Xinzo in the 20th century in portraits: merchants, photographers, dentists and musicians

This page gathers people and businesses of Xinzo whom Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo profiled on his blog.

Antonio Bobillo and the Gran Bazar Melilla

Antonio Bobillo García, from Zamora (Codesal, 1852 – Xinzo, 1903), appears in the Bailly-Baillière yearbook from 1901 to 1903 as a bookseller, but his shop was a kind of department store, the "Gran Bazar Melilla": haberdashery, hardware, ironmongery, bakery, bookshop and insurance, and he represented several firms. He married Mercedes Rodríguez Burges and had six children (Marina, Gloria, Antonio, Modesto, Nilo and Fausto Senén); when he died, the widow and heirs fell into difficulties and several children emigrated to America (Argentina and Cuba) ^[1]. Another merchant, Domingo Bobillo Romero (d. 1912), had a bank, textiles, ironmongery, groceries and exported eggs and hams; his family owned the "Empresa Bobillo" of Ourense–Xinzo–Verín buses ^[1].

Modesto Montero, the builder

Modesto Montero Colmenero was born in Santa Baia de Chamosiños (Trasmiras) over eighty years ago (when the entry was published, 2019), was the eldest of eleven siblings and at twelve went to a San Juan de Dios school in Madrid. He worked for Dragados y Construcciones in Andalusia and on the Sil dams, married the teacher Rosario Ferro in the 1960s and worked self-employed in Xinzo from the 1960s until 2001. He developed and opened new streets at his own expense between the 1960s and 1990s, which made Xinzo grow "wider": Vicente Risco, Celso Emilio Ferreiro and Álvaro Cunqueiro, and in the Torre area, Otero Pedraio and the Torre square; "A Torre" was Xinzo’s first building with a lift ^[2].

The Dacal photographer dynasty

Around 1915 Ricardo Dacal returned from Cuba, where he had been a minute photographer; he settled in the village of A Torre (Porqueira) and toured fairs and festivals taking portraits. His son Senén inherited the trade and, from 1944, when the Francoist decree created the national ID card, almost without competition in A Limia, took the ID photos. In the 1950s he set up in San Roque square, no. 13, and later at no. 9, where he opened a studio already with José Dacal, who toured A Limia by motorbike. From 1974 he worked with his son, José Luís, and they coloured photos; in the 1980s they were among the first photographers in the province to use video at weddings. The negatives were lost in a flood of the studio, and today the studio, the only one in town, is run by the fourth generation, José Luís and Gonzalo Dacal ^[3]. Matilde Gándara and Brindes Blanco, who returned from Switzerland around 1970, opened in the dining room of their house, on Toural street, "Foto Brindes", photographers "by accident" and with almost no experience ^[4]. Another fair photographer was the Rizo, from Castro Caldelas, who from Ourense also had a small studio in Xinzo, and displayed photos in two showcases and in the window of the Blanca bookshop ^[7].

The Martínez Biel: dentists and characters

Fausto, Roberto and Xosefina Martínez Biel, children of Andrés Martínez, were popular figures of the Xinzo of the second half of the 20th century, "with a reputation for being extravagant, ahead of their time". Fausto, a dentist, intelligent and elegant, always wearing a hat, fond of music (he gave Nito the new records for the Pista Ideal dances) and of football pools; in 1955, when the garden of the fish square was landscaped, he brought back from a trip the two metal frogs of the pond and donated the coloured fish. Casares recalled in a A Marxe column that he had a false title of marquis; he had a challenge to a duel with the retired soldier Martín Parareda, of the National Colonisation Institute, which Casares tells in another column ^[5].

Paco Twist

Francisco Ropero Gómez, "Paco Paco", of an Andalusian father and Galician mother, arrived in Xinzo in the early 1960s as a worker of the National Colonisation Institute that was draining the Lagoa de Antela. He was nicknamed Paco Twist for making that dance fashionable; he played drums and guitar and was the master of the Café Ideal dance floor. In the 1960s he emigrated to France, lived in Málaga and in 1971 opened in Antwerp "A Taberna Flamenca" with Linda, a Belgian singer. His "Taka takata" was a hit in several central European countries and in 1973 he received gold discs in the Netherlands and France ^[6].

Links

• History of A Limia
• Xinzo de Limia
• Cinemas, café, radio, school and library
• Economy of A Limia

Sources

1. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «Antonio Bobillo García comerciante de Xinzo», Historia de Xinzo, 27/01/2022. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2022/01/27/antonio-bobillo-garcia-comerciante-de-xinzo/
2. «Modesto Montero, o construtor promotor que fixo crecer Xinzo ao ancho», 08/01/2019. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/modesto-montero-o-construtor-promotor-que-fixo-crecer-xinzo-ao-ancho/
3. «Foto Dacal: 100 anos retratando os limiaos», 15/02/2018. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2018/02/15/foto-dacal-100-anos-retratando-os-limiaos/
4. «Foto Brindes-Foto Mati: fotógrafos por accidente», 25/09/2017. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/foto-brindes-foto-mati-fotografos-por-accidente/
5. «A familia Martínez Biel. Dentistas en Xinzo», 17/07/2023. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2023/07/17/a-familia-martinez-biel-dentistas-en-xinzo/
6. «O Paco Twist en Xinzo. Francisco Ropero Gómez (Paco Paco)», 16/12/2016. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2016/12/16/o-paco-twist-en-xinzo-francisco-ropero-gomez-paco-paco/
7. «Xosé Vázquez Arias, o Rizo. A cara amable dunha época», 06/04/2017. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/xose-vazquez-ariaso-rizo-a-cara-amable-dunha-epoca/