The Mácher festivities in honor of San Pedro began last Wednesday with the reading of the proclamation by Ruth Corujo Saavedra, a journalist very linked to the town of Mácher through her family and her participation in the patron saint festivities.
Corujo began the speech talking about San Pedro, the patron saint of the festivities, since her mother told her that "a proclamation is not valid if I don't name the patron saint at least four times, at a minimum."
Immediately afterwards, she wanted to remember her ancestors and her family, her greatest connection to the town of Mácher. "I am not a town crier in the usual sense of this town that is so special to me and to all of you. I was not born in these lands and when I was younger I only lived for a short time in the wonderful house of my maternal grandparents, in El Mesón. Despite these circumstances, Mácher is part of my life because of its festivities, its history and its people. And because of my family."
"The San Pedro festivities evoke family, dances and music, intertwined glances, coexistence with cousins, aunts and uncles, great-uncles like Aunt Juana and Uncle Pepe. And the protective presence, always with us, of my grandmother Carmen," continued Ruth Corujo. "Of course, it transports me to poetry, to the typewriter and sewing machines, to the gifts made by my grandmother's hands with fabrics that gave shape to bags, toiletry bags and cases, to endless games, to dominoes, to the guitar, to meals in shifts, to close stories and endearing gatherings, to the realization of belonging to a family and a community, to a town."
She also spoke of solidarity and tolerance "with everything that is different". "Of course we are tolerant of what we like or what resembles us, but we could give ourselves the gift of being loving with those who do not think or behave like us and accept them in our lives, as long as affection and respect prevail."
Finally, the town crier finished her speech by thanking the festival committee and with an invitation to the town of Mácher. "This proclamation is an invitation to cultivate the art of speaking, listening and dreaming, without forgetting the dance and laughter, to celebrate life by participating in the festive events programmed for these days until June 29, the feast of San Pedro and the big day of our town."
