There are phone calls that are already part of the history of the last great city created in Spain.
This Monday, Julio Carmona, a professor at the University of Extremadura and born in Dombenito, received a phone call from the mayor of Don Benito, José Luis Quintana.
Not every day a neighbor receives an order from the most important office of the City Council.
It wasn't just any errand either.
It was an unprecedented mission: to think of the new name of the town resulting from the merger of Don Benito and Villanueva de la Serena on February 20.
Elucidate which poster will forever erase the previous one, the one that will be studied in all schools, the one that will be placed at the beginning of the municipalities, the one that will hang in blue on national highways, the name of the new neighbors who will be born tomorrow : the name, in short,
―Julio, we believe that you are one of the ideal people.
Carmona did not hesitate for a second upon hearing the words of his mayor.
"I don't know anything like it in Spain," he explains by phone.
“Thinking about the place name of my new city has a lot of sensitivity.
This is raw meat for the neighbors.
Words identify us!”
When his name was made public in the local media, the countrymen stopped him every few minutes on the corners.
There is a lot of sensitivity in Don Benito, where the yes to the merger was reached by only two tenths.
It was a tight vote.
That early morning of February 20, the neighbors experienced a heart attack count, further harassed by a computer failure.
If 66% of yeses was necessary, in Villanueva 90% was reached and in Don Benito, 66.2%.
To the limit.
Three weeks later, the residents already know that the future name of their city will not be voted on in a referendum, but they take advantage of any loophole to stop the thinkers on the street, offer them their proposals, that resonate in their heads as a mere possibility, a sort of neighborhood
lobby
of undercover toponyms.
So much so, that even Carmona has had to open a section in the notepad of his mobile with the names that are being told to his ears.
He already has eight: "Carmona, Don Benito-Villanueva is his thing."
"Put Las Vegas del Guadiana".
"Score Las Vegas."
Count of votes in Villanueva during the referendum, on February 20.
ROBERT PALOMO
Carmona is aware of what he represents.
“It is a huge responsibility.
At the University of Extremadura we have discussed it among our colleagues.
My family is very proud,” she says.
He will not be the only one who will have to think about the name.
The two municipalities, which together already have 63,000 inhabitants and 710 kilometers of extension, have changed their minds after the result of the referendum.
If at first the two mayors had considered the possibility that the new toponym commission would be made up of four people – the two chroniclers from both cities and two university professors – now, however, there will be 14 thinkers.
And peers.
Seven women and seven men will have the mission of placing on the map of Spanish geography the new name of what is now officially the third largest city in Extremadura, behind none other than Badajoz and Cáceres and ahead of Mérida and Plasencia.
They will do it altruistically.
The way to meet and the working methodology will be known in a few days.
Although, according to three of them, several are calling each other on the phone and exchanging points of view on their own initiative.
At the moment, this Friday, the two City Councils have approved the 14 names in plenary session, which from now on will have two months to think about it, meet, and spin the coconut.
"They represent different age groups and different institutions, both regional and national," says Miguel Ángel Gallardo, the mayor of Villanueva, by phone.
Some of the components of this group of experts are César Chaparro, Professor of Philology at the University of Extremadura;
Trinidad Nogales, doctor in Archaeology, historian and director of the National Museum of Roman Art in Mérida;
Carmen Fernández-Daza, philologist, historian, and permanent academic of the Royal Academy of Extremadura, the two municipal chroniclers, Antonio Barrantes Lozano, from Villanueva, and Diego Soto Valadés, from Don Benito…
“We want to be free.
Most of us are sensible people, ”says Villanueva's chronicler, Antonio Barrantes, by phone.
“Honestly, I haven't shuffled any yet.
First I want to hear from others.
We must also think about what criteria we are going to take into account: whether the toponym, the geography or the history”.
He personally believes that geography will unite them.
“The only thing we have in common is the Guadiana River.
We are a very powerful agricultural area.
These waters embrace us, they irrigate the fields of Don Benito and Villanueva”.
But for now, he keeps his tricks.
"This is beautiful to do," says Carmen Fernández, philologist, historian, and academic at the Royal Academy of Extremadura.
“My opinion is that we have to take into account different factors.
There are wonderful historical names with rivers, mountains, streams, hills.
I am not going to say any, but the ideal would be to form a name with factors of various kinds.
All neologisms have a root, an affection of man in a historical fact.
This is exciting."
Once pooled, the 14 thinkers must choose the two finalist names.
And, here is another novelty, the two resulting toponyms will finally be chosen by the two municipal corporations.
The most voted among the councilors will be the final one.
The mayors, yes, made it very clear that neither Don Benito nor Villanueva can be used.
Nothing from the past.
The wonderful task of inventing a name for the third city of Extremadura has begun.
Poster of the referendum in one of the streets of Don Benito near the municipal council.Roberto Palomo
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