Over 30 years, I have been taking in people who were living in loneliness or with problems. I’m not just going to mention the people who passed through my house, but I also want to make a confession and a review of my hospitality.
Over 30 years, I have been having people in my home (in the parish house). Some came from Caritas, but other times they were themselves who asked me to take them in. There have been all kinds: African immigrants, from Spain, priests, transients, ex-convicts…
I started welcoming people because on the feast of Saint Barnabas, while I was a priest in Ortigosa, Conchi from APIR asked me to take in a boy of 11 for those days. Then three semi-friars came and stayed for a while and then left for the south.
It’s been a long time, Yeni, and her brothers. Another was from Senegal, who later he and his parents called me on the phone from their house.
In Medrano, it was very easy to accommodate, as they were people who had work in the warehouses of Lardero and Entrena, and didn’t cause the slightest problem. Those I welcomed in Anguiano also went down to work in Baños.
In general, the experience has turned out very well. But with a couple of them I had difficulty, because I, without realizing it, would humiliate them a little or treat them a little badly, perhaps also because of their character. One of them got rightly angry with me, and threw all the pots and everything he had in the fridge, because I was “stealing” from him.
The same thing happened to me with another one in Santurde. I did things that humiliated him. The rest was very good. There are some with whom I still have a lot of friendship, like in the case of Yeni and her brothers.
I got along very well with those who came from prison. When they couldn’t find work, they got bored.
In Medrano, there was a Pakistani working as a milkman. In Agoncillo, Iván was there for two years and worked in a mechanic’s warehouse. At Transportes Sáez. He was very reasonable and collaborative.
One was working in the Agoncillo tower painting the beams and he fell. The fright was enormous, but luckily he was fine, without getting hurt.
Some came to pass the time, not behaving entirely well. One night I had to go down to the street “la cadena” at four in the morning to get one, to take him home, as he had gone completely off his rocker and didn’t know how to get back. Another night, the same one, called me from Navarrete, and didn’t give me any more signs than that he was seeing streetlights. But these were the least of it. The others were formally at home by the hour.
The curious fact is that two years, the Reyes (Three Kings) festivities coincided with the stay of a boy from Senegal in my house. And he played the Three Kings, in person; another year he went down to do it in Baños de Río Tobía.
A Pakistani lived with me. He got married and then divorced. With the divorced woman, I had a very big problem, as she accused him of mistreating her and he was put in jail. The prison officer said to me: “How have you gotten this one in here if he’s not even capable of killing a fly?” And very few days later, they released him. But he had to pay a fee of 400 euros for a long time.
Once I had a boy who had run away from his home and went to Valvanera. Father Jesús entrusted him to me and he came with me. It was impressive when, on Saint Joseph’s Day, his father arrived and they reconciled, returning to their land. Father Jesús would send me others from time to time.
Once a priest sent a young man to live with me. He soon rented a house and barely came by mine. He left looking for work and ended up as an entertainer at the Bañares campsite.
They have almost always been boys. Only in Ortigosa, for a short time, were there three girls, two of whom were prostitutes. As far as I can remember, I haven’t had many problems with things going missing: I only missed a jug of wine, which he had drunk, an iron, and 300 pesetas. One of them said to me, “It would be foolish to steal from you after you took me in.” In general, they got along very well with the neighbors, and some even became friends and helped with various tasks.
They would immediately tell me about their lives, but without going into too much detail. With some, I might have done more to help them integrate into the village and find a job.
In general, I didn’t think it was a big deal to take them in, because the expense of food was small and many of them ate Muslim-style.
Sometimes someone would bring me some food to help, and the nuns from Entrena gave me abundant pastries for them. Tavo and his wife did a phenomenal job with them. They were their friends. One day, while sleeping, I found that they had put a padlock on the door of the room. A few days later, Tavo said to me, “How are you sleeping? I put a padlock on the door so nothing would happen to you at night.”
I remember that for 8 years I have gone to celebrate mass in the jail on some Sundays. It hasn’t meant anything special to me, on the contrary: friendship with some prisoners and a helping hand to some inmates. Then, welcoming some while they were doing substitute work.
**Gerardo Villar**
English version translated with AI