipality, like that of many others that have an aging population, is a complete uncertainty. This should not prevent, however, from at least preserving its past, that history that future generations of Beirenses should know. May the experiences of this people fighting to survive never be forgotten. With this objective, a beautiful initiative has been launched.
Dulce González Mora, a graduate in history and whose family remains from Beires, is temporarily the cultural promoter of this Alpujarra town where, under her direction, a compilation of old images has begun with which to create a Historical Photographic Archive in which The visual treasures are collected with which to build “a bridge between the past and the future” of this small town in Almería.
Neighbors walking to the church. (PHOTO: Raimundo del Rey)
A difficult but necessary task
“Here the entire past of the town has been forgotten. Many people do not want to remember a hard past of work in the mines, but it was very important, it fed many families and we must rescue it. See what daily life was like when the oldest fun was walking along the road,” says González, who knows that it will not be easy to collect old images that neighbors may have in their homes. “Even if you think otherwise, it is very difficult to do anything with so few people. In addition, we must take into account that the average age is very high,” he acknowledges.
Despite this, this initiative for which they have already requested the collaboration of the inhabitants of Beires and have also announced it on social networks so that people linked to the town who live outside can also contribute their grain of sand, is still underway. They take the opportunity to make it clear that the photographs given by the different families will be returned to them: “We do not keep them, we only scan them and return them to the families.”
Plaza San Manuel in the 80s.
Since last September 20, the publication of this campaign to ensure that the particular photographic memories of Beirenses become part of the history of their town and “so that they are not lost in oblivion” circulates on Instagram, where it is reported that said images of the streets, special events, fond family moments and other photos of local memories, can be sent via WhatsApp (671161912) or by direct message to the @aytobeires account.
The contribution of the entire Beires community will be essential to build an indelible image of the history of this corner of the Alpujarra of Almeria where photographs from the 1950s are already being received. “Even a French girl, whose grandparents were from Beires, to tell us that she will look for old family photos and send them to us,” celebrates the cultural promoter.
2023-10-14 14:02:28
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