Recover the light at Christmas | News from the Valencian Community

These are one of the most difficult Christmases for Valencians. In my family, after the Immaculate Bridge, no one wants to take charge of putting up the Christmas decorations and it is my turn this year to bring home the spirit of Christmas and boost the morale of the troops. Perhaps in my generation, that of the 90s, we know a lot about falling and getting back up, after so many economic crises and various tragedies that we have had to live through in just a few decades of life.

The day after barranca we were going on a trip. After missing our flights, like so many other Valencians, we reorganized the trip for the December long weekend. That encouraged us a lot during the hard weeks that followed October 29. On the way to the airport, we were taken by an attentive taxi driver from Paiporta. His brothers had suffered heavy losses in their businesses. Businesses that had taken them a lifetime to build. One of them had even had to move with him to live in his house. “We are excited, but we really want Christmas to be over,” he told us, holding back tears, as we looked around us (still a month later), thousands of cars stacked on top of each other.

Upon returning from a Milan full of Christmas ornaments and decorations, I was overcome with great sadness when I saw how after more than a month, a new dana floods the homes of Valencians: that of sadness. This was corroborated by a 40dB survey for The Country and the Ser Chain. Almost a month and a half after the tragedy, 54.7% of Valencians said they felt sad. Likewise, 40.1% said they felt worried, 9.7% felt discouraged, 9.7% said they felt afraid, and 8.7% felt disconcerted.

This Christmas we are going to experience the sad paradox that, 11 kilometers from the capital of Túria, where the budget for Christmas lights has tripled this year, there are still thousands of broken businesses, homes and families. But, above all, there are thousands of shattered dreams and childhoods in which the stop button was pressed. pause that October 29th. And without hope there can be no future.

Therefore, as the movie teaches us Radical, We must claim the right to dream: it is an essential condition for our dreams to come true. I do want to celebrate Christmas, but not a Christmas with great luxuries or ostentatious events. May these be holidays to be with the family—both the one we choose and the one we are given. Let them be a holiday to recover our dreams. A more Valencian Christmas than ever in which we support and value our small businesses, our companies, and do not abandon those who continue to have a bad time because of that damn alarm that arrived three hours late.

As I returned from the bridge and that plane landed in Manises, I was excited to think that ours is the land of light. That of Sorolla’s luminism, or that of that Albufera that Blasco Ibáñez recounted in Reeds and Mud. Let’s take advantage of this Christmas to offer “that sisterly hand and that sincere hug”, that Zoo sang, to listen to us, also to those who think differently. Let’s take a deep breath and gain momentum for the reconstruction that is coming and that forces us to give our 100%. It is our turn to defend the future and joy, as Ismael Serrano says. And remember that “there is a crack everywhere: that’s how the light gets in,” as Leonard Cohen sang. Valencians: let it come, let it come, let the light come…!