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It was chillier inside the town hall than out, as I entered the impressive patio that lead up, by a sweeping marble staircase, to the office of the Mayor of Loja. Perhaps because the doors, I was told, were always open in this small provincial town 20 minutes west of Granada. The secretary welcomed me and I was shown a settee outside the Mayor’s door. It was floral.
Very nice, I commented before realising that I had been expected to sit on it and wait whilst the mayor finished off some important phone calls.





I did up my coat and tried not to blend against the floral pattern. It was indeed cold. Perfect for those sweltering summer months, but pneumonia-provoking in January and February. I heard a knocking and looked around, but it was just my knees responding to the inside temperature. 15 minutes later, just before frost bite had set in, the door opened and I was invited into a dark and spacious room filled with faded paintings, books and piles and piles of urgent looking documents. MIguel, despite the clearly hectic day ahead, ushered me over to a corner of one ancient wobbly table, and there we sat.

In his forties, Lojeño, married and living in the old town, Miguel looked tired but proved accommodating in this lead up to the referendum on the new constitution and the municipal elections. He had a busy few months ahead.

Lets start with the subject of tourism. I get the impression that Loja is trying to build a tourist base. Is this true?

Well, we do want to encourage tourism. We attend national and international ferias - like Fitur, but we are just part of the Granada stand. The promotion is modest as we don’t have the resources for a bigger presence.
In town we have our tourist offices and we have on our web page the details what we promote.

What are you promoting?

We are promoting tourism on several different fronts - cultural tourism, fiestas like semana santa, events like the flamenco concerts, - and our yearly main fiesta. Then there is of course the richness of our natural surroundings. We try to promote the abundant waters, the sierra, the mountains, as well as promoting other activities like hill walking, mountain biking, parapente, fishing etc. Finally we are promoting our specific cuisine, local products etc . All this makes up part our tourist offer.

This is all very interesting but I would like to know more specifically about how the town backs up its tourist offers...for example there is nowhere, well almost nowhere, for the visitor to stay in the very centre of town. On the outskirts there are plenty of hotels, but the interior offers almost nothing.

Well, we have the Mirador pretty close, well… its the closest.

But its at the top of the old town, the barrio alto.It means after an evening of tapear, you have to climb the entire town to get to your hotel.

Well, we do have two casas rurals in the town...in the alcalzaba barrio...but its true we don’t have anything really in the town, though there is a pension…..

You mean the one thats up for sale and closed half the time.

Well, thats true also...yes we don’t have anything in the town as such.....but this is down to the private sector, its not the town halls job to provide hotels....

Cant you provide initiatives for someone to start something..?

We do. If anyone wants to, for example, reform an old house in the casco and convert it into a small hotel this would be a great idea, and there are subsidies to help. I would be very happy if someone did this because, like you I share this concern about the lack of accommodation for visitors in the historic centre of town....we do have a campaign for the reconstruction of houses in the old town and I’m convinced that with the help available and the buildings we have...we could have something special to offer here....

Lets talk about another form of tourism….residential tourism. With the growth of inland tourism and the subsequent influx of oversees residents, what can the local town hall do to convince these people to empadronate?

I believe its very important that people empadronate....to qualify for all your rights...for example, to qualify for housing that we offer it is necessary to have been empadronated for at least one year....but more generally, if you are empadronated, the figures mean the town hall can grow and receive greater help in its development. This is important in all of Andalucia not just in Loja. Obviously we aren’t talking about someone coming to stay for a few weeks, but if you are here for more than half the year, then empadronation is very very important.

But, what can you do to convince people to empadronate...for example in some coastal pueblos, the tourist office produces leaflets or pamphlets about how to empadrontate and what the advantages of doing so are....

I think we have about 300 English empadronated right now here in Loja...

But we know there are more lurking about….

Of course....well I think the booklet idea is a good one and maybe we should do something like that in different languages..

On the subject of residents, why is it that we can vote in municipal elections and European elections but not in national ones?

Well this is a question of national politics.......and the agreements reached with European law....but personally I’m in agreement if someone is empadronated and there is a mutual agreement with their country then why not. I think we have to do this....

The PSOE is in agreement on this issue ?

Yes

Lets move on to another question, that of the environment. I remember, not long ago you said publicly that Loja not only has satisfied the demands of the Kyoto Protocol but has exceeded it.....

Well, we are producing at the moment 32 or 34 mega-vatios of wind production, and we inaugurated in November last year a solar park. We are now constructing a new solar park which - when all of this is added up - can supply power to almost 60.000 families. And this of course means the reduction of many tons of C02 in the atmosphere...and thereby reducing the greenhouse effect...and we are going to put in effect more plans, especially more solar plants.....

On a local level, green politics is more than investment in alternative fuel sources. Loja lacks green space within the pueblo. Its no good saying that Loja has beautiful spaces up the mountain if people have to drive there to enjoy it. Driving to find green spaces seems to me a bit of a contradiction....

Well, yes, we are replanting 20 hectares of trees.....

Where...

In the mountians above Rio Frio....

Thats not within the pueblo.....

Ok, well we do have a huge plan to create a green space within the pueblo....from the new bridge to the sports stadium we intend to construct a green space. 200.000sqm....an exclusive green zone which will help recover the river side and we hope to begin this project this year....
And in the pueblo, in the Cuesta del campo, we are working on a parking space and a small park above it......and of course there is the work on the park Narvaez that is underway.....and will be amplified when we take over the space occupied at the moment by the old factories alongside the river, purchased by the Junta de Andalucia.....so the park will be much bigger.......

I’m sure that there are companies that would like to construct in such a lucrative zone....?

We are building all this into the PGOU so that the area will be a protected area by law.
Once the AVE (high-speed train) passes through, it will be using a different track than that the present one. It will be entering the mountain through a tunnel ...so what can we do with the old track? Well, we intend to pull it up and convert the whole thing in to a Via Verde....20 kilometres or so up to Cuesta de la Palma whereby people can go on bici....or footing.....or just pasear.....

And all the parties are in agreement with this

Well, maybe not the PP.. but there you go......
And we will be constructing a zona verde near the Manzanil hotel, a walk there.... in fact slowly we will be moving the industrial parts of the town alongside the autovia...and therefore the town will be used more and more for the people...

Another question...there seems to be too many cars in the town, little parking, no pedestrian zones...

I would like to see the centre pedestrianized, but until we have a road that diverts traffic what can we do? If we just cut the traffic without providing an alternative, people will complain about lack of access and will abandon the old town.
And we need the old town populated. In fact, as I mentioned before, we have an office in Loja dedicated to this, providing help for rehabilitating and restoring old houses and giving financial help to those people that buy up these buildings.
The town hall has bought up many to reconstruct as public housing but we cant buy up everything, we just don’t have the money.

So to stop the depopulation of old towns...

Hombre, its all linked, help for the rebuilding of the houses, employment, green zones and access...culture, cleanliness. I believe the quality of life ln Loja for example is far more pleasant than living in the bigger cities with such compact housing, vehicles, noise where it takes half a day to cross the city....

Loja seems to invest a lot in the quality of life in the town. Exhibitions, free films, concerts and every month an agenda is published of cultural events sent out to homes by email or snail mail. Why do you stress culture so much...?

We have a yearly writing prize, poetry, painting, short film, all this because we believe that a town that has culture is a town that has more freedom....

Hmm. Let me ask you about The Jornada de la recuperacion de la memoria historica....last year you held two sessions with Santiago Carillo and Ian Gibson. Are these to continue?

Yes, we will have one other jornada, and we are also going to publish a book about the historical memory in this area, stories that have never before been published.

The last section is about technology. What is you position on the use of open software?

Well, we are about to offer a course of open software in Loja, Linux etc. So we can save the money each year on not having to use Windows. In fact we already use it in our centres of internet in Rio Frio for example or the Espacio Joven building in town.

But not in the library

No, we have to do that.

Do you download music from the internet?

No, never tried it. Films nor music. Never even tried emule.

Yet you know of it.

Well, my son........I buy music...I don’t even have a mp3 player...an ipod,....maybe my phone can do it but I don’t know....

I looked down at my list of questions....it was clearly getting to the end when we had reached the music download section. My knees were knocking, my nose had lost all colour and I found myself edging nearer and nearer to Miguels cigarette for a little warmth. It was time to call it a wrap.

Well that’s all ...thanks Miguel Castellano Gámez for your time....

Think nothing of it. And don’t forget this is your house, your town hall too........

Well it was certainly as cold as mine. I shivered, pulled up my collar and strode over to the door.

Keep warm Miguel, keep warm.

© Paul Read