Archive stories: the trees of 1755, the three-key chest, the union of 1061 and the 1932 revolt

Four stories that came out of the archives and give an idea of how people lived in A Limia in different periods.

1061: the union of Pedro Díaz and Nuño Vandilaz

On 16 April 1061, in the church of Santa María de Ordes (Rairiz de Veiga), two men, Pedro Díaz and Nuño Vandilaz, committed to sharing life: room, clothes, food and even friendships and enmities, "in totos dies et noctes, in omne tempus", with the priest’s blessing, as "amicos bonos cum fide et veritate". The researcher Carlos Callón discovered it in 2011 in a document of the monastery of Celanova in the Archivo Histórico Nacional. The medieval Church had a formula, the adelfopoiesis or fraternitas iurata, and did not institutionalise marriage as a sacrament until the early 13th century, linking it to procreation. Callón published Amigos e sodomitas. A configuración da homosexualidade na Idade Media (Compostela, 2011). The source presents this document as the oldest testimony of a union of two men in Spain ^[3].

1669-1784: Xinzo’s three-key chest

The famous three-key chest of the Couto Mixto, which kept the place’s privileges, was lost when French troops passed in 1809. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo found that Xinzo had a similar one: it was in the custody of the dean of the jurisdiction’s notaries and two of the three keys were held by the notary and the magistrate. The nobility lawsuit of Manuel Cerredelo, begun in 1784 before the Chancery of Valladolid, made its contents known: registers of nobles and commoners (1701, 1704, 1737, 1746, 1760) and a notebook called the "Llamada de Nobles" (Summons of Nobles), of 1762, when the nobility was called up for the war between Spain and England: Gabriel Cerredelo, aged 70, undertook to come with a pike "since he had nothing better". The abbot of Xinzo, Francisco Xavier de Castro y Saavedra, certified that the new parish book of 1669 began with a note on the destruction of Xinzo and Damil by the Portuguese on the last day of June, who burned the benefice houses and the books; he rebuilt them at his own cost, for 30,000 reals. The books of Lobaces and Parada de Ribeira were also lost in that war ^[2].

1755: the grudge against trees

In 1755 the king ordered trees to be planted on the common lands of the jurisdiction. The vicars and neighbours, gathered in Xinzo, declared that they had already done so and that most were withering, because the land was cold, damp and often waterlogged, that the plantations cut into the pastures on which the livestock lived and that they already paid a grazing right to the Count of Monterrei, owner of the jurisdiction. They gave power to the procurator general, Fernando Dopazo y Figueroa, to ask for exemption. Cerredelo comments wryly that the Limia people’s grudge against trees "goes back a long way" ^[1].

April 1932: the Rairiz peasant revolt

In 1932 there were many peasant protests over the poor economic situation, the high cost of living and tax rises; in A Limia unrest grew over the increase in the Utilidades Tax. In Rairiz de Veiga, at a meeting the mayor, Luís Fernández Puga, did not attend, there were voices against the taxes and against the priest; the argument ended in slaps and the priest’s supporters, the majority, prevailed. On Sunday 24 April a demonstration led by Francisco Pozos Baños arrived in the village. The press said that, seeing only a corporal and two guards, the rioters ignored the warning, that the Civil Guard fired into the air and that Pozos lunged at the corporal with a knife, so a guard fired and killed him. The defence, at the court martial, gave another version: there was no disturbance of order, only peaceful groups; the priest’s niece warned that "those from the Molino were coming armed with sickles and sticks"; the corporal fired at the churchyard to intimidate them and Pozos stepped forward with his hands up saying "peace, peace, peace, calm, nothing is happening" when two more shots were heard; from the case file only a sickle mounted on a stick, two staffs and a knife belonging to the dead man were produced. In the evening the civil governor forced the parish priest to leave the town, although he had not been in the scuffle, and asked the bishop to appoint another ^[4].

Links

• Curiosities of A Limia
• Rairiz de Veiga
• Xinzo de Limia
• History of A Limia

Sources

1. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «A xenreira dos limiaos coas árbores parece que vén de lonxe», Historia de Xinzo, 10/04/2017 (do libro Historia de Xinzo de Limia; AHPOu, Protocolos notariais, caixa 1669, f. 51). https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/a-xenreira-dos-limiaos-coas-arbores-parece-que-ven-de-lonxe/
2. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «A arca de tres chaves da xurisdición de Xinzo (século XVIII)», Historia de Xinzo, 03/04/2014. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/a-arca-de-tres-chaves-da-xurisdicion-de-xinzo-seculo-xviii/
3. Alexander de los Ríos Conde, «La primera unión homosexual de la Historia de España en Rairiz de Veiga, Ourense (siglo XI)», Vía Lethes, 28/06/2017. https://vialethes.es/primera-union-homosexual-historia-espana
4. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «Revolta campesiña en Rairiz de Veiga en 1932», Historia de Xinzo, 30/06/2021 (do libro Historia e memoria. A Limia 1931-1953; cita La Región, 26/04/1932 e J. Prada Rodríguez, 1998). https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2021/06/30/revolta-campesina-en-rairiz-de-veiga-en-1932/