Carols in Norena

It all started one Christmas Eve when the always-remembered Noreñés Jesús Cuesta García brought out one of his many quips and, while he was downing a few drinks in the company of his friends, who were returning from singing a funeral at a neighboring parish and before going to dinner with his family at the Calle D' Arriba, tried their voices again against the opinion of Alfredo the tavern keeper who also intended to go to dinner. These friends and choirmates, who like Jesús himself and logically, loved cantiquinos, had the habit of taking what they called the spur or farewell in La Cuadra when they arrived in Noreña. That night it was obligatory to perform some Christmas carols. Jesús, who used to direct parish choirs or four friends who got together under any pretext, once again brought out musical knowledge, learned in his studies as a seminarian with the remembered parish priest Don Fermín Cristóbal in the seminary of Tapia de Casariego. He brought together the voices of Eloy Noval, Tino Fombona and Julio Roces “El Chilu”; in later editions Juanje Junquera, "Pepe Sará" would be added and later the addition of the Oviedo brigade belonging to the Ovetense Polyphonic Chapel, with "Adolfo El Roxu" and his father-in-law Escotet, Fredín el del "Xastre", later arriving the first females: Yoyes Cuesta and Carmen Velasco, the Fonseca brothers and a long etcetera that increased every year.

As that appointment was becoming obligatory and the public increasingly abundant, Jesus, due to his height, was forced to climb on a chair to try to control all the voices and at least be seen by the spontaneous interpreters. The only ones who stood out there above the others were Jesús himself and General Franco, well, and Alfredo the owner, up on the platform behind the bar. That image, in addition to being nice, commanded respect among all the public who came for the event from Oviedo, from La Pola or from El Berrón or from anywhere else.

#Design How to organize your desktop - Read more about How to organize your desktop at https://t.co/Hd2Zzw6YAE ... https://t.co/IoEnelt154

— STACKD Fri Nov 13 17:01:12 +0000 2015

The premises became smaller and smaller, but Jesús Cuesta's small body always had a preferential place and still does, because after his death, those responsible for La Cuadra wanted to perpetuate the memory of such an illustrious character, and placed in one of the on the walls of the premises, in the same place from where he directed the crowded choir, a portrait of his impeccable figure, wearing a navy blue Tamburini suit and a white handkerchief protruding in the form of a triangle from the top pocket of his jacket with matching vest, tie by Cristian Dior , black morocco shoes. As if it were for the Campoamor Theater Opera!, a definition made of him by his great friend and disciple Eloy Noval Junquera. This photograph that I quote, was taken by the singer Tino Fombona in the preambles of the mass of the big day of Ecce-Homo while he was going to what some call "the Anglican church" or bar of the Church to have a vermouth to kill time waiting for the other mass to begin.

Well, together with the photograph of considerable size, two plaques commemorate the date on which Jesus missed such an unforgettable Christmas date for the first time – one donated by the City Council and another more expressive one that says the following: “To Jesús Cuesta García, a man from Noreña of pro that put the pinch of joy so many Christmas Eve in this house. In the first absence of him. 24 – XII -1987”. Beneath the portrait and on a wooden pedestal, the duralex glass where he was usually served La Nava Valladolid wine.

The death of Jesús Cuesta was followed in the task by other friends of his such as Eloy Noval, whom we have already mentioned as a participant in his gatherings and his occurrences, such as this one that we dedicate to him in this written passage from La Cuadra, but after the death also of Eloy others did not return to the premises on those dates.

However, some survivors of the time and less superstitious and many others who are inheriting some of the good customs of the folkloric Noreña, make it possible that every December 24 -after the forced parenthesis- and in such an ancient winch, the Christmas carols continue to sound , moments after they turn off the television receiver, which was offering news of infections in various parts of the earth and with wars on I don't know how many borders.