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Mauricio Martínez Machón received a map announcing that he was the new mayor. He went to the seat of the civil governor of Guadalajara, gave him the baton and was sworn in on April 2, 1972. That was all. “I didn't ask for it. They chose me and that's it, I don't know why. Then the elections came and they have been voting for me”, he acknowledges from Valdarachas, a tiny town hidden between valleys. Like José Luis Seguí, mayor of Almudaina (Alicante), Mauricio celebrated his golden anniversary this year at the head of the City Council. There is no one like them in the more than 8.000 Spanish municipalities.
When he was born, the country was a republic, in his town
there was no drinking water, clothes were washed in the stream and necessities were done in the fields. So they were a hundred and something neighbors. Today they hold 47. “They are numbered”, he affirms with the security that comes from knowing them all. Mauricio will turn 90 in September and has been a widower for ten years. Of his eight brothers, Juan, Tino, Manolo and Paulino have already appeared. Tomás, Julio, Isabel and Carmen remain. He lives with his two daughters, Concha and Elena, who in turn have given him three grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Antonio, one of his nephews, is the deputy mayor.
When he was young, he remembers that he “got up early but well” to help his father make bread, which was kneaded by hand because there were no machines. He grew up and devoted himself body and soul to agriculture. His head works and he is in as good a state of health as a person his age. "The worst is from the waist down," he says. He moves with a cane (not the command one) and they no longer let him take the car. For this reason, because he had no one to take him, he was left without going to the Senate, in a tribute they paid to the 22 mayors who had remained in office since the first municipal elections held in 1979.
The trip to this corner of La Alcarria discovers the miseries of depopulation. The road that goes from Pozo de Guadalajara to Aranzueque has been closed for weeks and to get to Valdarachas you have to take an additional half-hour detour. Elena, Mauricio's daughter, who runs a food store, assures that basic services have been reduced. If the doctor went to town once a week and then once every 15 days, with the pandemic he does not come because the consultations are not in person. The bus has also stopped running for a long time.
Next to the Town Hall, there is a mastodon of a building, glass and abandoned. One fine day, “one of the reference real estate developers” appeared (as advertised on her website) and promised that she would flood the town with chalets. Of course, this is what happened in nearby Yebes, which has gone from having less than 200 inhabitants to more than 4.600 and an AVE station. And going up. However, the bubble burst earlier and Valdarachas stayed as it was. Throughout this last half century, Mauricio has managed to extend the water network, fix the streets, have more lights, build a new Town Hall or rehabilitate the church tower and the cemetery. Affiliated with the PP, “I don't care if the neighbors are of one color or another. Everyone is treated equally here." One of them will be the next mayor because Mauricio, now yes, will not present in 2023.
