Opening Proclamation of the Fiestas del Carmen in Zumacal

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Zumacal opens its Fiestas del Carmen with the most intimate opening address by Pedro Artiles Yánez Next Saturday, July 11, at 8:30 p.m., the neighborhood will begin its patron saint festivities with an opening address that will be a journey through collective memory, the emotion of its residents and the deep sense of belonging of someone who never stopped carrying their hometown in their heart. There are neighborhoods you remember. And there are neighborhoods you feel. Zumacal belongs to the latter. Its streets, its landscapes, its church, the voices of those who built it with effort and the complicity of a community that made solidarity a way of life will come back to life next Saturday, July 11, when the church square will host the event that will officially open the Festivities in Honor of Our Lady of Carmen. It will be a night to reconnect with memory. To embrace the past from the present. To remember those who are no longer with us and to celebrate those who continue keeping alive the identity of this neighborhood in Valleseco. The person in charge of announcing the start of the festivities will be Pedro Artiles Yánez, writer, musician and Zumacal native, whose appointment as town crier represents much more than personal recognition. It is a tribute to an entire generation that grew up in the neighborhood’s streets, sharing a way of life where mutual help, friendship and commitment to the community were part of everyday life. Artiles has never hidden that everything important in his life began here. In every interview, in every book and in each of his texts, Zumacal appears as the place where his values and his way of understanding people were born. Not for nothing, one of the phrases that sums up the spirit of his opening address comes precisely from that deep feeling of belonging: "A large part of who I am is thanks to being born where I was born and being raised where I was raised." A statement that sums up the return of a neighbor who never completely left. Because, as he himself acknowledges, there are places that remain forever in those who grew up in their streets.