Valentín (with ‘v’) spent half his life, or more, in Vicálvaro (with ‘v’). And among these, the last 40 were dedicated to tracing the history of his neighborhood. This desire to know more led him to discover and document a spelling mistake relating to his neighborhood, which administrations and individuals constantly commit. He and many others around him are determined not to let it pass: it is the story of a neighborhood fighting for a “V”: that of Valderrivas.
“We have original factory documents, minutes of municipal plenary sessions and all kinds of documents that confirm that both are written with a ‘v’,” he explains. Valentin Gonzalezpresident of the Vicus Albus cultural association and soul of this project. His particular crusade led him for years to correspond with almost all public administrations, in an attempt to respect the original spelling of the cement factory that gave birth to the neighborhood: Portland Valderrivas.
The list of documents he shows to support his arguments is almost endless: original documents from the factory in 1923, when it started; a 1924 document that refers to its registration “under the trade name of Valderrivas”; a 1928 sick leave document that also includes the name of the cement company with a “v”; minutes of a meeting held July 21, 1937; from the Portland Valderrivas Board of Control dated 1938.
But when the factory left, it started changing the spelling of more and more documents. And there began the battle of Valentin, a fight whose weapons are reason, evidence and common sense. And on the other side, an almost unstoppable current that Valderribas wrote, with a “b”, on posters, public installations, brochures and official documents.
The first victory was achieved by Valentín on March 18, 2010, with the agreement of the Territorial Council on the issue. An agreement that the president of Vicus Albus then continued to carry, from office to office. This is the Organic Regulations for the neighborhoods of Madrid, from December 2004, which includes various modifications and a list of neighborhoods which, in the section dedicated to Vicálvaro, does not yet include Valderrivas; A change to this rule was necessary in 2017 so that it appears with its correct spelling. It was during the plenary session of October 31 of the same year, with Manuela Carmena as mayor, that they managed to have a list of new neighborhoods approved in which Valderrivas appears written like this.
Despite everything, the problem continued, and on July 8, 2020, it returned to the plenary session, in this case that of the Vicálvaro board of directors: all parties, except Vox, which abstained, approved this agreement of the Territorial Council of 2010 concerning the spelling of the district. A few years later, Valentín returned to the fray, demanding respect for this agreement, given that the version with “b” of the name of the neighborhood persisted in the plans published by the town hall. The district secretary responds by recalling that what was approved during the 2017 plenary session “is still in force” and that is why “the Valderrivas district was written with two Vs from its creation”. In this context, he adds that Vicus Albus’ proposal “lacked basis” because “since 2017, the full municipal council had already decided what its name was”.
However, he transferred the text of the agreement “to the General Technical Secretariat of the General Coordination of the City Hall, for possible corrections that should be made on the website of the Madrid City Council, and to the General Technical Secretariat of the Environment and Mobility Sector for the modification of a road information sign located on Aurora Boreal Avenue.
But this neighborhood’s war for its double ‘v’ does not stop at the Town Hall: after a lot of work, they managed to convince the regional land registry department to include in a 2023 document an “agreement to rectify the ‘tax’. domicile” to “record the accredited cadastral modification of the properties linked to it”: more than 40 cadastral references are modified for this reason, changing “b” to “v”.
City Council: what was approved in the 2017 plenary session “is still in force” and that is why “the Valderrivas neighborhood is written with two Vs”
The last stage of his fight takes place in front of the Community of Madrid. Here, the trigger is twofold: on the one hand, the announcement of a new health center which will open in the neighborhood, and which appears in the information documents under the name “Valderribas health center”. The other, the fight it is leading with the Official College of Pharmacists of Madrid, which in its list of pharmacies also includes the terminology with “b” when referring to that of this district of Madrid. In both cases, the origin of the problem lies in the decree of basic health structures of primary care, of July 2010, which refers to the basic health zone of Valderribas. “At the College of Pharmacists, I am told that as long as the Community does not modify the decree, nothing,” explains Valentín, somewhat frustrated after so many years of fighting against bureaucracy.
But by temperament, this former municipal police officer is incapable of being discouraged: without hesitation, he wrote to the regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the advisor to the Presidency and the direction of Primary Care, to make the facts known and ask that this changes because “I see that the health center will end up being inaugurated under a bad name.” By now you have received responses from Primary Care Management, recording your complaint, which they will investigate.
Valentín González’s letters also reached the private sector: to Inmobiliaria Valderribas, which operates in the region, and to which the Vicus Albus association also reminded how this name is actually written.
The titanic task accomplished by those responsible for this entity has not always been understood; “It’s true – Valentin admits – that a politician reproached me if I had nothing better to do; “But we are a cultural association and toponymy is very important to us.” At the same time as they are leading this fight, they have others on their hands, perhaps the most important of which is to finally obtain a worthy space for their Vicálvaro Museum, the only one of its kind that a neighborhood has.
