The SILVAN quest in detail, one village at a time

Fuentesaúco

Wikipedia defines our ancestral village as "Fuentesaúco is a municipality located in the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain."  

My first view of Fuentesaúco gave me the impression of open space, waving fields and panoramic vistas, all with same conclusion:  a quiet, slow-moving village, almost a blur in the road.  As we drove closer and I spied the first sign announcing the village, my heart sped up.  

I'd read about the village, heard about it from family members and friends who'd been there and all I could think about was my abuelita and her family actually breathing the air, touching the streets and communing with one another.  I took a big breath and we slowly drove through the village.  

Clearly, it was a sleepy village; the plaza mayor in the center was small and we wondered if we were wrong?  Upon closer exploration, we realized it matched many we'd seen in other cities on a much smaller scale.  There was an open cafe with umbrella-covered tables, scattered chairs along the few shops circling the plaza and shade trees above some well-situated benches.  

The streets were mingled with quiet for the most part.  Where were the people?  Where was the activity?  Was it a senior community?  We were rather stumped.  First on our list was finding Santa Maria, the church (iglesia) of our family.  Following a church spire, we rounded a street to find St. John the Baptista --- wrong church but well worth losing our way.  And with my Spanish-speaking brother's attention, a friendly woman (very interested in what we were up to, I think) told us Santa Maria was on the other side of town and pointed the way with very fast Spanish (I rolled my eyes as it sounded like chipmunk chatter.  I will always regret not learning to speak the language before I arrived!)  

Iglesia Santa Maria del Castillo stopped us in our tracks as we pulled up to the well-worn and obviously unused doors, screaming disrepair and watched the doves lining the rooftop and every available space in the walls.  We were there and it was exciting but we were saddened we could not go inside.  Later we found that many of these tiny villages share a priest and even when the church was active, there was probably a traveling priest.   This wonderful, antique church saw weddings for Victorino Luciano Silvan Hernandez and Romana Martin Lorenzo, Juan Francisco Silvan Hernandez and Eustoquia Rita Trascasas Marzo and Cristencia Silvan Hernandez and Eusebio Feliz Gonzales Hidalgo that we know of.  Their parents and siblings may have spoken their vows here also.  Other happy occasions were the baptisms, of which I have documentation in my files for Manuela Silvan Trascasas, Matias Silvan Hernandez, Edmundo Silvan Hernandez, Angel Silvan Hernandez, Agapita Silvan Hernandez.  My assumption is the other siblings were also baptised there: Juan, Victorino, Cristencia, Agustin, Geronimo, Felipe.  

The village must have been one very large family and with detailed research, it appears that in the dusk of those long-ago evenings, everyone congregated in the plaza mayor to discuss the day's events, the world as they knew it and enjoyed each other while their children ran around and between their family doing what they enjoyed: a living community.

We found the bullfighting ring that my great aunt Christina Gonzales missed and where my great grandfather John Silvan pulled the dead bulls from the ring with a horse (or donkey?) for slaughter.  We found the cemetery (see previous post) and brought rocks from the graveyard to place in my garden and share with others.

HOWEVER, we found no welcoming hotel to stay during our visit; but we certainly found delicious Spanish food to eat on the edge of the village as we pondered what to do next.  My previous postings explain the excitement and steps to finding 6 San Salvador where our family lived in that small village so I will avoid duplication here.  

My thoughts of Fuentesaúco were sweet and emotional.  However, I must say --- of all the villages we became part of during our sojourn in Spain, this one was not as hospitable as others and we are still scratching our head to analyse why...

Next post:  TORO, 30 miles northeast of Fuentesaúco