Passages of History

By Beatriz Maestro

Is the castle of Trevejo the living vestige that confirms the mythical relationship between Templars and Masons? What were the Civil War and the post-war periods like in Acebo? Was the horrible crime between families that took place in San Martín de Trevejo fair? Who were those persecuted by the Holy Office in Perales and Hoyos? The answers to these questions, and others, are revealed throughout the successive passages that make up this work, where the reader can immerse himself in the past, crossing the frontier of time. This new work by B. Maestro is the story of those who suffered from unemployment and the bad conditions of an iniquitous life, but it is also the story of those who revealed themselves and fought so that this circumstance would change, without forgetting those who defended the democratic government in its day, even when they were the ones who put an end to it. In the pages that make up this work of historical research, the reader will be able to immerse himself fully in a turbulent Contemporary Age, covering its totality, and dividing the chapters following the order of the centuries that conform it (XVIII, XIX and XX).

• Language: English
• Publisher: BadPress
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781667406763

Book preview

Passages

of History:

Sierra de Gata

Passages

of History:

Sierra de Gata

B. Maestro

Copyright © 2020 Beatriz Maestro Mateos

Editorial: Kindle Direct Publishing

Edition: June 2020

Cover: Photo taken of Justa Roque Magro, going about her work day in the town of Villamiel.

All rights reserved.

ISBN: 9798642925867

Except as provided by law, any form of reproduction, distribution, public communication and transformation of this work is prohibited without the authorization of the holders of intellectual property.

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To all those who love Sierra de Gata.

INDEX

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Preliminary Note

1. The Darkness of the 18th Century

The Holy Office in Sierra de Gata

THE EVOLUTION OF THE JEWS OF HOYOS

THE DARING JEWESS OF PERALES DEL PUERTO

2. The Turbulent Life of the 19th Century

On the Daily Life of the Serragatines...

In the field of education...

Templars and Freemasons in Trevejo

First years of the 20th century

About Victor Berjano Gómez...

3. OUR MOST RECENT HISTORY

Republic II and the Civil War

The Controversial Exploits of the Priest of Trevejo

Acebo, memories of a war

The Years of the Dictatorship

Final Notes

About the Author

Bibliography

Journals and historical press

Acknowledgments

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who have collaborated, to a greater or lesser extent, in the creation of this book. I want to dedicate this section to those who have selflessly cooperated with me, since writing one section of this book would have been impossible without the help of Omar Fernández Franco, whom I affectionately thank for his good disposition and his valuable material contribution, which makes up an essential segment of this work.

Cáceres

April 2020

Abbreviations

Preliminary Note

In the pages that follow, the reader will be able to fully immerse him or herself in a turbulent Contemporary Age, covering its entirety, with the chapters divided in order of the centuries to which they belong (XVIII, XIX, and XX). This work presents a brief history of the events that overwhelmed the Sierra de Gata during that time.

Throughout the passages that make up this manuscript, abuses will be highlighted that have occurred by those who held economic and political power, and flaunted important social prestige throughout history. The fundamental objective of what follows is the disclosure of our past, so that today’s society can understand current social behavior.

The history of Sierra de Gata, that region often forgotten by those who should be interested in its prosperity, is revealed as the underpinning of injustice and oppression (always in the form of despotism) coming from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, which were a real obstacle to the progress of the rest of the population.  It could also be said that as a consequence, the history of the region is the history of conformism and resignation by those who at times worked for food, and those who, because of the sermons delivered from the pulpits, hoped to enjoy a better life in the hereafter without having any aspirations for earthly life.  

Only a few figures will stand out who, due to their vocation, would fight to obtain certain professional improvements, as was the case of the teachers in Hoyos. In contrast to those who did not surrender, there was the administration and the judiciary, who totally submitted to the caciquiles’ (overlord/despot) actions. A burning question arises: citizens or servants? What life did the inhabitants who made up the largest sector of the population lead? The answer is evident when we know today that the only escape that the Serragatines undertook to improve their working conditions was emigration. This was the only feasible formula to escape from the oppression and abuse of the landowners. Next, we get into the most obscure enigmas that make up the Contemporary Age of Sierra de Gata, where the protagonists will be those who never had a voice before.

Passage

I

The Darkness of the 18th Century

We can define the 18th century in our country as an era of great versatility and disturbing events to come, since the first decades of this centennial were filled with important changes. Since that time, the country known as Bourbon Spain would leave behind a period of successive bankruptcies, epidemics and bad harvests, to enter into a period of growth where, in most cases, the population multiplied in almost all areas of the country. However, and in contrast to all this good news in theory, the feudal framework that ensured the opulence of the clergy and nobility remained in place, while the rest of the population suffered the same problems as the Spain of the Habsburgs.

For its part, Sierra de Gata was greedily carved up between lords and peasants. The former monopolized almost all of the land, enjoying a juicy tax exemption. The latter were landless laborers whose only possession was the strength of their arms. On the other hand, the influence of the large estates that invaded all of Extremadura was lessened in this region due to the mountainous terrain, which limited the number of hectares that each leudal lord could accumulate.

Likewise, and although it may surprise the reader, the truth is that Sierra de Gata enjoyed a thriving industrial past, and the economic activity of this whole area was traditionally prosperous until the 20th century, when its decline became evident. If it is true that the previously mentioned topographic limitations played their part, the reality is that industry in the Serragatine was truly vigorous during past centuries.

A good example of this is the textile industry, which in this century developed to its fullest, and with few exceptions, was a flourishing activity that allowed a significant trade in cloth and canvases. Sumptuous workshops were distributed throughout all of the villages of the region, providing employment to an impressive part of the population. We have this data from the Catastro de Esenada, (land registry) where it is detailed that the population with the most workshops in all of Sierra de Gata was San Martín de Trevejo, which had 11 factories, followed by the town of Acebo, which had 8.  Cadalso, Gata and Valverde del Fresno followed with a total of 7 workshops while Robledillo de Gata y Trevejo were far below this. All of these workshops were mainly small family businesses, in which the participation of women was actively encouraged.

But without a doubt, and leaving aside the economic scope of the territory that concerns us in this work, it is necessary to emphasize that, if anything characterizes the Extremadura of this time, it is the vagueness and impoverishment in the sphere of knowledge and wisdom, as well as in freedom of ideas and traditional customs.

This censorship of customs and cultural habits to which we refer was made possible thanks to the existence of a repressive and homogenizing machine of ideals, which penetrated deep into the famished souls of all those people from Extremadura in the 18th century. To this end, the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Llerena, presided over by the most fearsome and prepared inquisitors, stubbornly went around every corner, sniffing out every trace and following every clue in search of supposed heretics, with the intention of punishing them and leading them back to the true path of the Catholic faith.

In Sierra de Gata, given that the religiosity and mysticism of the time were all-embracing, the Holy Office formed an unlimited bastion for all those who deviated from honest Christian customs. At the same time, due to the border and mountainous nature of the region, it was a perfect hiding place for those who fled from the relentless ecclesiastical harassment and the suspicious gaze of their neighbors.

Pastors and bishops, working together, watched over the good behavior of their flock, carefully wielding a series of behavioral guidelines so that no sheep could go astray, and thus save the souls of all the truly faithful. Thus, the visits that each bishop made to the territories making up his diocese served as an instructional manual for a people who were sometimes as inundated with alcoholism in the taverns as they were with illiteracy and ignorance in the homes. We have a good example of this in the visits that the bishop Benito Soria y Valdés carried out, in 1788, in the town of San Martín de Trevejo. Soria y Valdés, full of punitive spirit, indicated to the parish priest of the church the following mandates to be fulfilled[1]:

"Fulfillment of the obligation to explain to the people some point of morality or Christian doctrine on all feast days, exhorting them to flee from vices and acquire virtues. Likewise, I charge him on all other feast days, at the end of the people's mass, to pronounce express acts of faith, hope, and love of God, in a clear voice, and word for word, so that those present may repeat them word for word...."

"Let the faithful keep in the churches all the respect and modesty due to the temple wherein resides the divine magic of Jesus Christ, who by his repeated anger,