Ferre C.
being a child, one time, I asked where they had brought me. They answered me then that from Paris the same as all the babies. I kept growing, growing, with the thought that Paris was a big town, full of parks, gardens with many shops full of toys, bottles and above all with huge warehouses of children who left daily for all the towns of the world.
They also told me that Paris was a great city, and I felt as proud to be from there as to have a father "who knew a lot" because he made very large sums and wrote many letters in an afternoon; letters that I deposited later, tiptoeing to the town mailbox. How much did my father know?! I told my friends that every day he read an entire newspaper and wrote a lot in his books at the office. How admirable was my father's talent!
Later, come on man, when life had taught me that Paris was my Bañeres and that my father did not possess much less great wisdom as I imagined as a child, I was once on the train, when after a long time of smoking and chatting with other fellow travelers, came the usual question: where are you from?- -I'm from Madrid. –Yo, from Barcelona.- I, of Bilbao.- From Baths (I said). -Men, Bañeres!, I know that town, spoke Mr.. that was in front of me. “A town that is worth and advances a lot, I've been visiting towns for twenty years and Bañeres is one of the ones I appreciate the most. I have friends there, good commercial relations and I would not mind leaving Madrid to live among those active men, friendly and welcoming people who make you feel at home”… And he spoke about our town, of their factories, of that latent industrial movement, of their parties..., and many other things. I was silent, he was silent because what that man said was very good to hear, because he said things about my town that were good and were true, and what a deep feeling of sweetness came over me when I listened to everything that I had said myself!
I felt very happy because everyone knew what our Bañeres is like, with that spell they praise, because it attracts foreigners who come here, because they also knew, how were his men and his life. I did not feel inferior for a moment with those gentlemen all born in a big city. My Paris was called Bañeres, and me, it was like them, like all take a bath, so capable, so brash (sorry) like them; and I didn't blush like the young man who denied his people to the girls in the capital so they wouldn't call him a redneck. Very far from that I said – from Bañeres- almost with emphasis, Well, it was a joy for me to understand, that I had not been born in that capital but in Bañeres and I loved my people then, like before and like now, with the same devotion that I have loved my father even when I saw that he was not that wise man who forged my childish mind.
Again, going down to the station, the wind brought to me the conversation of some workers who were a few steps ahead. I deduced from their talk that they were electricians who were temporarily fixing the line.
-"Too bad we're done here...!”-“I would never leave this town!”-They talked about their work days in Bañeres, as a pleasure, of their free hours in the casinos, of those unforgettable moments in the "maset dels maseros" who are "the demon" and laughed, They laughed telling each other how much fun they had, lamenting that these were their last days of work in our town... I, I was happy again; little things like that you could all tell, because you have also heard something about what is said about this little corner where we were born, because Bañeres is like that
Y, it is also said there, that even spring is more spring in Bañeres; there is something more here than warm air and greenery in the field, there are lights and colors that, they are only ours because ours are the festivities of San Jorge. These festivities awaited day after day with the enthusiasm born of clear consciences for the duty fulfilled. Saint George knows that all this is for him, that's why, protect your people, that's why your industry advances, their culture rises..., everything grows in Bañeres.
That this movement does not stop, that Bañeres works singing so that at the end of a laborious year we all have the joy of being able to sing and celebrate our Patron.
