Before, to be a postman it was necessary to give up a room in the family home for free to transform it into a Post Office and for it to become a point of attention for citizens open 24 hours a day, every day. In this context, three generations of the González family took care of the correspondence service in the municipality of Yaiza for more than 70 years.
The siblings Juana and Enrique González Hernández, from the family known by neighbors as the ones from Correos, this Friday proclaimed the Fiestas de Los Remedios de Yaiza in the square of their town, recalling the conditions of the service at that time and the close relations with the neighborhood as bearers of good and bad news, in a trip to the past in which they also gave an account of the socioeconomic context in which the south of Lanzarote developed, very marked by the dedication of its inhabitants to the primary sector.
A service even in the early morning
“One day at three in the morning a lady knocked on the door because she had received a notice of a certificate that she had to pick up at the Arrecife office, but she thought it was in Yaiza and came to pick it up here. The postman got up, opened the window and explained what she had to do and the lady left calmly,” said Juana González, as an anecdote of her family's commitment to the citizens, accompanied at the table by her brother Enrique, the mayor of Yaiza, Óscar Noda, the Councilor for Festivities, Daniel Medina, and the parish priest of Yaiza, Jonathan Almeida.
Juana was not an employee of Correos, but she collaborated by receiving letters, looking for stamps or classifying the correspondence received, tasks that other members of this family of nine siblings also carried out. The mayor of Yaiza highlighted “the selfless vocation of service of the family to the community and its contribution in areas as important as education. Juana was a school teacher and has also dedicated many years of her life to helping the pastoral mission of the parish as a catechist.”
About Correos, Juana said that “the delivery was done punctually day by day. It was necessary to deliver the telegrams urgently since unfortunately most of them did not bring good news, families waited impatiently for letters from relatives who were away, girls the letters from their boyfriends, postal orders (sending money by mail), the newspapers to which some people were subscribed and the odd package”. With a smile, Juana expressed that “that's how we lost the González surname and everyone knows us as the ones from Correos”.
Daniel Medina underlined “the respect that Yaiza professes to the González family for the service provided and their relationship of collaboration with the parish. They are very loved people.” The councilor also praised “the support of the Yaiza festival committee and all the ideas put forward to agree with the City Council on the Remedios program, fourteen days of coexistence, joy and tradition.”
Agriculture, symbol of union
On the other hand, the proclamation of 'the ones from Correos' emphasized how the crops gave life to the town, strengthening family and social ties at the same time: “all the members of the family were involved in agricultural tasks and the neighbors helped each other sharing successes and failures, joys and sorrows”. Juana González recalled the time of sowing cereals and legumes “in the lands of the town center and even on the side of the mountain (where the fireworks are lit for the end of the festival), it was a beautiful green landscape mixed with the colorful of the different herbs that intertwined with the harvest such as the white and yellow straws or the red poppies”.
The fruit collected, added the herald, “was tasty, healthy and natural: prickly pears or picones, as we call them here, the figs from the fig tree or brevas. Both were eaten fresh or dried in the sun. The fig tree ones “dried figs” and the picones called ‘porretos’. Without forgetting the sweet grapes that, according to the elders: “grapes, cheese and gofio remove wrinkles”.
Festivities in honor of the Virgin
After presenting historical information about the parish of Yaiza, Juana González dedicated heartfelt words to the southern celebration under the Marian invocation of Los Remedios, with the Big Day on September 8: “a mother never tires of waiting and rejoices every time her children visit her. Like any mother, she waits for us with open arms and a big smile. If we contemplate our Mother of Los Remedios we will always see her smiling, with a serene and complacent look”. Yaiza is already celebrating and invites the people of Lanzarote to join this meeting of joys and fraternization. The complete program is published on www.yaiza.es
