“It’s like living the same day every day”one of my friends writes to me Castellarone of the towns of Valence devastated by the DANA which has already cost the lives of more than 200 people. “I need to see someone, but my close colleagues are sick and I doubt we will meet. The usual bar is horrible, it will take a long time for everything to go back to the way it was before,” Sara laments in a WhatsApp group which has become a center of helplessness and rage the worst natural disaster to hit the province.
Wherever you look, the landscape is terribly desolate: streets flooded with personal belongings drowned in mud, masses of cars piled up in improbable corners, faces devastated by fatigue and misfortune, and thousands of houses and businesses virtually destroyed. Among them, around 1,200 bars, restaurants and accommodation affectedaccording to data from Valencia Hotel Federation.
On social networks we see publications from establishments such as Bar Manolo In Massanassawho launched a crowdfunding to try to recover from the disaster: “We have nothing left inside the premises, only the foundations; we have lost seven refrigerators, a dishwasher, a coffee maker, tables, chairs, even glasses. The water reached more than 150 cm.” The grandparents of Paula, the woman who started this charitable fundraiser, founded the company over 50 years ago: “We lived on that, that’s what fed my family, and now there’s nothing left”.
Hugo, resident of Benetússer (Valencia), at the door of the old Bar Coto, one of the best known in the city.
Something similar happened to Bar Cotoone of the oldest in the commune of Benetusser. For several days, the store window (completely broken by the force of the water) has remained covered with wooden planks trying to protect what little remains inside. Right next door, also in the Lepanto Squarethere is the Bar chaosanother legendary business in the city, which has experienced even more bad luck than the others.
Added to the material losses is the infinite tragedy due to the death of the owners’ daughter: “She was only 11 years old; they tried to take her to the first floor with a ladder, but it broke and the current took her away”say Hugo, Manuel and Toni, three lifelong friends from the neighborhood who have frequented this bar since they were young. On the windowsill, neighbors and regulars improvised a painful altar with candles to say goodbye to the little girl. “We carry you in our hearts”, we can read on a note stuck to the blind.
The tragic altar of Benetússer’s Bar Chaos.
Yes, it will be difficult for everything to go back to the way it was, as Sara said, and in many cases it will not only be difficult, but completely impossible. Fortunately, among so much adversity, a little hope also arises: north of the Plaza de Lepanto, a few minutes’ walk from the city’s ground zero, two bars managed to revive after the disaster.
While most of Benetússer’s basements succumbed to DANA’s attacks, Maestro Atanasio García Street managed to resist with virtually no significant damage. This is what Laura, owner of Bar Lauralocated on this road and the only one of the two bars which today operate more or less normally in the town: “When I arrived here, everything was in its place, Even the cars have not moved, nor the tables and chairs on the terrace.. Inside there were “only” four fingers of clay, we spent three days cleaning and by Friday afternoon it was ready to reopen. »
Laura at the bar of her restaurant, last Thursday, November 7.
If he finally decided to put his establishment into operation, it was thanks to the insistence of his cook, Vicenteta: “For me, it was strange to come back as if nothing had happened, but it is also true that She was the only one who could help people at that time, which was a big help.; that they could have hot coffee, toast… There are still many people who don’t have gas in their homes.“. She and her team don’t have one either, but they get by with a butane tank and a gas stove. camping.
The bar has become a little “oasis” in the chaosas some of his parishioners claim. The tables and windows are crowded, the atmosphere is warm and lively. If you don’t look out, anyone would say life goes on almost as per usual. “I don’t turn on the TVs because I want people to disconnect. The beautiful thing about everything bad is that they come here and you see them having lunch and they’re like family; They need to forget everything, they need their sandwich and their beer.
The interior of Bar Laura.
“It’s like getting back to normal a little bit.”agrees Hugo, a neighboring plumber who lost all his belongings. “He emorzaret gives you lifeyou leave here with more enthusiasm, stronger, even if there is mud and mud everywhere, at least you see the people and they tell you their stuff.” Hugo shows one of his many tattoos , a Latin proverb: “Ad astra by rough means ‘Towards the stars through suffering or difficulties’“, he smiled, trying to resist despite everything.
Vicenteta’s delicious recipes also inspire optimism in customers. “THE ‘the minister’s handyman’as we hilariously call pig’s trotters here, is the most famous thing in this house. Every two days I make 10 kilos and they sell. “They take five hours to make, but I’ll make a lot of people happy.”“, says the cook, maneuvering the pans as best she can on the only two burners that are currently working.
Jorge behind the bar at the Sociedad Recreativa Horno de Alcedo bar.
Three kilometers from Benetússer, in the municipality of Alcedo oventhere also seems to be something similar to happiness. The bar of Recreational society from this neighborhood returned to the fray on Friday, three days after DANA. “We lost everything and none of the refrigerators work, but It had to open because you need a place to have a coffee and disconnect“, explains Jorge (whom everyone calls ‘Papi’), who manages the space with his wife.
Since last week, both have been preparing to 400 sandwiches that they offer to volunteers and anyone who needs them, as well as coffees that they charge for unlimited. “I also heat everything they can bring me, even if I have to pick up a lot of products in Valencia because there is no supermarket here currently. and the warehouse of our supplier, JASA Alimentación, is completely flooded.
The Horno de Alcedo Recreational Society, last Thursday.
He doesn’t know when they will work like before again, although he doesn’t think about it either. “For that, I would have to close one day, to clean and organize things properly, but I can’t. That’s all people have now, I have to keep going no matter what, so they can come and eat, talk to their neighbors, let off steam… because they are suppressed and upset by what happened, but the most important thing is that we are alive.
Jorge and Laura know very well that a bar is much more than a place to have a beer or a tapa, that a bar is a very important space for recreation and fraternity, a kind of citizen assembly in which ideas are exchanged and heated debates form that might not have occurred in other environments.
The chef and anthropologist believes it too Sergio Gildriver of the Gastrologya discipline inspired by anthropology which analyzes the socio-cultural and economic relationships which operate in the world of the bar-restaurant: “Bars have the capacity to recreate a feeling of belonging and rootedness (…) They are the amniotic sac of adult social life, the other side of the mirror in routine (…) They go beyond their apparent function as a place of food consumption in society. Food and drinks consumed in bars are good for eating, but also for thinking: they give meaning to the world“.
The entrance to Bar Rama, next to Bar Laura in Benetússer.
A world that is currently collapsing for many Valencians, but which, fortunately, finds small pockets of fraternity and relaxation in the bars. Bars that also operate in some places like donation collection and distribution pointslack of resources to be able to resume their usual activity.
“We, the Valencians, make the falls, burn them and the following year we raise them again. Well, it’s the same”forcefully asserts Pilar, owner of Park baralso located in Horno de Alcedo. He lost all his food and doesn’t know when he will be able to reopen like before, but one thing is clear: that His people will rise like the phoenix, like a stubborn one ninot between the flames. And when that happens, the bars will be there to party.
