The newspaper library is the source of most interesting information I have found about Aguilas, because unlike the oral tradition, there are informative and chronological rigour of the written press.
The careful selection and transcription of news issued and published on this coastal town between the years 1875-1939 allows us to learn first hand about the events that marked the destiny of a people who fought for their future in a key period of its history.
Events that were collected every day in the pages of the press, with more detail were precisely those who subsequently greater impact would be for its development, as its were the construction of the new port, the construction of the railway (from Eagles to Almendricos junction first and then its continuation up to Lorca and Baza) and the construction of the Hornillo pier.
As a whole, all these news offer a great portrait in black and white in the recent history of Aguilas, the day by day of the town and its people, the character of its inhabitants, their ambitions, desires, the deficiencias od the city, the habits, the misfortunes, the festivals and also the traditions; ultimately, the events that made that Aguilas became to be what it is today, and that made the aguileños as we are today.
Precisely one of the main qualities highlighted in the news at that time was the hospitality of the people of Aguilas, shown in a special way during the visit to our city of groups of children or young people. The news about the family fostering in Aguilas of the first school colonies organized in the province, of boy scouts groups from other cities (the very first scouts groups formed in Spain) or musc bands invited to visit our city (Aguilas was the first city in the province to have a music band) are really endearing.
As wrote a journalist in the newspaper El Liberal in 1921:
"Aguilas, for its varied and splendid beaches, by its pure heaven, for its beautiful and elegant women, by its hospitality, by the culture of their inhabitants, by its European cosmopolitanism of this nice small town, honestly we can call it 'the Beautiful Águilas'."
(This book was published in July 2008) |
