March 9, 1937. In the old town hall palace of Orihuela, located in the Plaza Nueva, that was the day when the wedding of the century took place. In that building, formerly Pósito, two people knelt in front of the ‘altar’. The girl, born in Quesada (Jaén) and daughter of a civil guard officer, was called Josefina Manresa.
The boy was son of a goatherder on Calle Arriba, an avid reader and aspiring writer, who was just beginning to emerge in the world of poetry as one of the best young poets of what later came to be called the Generation of ’27, the Silver Age of Spanish letters. His name was Miguel Hernández, the internationally renowned poet from Oriola.
After the ceremony in front of their family and friends, the newlyweds went in a procession, crossing the historic centre and ended up at what was the humble Hernández house, where the wedding banquet would take place.
It was a neighbourhood celebration, in keeping with the times of famine that were being endured in the midst of the Republic, but that did not deprive the diners of enjoying a dish that Miguel did not miss every opportunity to try when his mother took out the clay viand; the dish – with forgiveness from Elche – Oriolano par excellence: el arroz y costra (rice and crust).
A typical food, widely enjoyed as yet another tourist attraction, the dish has been the central character of a very ‘sui generis’ contest for several years now where chefs from the most popular kitchens in the city don their aprons to see who will cook this rice better in the oven.
But this year it will also have a new incentive. The contest will also host a tribute to the poet and that delicious tapa that Conchita, Miguel’s mother, served to her guests at the wedding of her beloved son as, on March 9, Miguel Hernández will get married again in Orihuela.
The wedding banquet from 87 years ago will be repeated in the same place, except that the bride and groom will not be present, and the cooks will be different. “The main dish will be prepared by the winner of the 2023 contest, Raggú, by the winner of the 2022 contest, Davinia Martínez, and by this year’s two finalists, the San Pascual restaurants and the Estanco bar,” said the president of the Orihuela merchants who are using the opportunity to promote a commercial campaign in the city, which will also feature a window contest where the winner would receive a cheque for 500 euros to redeem in the shops and hotels of Orihuela.
The director of Teatro Expresion, Manoli García, said that the event is not intended to offend any purists, but rather to make Orihuela and the region participants in this beautiful event and, in the process, lend a helping hand to a local business lacking incentives that encourage purchases. “I hope that as many people participate in the route, that everything goes well and that everyone likes and enjoys our work,” he said.
Miguel’s wife inspired him to write most of his romantic work. However, he was arrested multiple times after the civil war for his anti-fascist sympathies. He was tried in 1939, accused of being a communist commissar and of writing poems harmful to the Francoist cause. He was eventually sentenced to death, but this was commuted to a prison term of 30 years, leading to incarceration in multiple jails under extraordinarily harsh conditions.
He suffered pneumonia in Palencia prison, bronchitis in Ocaña prison and eventually succumbed to typhus and tuberculosis in 1942 in Alicante jail.
Just before his death, Hernández scrawled his last verse on the wall of the hospital: Goodbye, brothers, comrades, friends: let me take my leave of the sun and the fields.
He was buried in the Cementerio de Alicante
