Life around the tile factories of Oliva

Since ancient times, Oliva has played an important role in the world of ceramics. Although we know and have evidence that the Iberians (in the Castellar area), the Romans (with the furnace in Calle del Santísimo), and then the Moors manufactured all kinds of ceramic objects in the city at different times, it was from 1880 that manufacturing began to acquire great importance. The Moorish furnaces where the roof and floor tiles and hollow bricks were baked were very useful. Some of them continued to operate until the late 1950s and early 1960s. But it was the first decade of the 1900s that saw the mass production of roof and floor tiles on the Paseo de Els Rajolars, doubling the population in about twenty years.

The first seven factories recorded in the register of industries, according to data from the Museum of Ceramics of Manises, were those of Blas Sendra, Pascual Sendra, José Tercera, Juan Bañó, Ricardo Navarro, Salvador Pérez and Salvador Morera. A few years later, in 1914, five more were added: those of Juan García, Salvador Cots, Lorenzo Gil, E. Vicente and Francisca Soria.

But it was seventeen years later, in 1931, when Oliva began to produce all kinds of roof and floor tiles and bricks, which were distributed throughout Spain and part of Europe. That year, the factories of C. Gascó, Antonio Mestre, Miguel Pascual, Dolores Malonda, Vicente Gregori, Vicente Morató, Vicente Savall, the Francisca brothers and Miguel Tercem, Salvador and Francisca Sendra, and Ramón Pons García were registered.

It is therefore possible to affirm with certainty that that was the decade the heavy ceramic industry was born in Oliva. However, it was not until the first half of the 1940s that the local tile industry came under great pressure to produce these treasured goods. All this required increased productivity, and more staff to perform the tasks, along with the need to adapt and modernize to meet this new challenge.

In the second half of the decade, in 1946, three more factories were registered. Those of Vicente Llopi, José Mestre and Vicente Benimeli’s widows. The unstoppable growth in the number of factories continued with additions such as that of the Navarro brothers and the Pérez brothers, the Gilabert brothers, the Bolinches, Pastor, Martí and Morera’s widow. In total, the town was home to about thirty factories.

Behind every industry lay the human component. A large number of families lived and worked around the factories. Some managers, and even some of the more prominent workers, lived inside the warehouses, as in the case of the Sant Blas warehouse. The life of these families on the Paseo de Els Rajolars, the Senda de Los Ladrones, Las Delicias, or Las Minas (today part of the sanatorium) was organized modestly with regard to certain needs, such as drinking water and light. The population of these places, ever-expanding by regrouping families, and births, made the parish of St. Francis of Assisi increasingly important.

But why all this industrial growth and development? What was its origin? The orange certainly played a big role. And also at the end of the Spanish Civil War, the country began to build on a regular basis. This meant there was a constant demand for tiles. And Oliva had it all.

The factories began a significant process of modernization, changing the low-capacity Moorish for new ones of greater capacity, and building the Hoffman furnaces, of German origin, and their large chimneys, to be able to produce more and more, for which it was also necessary to increase the number of workers.

In the 1950s, demand was so high that word spread and a large number of workers of all ages and from different regions of Spain such as Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura or Andalusia, came to Oliva in search of work. Once established and with their first savings, these men began to bring their wives and children, parents, siblings, family and friends to join them.
First Families

1916. One of the first foreign families to arrive in Oliva, and more specifically in the neighbourhood of Sant Francesc, were Antonio Navarro Abad, 22, and his wife Rosa Gil Girona, 20, accompanied by their respective mothers, Isabel and Cayetana, both widows. A very humble family, he came from the province of Almeria, and she from Cartagena. They lived near the Bolinches drinking water fountain, on the Camino de la Carrasca. For several years they were sharecroppers dependent on the priest, Sanchis, who had a property there.

Señor Antonio and Señora Rosa, as they were called by those who knew them, had eight children, six of them born in Oliva. Five boys and three girls, three of whom died young. Over the years, the family moved to live in Calle del Niño. The father worked for a time in the mines as a labourer, and ultimately in the San Blas tile factory, after which he retired. His son Francisco was a master worker, while Antonio, José María and Joaquín were kiln burners, baking tiles in the same factory.

Like all kiln burners of the time, all three were fire specialists. The temperature and firing of the tile were calculated by eye, and all kiln burners were highly proficient.

Isabel la Mecheta, his daughter, worked as a nursing assistant in the Camino de la Carrasca colony, caring for children during the war along with other young people. Later, she worked at the home of the lawyer, Soler, with whose family she forged a strong bond of friendship. Isabel moved to Valencia to marry a man from the capital, but her friendship with the Solers lasted until her death at the age of 90.

Mecheta is one of the many nicknames by which the families were known. To support his family, Señor Antonio sold lighter stones, lighters and wicks, sweets and other goodies at the train station, at the town hall, on the promenade, in the cinemas and at the market. Over time, the nickname gain traction and Antonio was known as Uncle Antonio Mecha. This is how he and his descendants are remembered by the elderly people who still live in our city.

From 1940, many workers arrived in Oliva from the surrounding villages, the Font d’en Carròs, Bellreguard, l ‘Alqueria de la Comtessa, and Piles. They came by bicycle and after work they returned home. People also came from other regions to migrate to Oliva, and the vast majority settled permanently and formed their family. Today their descendants, after several generations, are fully integrated.

Of the foreigners who arrived at the Oliva factories, I will cite some by name, and others by nicknames, to rescue them from the past and take them on this intergenerational journey: José Muñoz and his wife Paquita, Manolo Rueda, Emeterio and his wife Rogelia, Pepe lo Chatarrero and his wife Lola, Andrés and his wife Isabel, Felipe Muñiz and his wife Ana, with the latter’s parents. Roque and his wife Magdalena, Hilarion and his wife, Josa and his wife. The Gutiérrez brothers, Vinuesa, Juan Galera, Moreno and his wife Angelita, Vera and his wife, the Pichi and his wife, Antonio Arias and his wife, Emilio and his wife ‘la Prese’. The Díaz family who ran the irrigation engine, the Villena Fuentes family, Fidel, the Vilches, Machín, El Pirulo, José Lo Pelicano, the Romera family, the Torres family, León … Those from Oliva and nearby, José Mozo, Uncle Tronco, muleteer of Sant Blas, El Fabri, Fernando Cerdà, Uncle Cuadrao, the Alcaraz brothers… We could fill this and another page with the names of all those – or at least a large portion of those – who passed through the factories; in time, I’m sure we will.

1950, the years which saw the rise of grocery stores and bars

This new population, with different customs (corduroy trousers, the famous Manchega beret, food, language), had to adapt to the customs of the locals. And this took time. After a long working day, labourers and lumberjacks gathered at the Puerta del Sol bar. Mules, donkeys, horses and carts waited patiently in front of bar, for their masters to finish their beer or the glass of wine and accompany them back to their troughs after a hard day. There were many bars in Oliva, but this was the closest of all those in the area and was frequented mostly by locals. At the end of the day, the non-local workers stopped there to have a drink and chat, which mitigated the distance from their relatives and their longing for the customs of their homeland.

Among them were visionaries, who thought to bring joy to newcomers while earning a living. One of them was Paco, who opened El Bar Paco in the late 1950s on the Dénia road, offering them the cuisine to which they were accustomed. The result was a success that lasted for many years. Later, El Bar Navarro (now El Bar Olímpico) and the Lo Leñador bar were opened, specialising in this clientele.

1950, neighbourhood of Els Rajolars promenade

With the increase in population, demand grew and in the second half of the 50s two shops were opened on El Paseo de Els Rajolars. The first was that of Jesús Cerdà, located in front of La Salvaora, and the second that of Antonio Navarro ‘Bigot’, in front of Sant Blas. The arrival in Oliva of workers who only sold was so marked that both grocery stores had to function not only as shop, but also as bar and meeting place. Jesus Cerdà extended the upper part of his house and built several rooms to accommodate those who came. Their children filled the streets with life, with the constant comings and goings of people who, even in the afternoons and public holidays, walked through the area.

1950-1960, neighborhood of Las Delicias and Font de Pulga

Jesús Cerdà’s shop, in Las Delicias, was near the road, in the direction of the cemetery. A dozen houses were built here, in addition to those existing in the surrounding orchards. Balaguer’s store was located next to the Gilabert or Chorro factory, in the direction of the Font de Pulga, next to what is now the funeral home. Right here there was a row of houses, five or six, all next to the road where families of workers of the La Santana factory (formerly Bolinches) lived, the owner of which was ‘Ramoncito’ Pons, son of Ramón Pons, master of the Sant Blas. The houses had neither electricity nor water, at least initially, and families washed clothes and collected water in the river of the Font de Pulga.

Right behind the houses, there was a large open area where much of the material extracted from the mine, located just next door, was laid out, and the largest rocks, or “pedrots,” were broken down with sledgehammers by miners from the factory.

1950-1960, neighbourhood of the Senda de los Ladrones and cemetery estate

In this period, there was a great deal of building in the area of the Senda de los Ladrones. Several streets came into existence such as Calle de la Luna, Calle del Sol, Calle del Poeta Juan Ramón Jiménez, Calle de Platera and Calle de Capurri. The vast majority of houses were built by newly arrived families of factory workers.

From 1970, the street known today as the Calle de los Condes Gilabert de Centelles began to grow steadily, as well as that parallel to it and the surrounding area. The neighbourhood of Sant Francesc was a special place, thanks to its chapels, the animal watering hole between the roads of Dénia and Pego, the old gas pump, the large network of commercial establishments, the first large building built at Oliva Ga (cemetery estate), and above all the thriving ceramic industry and the diversity of its inhabitants.