Story
My great-grandfather, Daniel González Fraga, was born on 8th August 1936 in Pontealbar, a small village on the outskirts of Santiago de Compostela.
Since he was young, he grew together with the carpentry of his house, due to the fact that his father was carpenter. Seeing to his father everyday and help him, he began to interest about that trade and he was learning bit by bit from his father.
By then going to school was complicated because of the resources weren´t enough, so the people had to work since very young.
Thanks to that learning, with just 15 years old he got his first job as a carpenter in the Santiago´s Cathedral. As its job didn´t last too much, he looked for another jobs as a carpenter to get by his own, but any of them provided him neither stability nor a enough salary to support his family and his necessities. He worked for different construction companies and also on the roads.
After several years working where he could, it came a time when it was impossible to find a job, and the lack of money was greater and greater...so when he was 25 years old he made the hard decision of leave his family and his homeland to emigrate and try to get work and money.
His first option was Buenos Aires, but finally he decided to go to Caracas, a Venezuelan´s city.
Before go, he promised to his father that he would go back to do the military service...but when he was already there he paid 600 pesetas to the Spanish Embassy in Venezuela to don´t have to do it.
He worked in every job that he was offered: carpenter, taxi driver... but a work that he enjoyed a lot and that he remember very well was the job as operator. He worked several years up to this enterprise cracked and closed, but soon after he began to work at a shoe shop fixing shoes. His life as a shoemaker lasted some years… among which once he met with a lady, who have already known from Santiago de Compostela and nowadays, that lady, Manuela, is my great-granmother, who had also emigrated to Venezuela with her family due to economic conditions.
After a time of engagement, they decided to marry and they did it right there, in Venezuela, due to the fact that both worked there, he as a shoemaker and she in a textile factory.
On 14th November 1960 they had their first son, Carlos, my grandfather. He was often sick, so he had to be taken often to the doctor, so they made the hard decision of come back to Galicia, to bring to my grandfather, who was brought up by his uncle and his grandfather. After that Daniel could come back to Venezuela with his wife. They continued their life in Venezuela for 2 or 3 years, but they decided to come back to their homeland to live together with their son and their family.
When they arrived, they bought two flats in Santiago de Compostela. They opened a bar in Pontealbar, where they lived with their son and their fathers, and at the same time, where they were building their own house.
On 1st May 1970 they had their second daughter, my aunt Ana. Soon after they decided to close the bar because my great-grandparent began to work at an electricity company, Unión Fenosa. As he worked in Santiago, and their sons had also their school, the family decided to move to Romero Donallo, where he had bought a flat. They lived there several years and they went at weekends to their house to Pontealbar.
My great-grandparent worked in Unión Fenosa until his retirement. He managed a economic stability for him and his family, and give to their children the chance to study.
Nowadays, after his retirement, the great-grandparents went back to live definitely to Pontealbar.
While my grandfather Carlos was studying he met to Merce, my grandmother.
They got married and they had to Carla, my mother, 35 years ago. 14 years later was born Andrea, my aunt. They lived in the flat of my great-grandparents, where they continue living nowadays together. However, my mother moved to Bertamiráns when I was born, and is where I live nowadays.