The 2nd Eco-natural Fair and the honoree Ángel Santano were the stars of the festive day.
The 59th edition of the Almond Festival in La Fregeneda had three main characters this Sunday: the memory of Ángel Santano Juanes, a teacher from the town and poet of the almond trees in bloom, who recently passed away; the herald of this edition, Justo Manzano Rodríguez, from Asturias but with roots in Fregeneda; and the incessant rain all morning accompanied by cold, which is not very common in La Fregeneda.
In this way, another edition of the exaltation of the almond tree took place in La Fregeneda, a day in which the II ecoNatutal Fair was also held with thirty exhibitors among which there was no shortage of cheeses from the Arribes, wines and liquors, oil, sausages, sweets and craft products.
The 59th edition of the Almond Festival in La Fregeneda had three main characters this Sunday: the memory of Ángel Santano Juanes, a teacher from the town and poet of the almond trees in bloom, who recently passed away; the herald of this edition, Justo Manzano Rodríguez, from Asturias but with roots in Fregeneda; and the incessant rain all morning accompanied by cold, which is not very common in La Fregeneda.
In this way, another edition of the exaltation of the almond tree took place in La Fregeneda, a day in which the II ecoNatutal Fair was also held with thirty exhibitors among which there was no shortage of cheeses from the Arribes, wines and liquors, oil, sausages, sweets and craft products.
After the symbolic planting of an almond tree in the Plaza de La Fregeneda, in which the President of the Provincial Council, Javier Iglesias, the Subdelegate of the Government, Encarnación Pérez, the President of the Chamber of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Carlos Condesso, and the Mayor of La Fregeneda, Manuel Alonso, participated, in addition to the town crier, Justo Manzano, spoke. In addition to paying tribute to Ángel Santano Juanes by reading some of his verses, he recalled his childhood holidays in La Fregeneda, arriving by carriage from the train station in Valdegonera, the town where his father was born before moving to Asturias (see the full speech on video).
After his speech, the mayor of the town presented him with a plaque in memory of this day as the herald of the Almond Festival, and continued with the presentation of a stone plaque to the son of Ángel Santano.
In the series of speeches, the mayor first thanked all the authorities for their presence at this new edition of the Almendro festival, among whom were the colonel in charge of the Matacán air base, the lieutenant colonel of the Salamanca Civil Guard Command, the colonel subdelegate for Defence in Salamanca, the PSOE attorney, Rosa Rubio, and several provincial deputies, both from the Government team and from the socialist and Cs groups, in addition to the unaffiliated mayor of Hinojosa.
Javier Iglesias, for his part, described it as an “honour” to attend La Fregeneda’s festival dedicated to the almond tree, but above all “to work from distant offices in Salamanca so that La Fregeneda and Las Arribes del Duero have a future”. Similarly, Encarnación Pérez highlighted the work being carried out jointly with Portugal in defence of the rural environment to stop the problem of depopulation affecting both sides of La Raya (video of the interventions).
On the other hand, and despite the rain, a dozen artists participated in the open-air painting competition promoted by Adezos, in collaboration with the City Council, 'Almendros Vivos', a competition that would have the winner as the Asturian Montserrat Valera. The second prize went to the Salamanca-born Juan Francisco Huidobro Mateos, and the third to Diego Manuel Fernández González, from Gijón.
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