Text deJosé Maria Alcázar Pastor, Municipal Builder, Corresponding Academician of the Real Academy of Alfonso X “El Wise person ” and Correspondent of the newspaper “La Opinion ” in
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT VALENTIN'S HOLIDAYS 2004. The origin of his name:
In our municipality there exist two districts that start with the word VAL, that they are Valdelpino and Valentín, and of the latter we are going to comment on his history, on history that is necessary to look for it in his Roman origin, of course in the Ist century B.C. Since it is known, Val is an apostrophe of the word VALE, and LENTIN, he comes from the Arab word LITTIN, which transforms with the time in lentín, with the meaning of mud, mud, mud; for all this VALENTIN, has his origin in the VALE OF THE MUD, as Guadalentín is the river of the mud, and all the histories that are counted are false cronicones, and that these terminology takes us to the reality of his name and origin that designates correctly the place that it occupies, and that potter continues with his tradition, at present.
The same way I have read in writing of the XVIIIth century, the name of BALANTIN, in whose case would refer to Baal, the God of the Sun, then the name would be translated by the SUN and MUD, although according to my criterion it is the first meaning what names Valentín.
In fact, the population of Moorish origin, represents little in the Municipal Minutes, since it does not wonder, that when they were warned to the troops was done of ear and neither boxes nor horns will touch, all this was going in reason so that there were not communicating to the Moors, the warlike arrangements of the Christian troops.

Religion:

These Moriscos, when our kings, decide his expulsion of Spain, for the continuous helps and spying in favor of the Moors, Valentín's population decides to convert to Christianity and they elect Saint John as a boss the Baptist, thinking that before the power of the Ottoman ones if they go so far as to invade the area nothing would happen to them, since he is a saint of Arab worship, and the Ottoman sultans were venerating the head of Saint John the Baptist in his Palace of Tokapi (Turkey), the same way in Syria the grave of this Saint is venerated, with his body; this saint is chosen like boss, not only in Valentín, but in all the frontier areas, where these Mudejars were living. It is necessary to bear in mind, that the population has always been the same from Iberian, Roman epoch, visigoda, Arab or Christian, with the proper ups and downs of the emigration or immigration as it happens now.

Vulgar history of Valentín's name:

But, the most curious history that the old men of Valentín were telling me, was the following one: That in this district there was a very brave man, but how it was very small, they were saying to him Valentín, instead of bully and for this motive, the district took the name.

Historical framing:

Valentín's history, it is joined to that of Cehegín as it is natural, happens to the power of the Order of the Tempering during the years 1.266 to 1.310, and the Order of Santiago possesses it from 1.344 until the XIXth century, these orders were protecting the Moriscos for his production qualities.

Church:

Since we have quoted Valentín's boss, let's speak about his churches. The primitive one much poor person, since in this period the means were paupérrimos, the population was dividing in two areas one of Calasparra and the majority one of Cehegín, from which there depend the public services of water, sewerage, system of illumination and electric power expenses that relapse to this Town hall. In the year 1936, they burned the beautiful images that existed, for the fury Marxist iconoclast, that there were the same, which burned the church of Santa Maria Magdalen, before the poor state of Valentín's church and the needs for the clergy in the year 1957 the new Church is inaugurated, thanks to the firmness of the parish priest of that time D. José Escribano García, but I have not gone so far as to know who the author of the design was, and that at present it has been rehabilitated by the Architect D. Juan de Dios of the Sickle.

Before the disappearance of the image, in the fire one of cast was bought of Olot, which is the one that at present it has, but nevertheless it has a Christ with big artistic value realized by sculptor Mediavilla de Valladolid, at present in a mental hospital, this sculptor was saying, “ That the sketch of the Vale of the Fallens was his, and they had stolen it from themselves ”, I possess the sketch of an image in cast of this sculptor who has similarities with the design of Four Evangelists of the Vale of the Fallens, clear that I do not know that big sculptor Avalos did design for this work, that if I have appreciated and this way it is the history of the things, which are counted, certainly to sculpt the arms, it set as I shape those of my friend Vicente López Hernandez, of the Mill of Sahajosa, for the body it took as models the brothers Constancio and Juan José Botia, of face of Christ cannot have quarreled in the one who based.

The mill:

This Mill of Sahajosa, it was constructed in the XVIIIth century, for Lorenzo Sahajosa, for his use like mill of rice, later of oil and flour, it was a cannery. At present thanks to the sensibility of his owners, it has transformed in an excellent Rural Hostelry, with a museum perfectly structured, Of this mill Valentín was supplied with electrical direct current, produced by the waterfall of the mill at the beginning of century. This Hostelry with 10 rooms and a dining room, where the culinary products of the area can be tasted thanks to the hands of Antonia López, of whom I do not know that to consider more, if his kitchen or the excellent dealing that gives to all that we come to this historical enclosure.

Population:

At present according to the electoral roll of Cehegín, of the year 2.000, the population belongs to 398 inhabitants, district in growth as the next census will demonstrate us. While the population corresponding to Calasparra belongs to 75 inhabitants, therefore the entire population of the district belongs to 473 neighbors. In accordance with the last information Valentín de Cehegín takes 503 Inhabitants as whose motive the current real population belongs to 578 inhabitants who confirm my thesis of continuous growth.

Ceramics:

Valentín's ceramics, it is necessary to mend it to the period of the Final Bronze (Argarico), 3.800 years ago, although in the Saw of the Door they manage to have an age of 6.000 years in the NEOLITHIC period.
The stoves of cooking the ceramics, called Moorish, are completely of Roman origin, and as it is the preponderant industry in all his history we are going to know little this work. The very abundant clays are marls of the Cretaceous Low Albiense, and there are materials proceeding from the decomposition of aluminous rocks and silicatadas, with big capacity of absorption of the water. To obtain good clays, it is necessary to proceed to his levigación or gatecrasher across rafts, in which the water is spilled and they are removed by a plank, so that the heavy materials (nodules of lime, small stones, minerals, etc.) fall down to the fund for decanting and, on having spilled again the water, for the cold sore salt the pure and fluid clay, with which the pasta is prepared by evaporation in another raft, in this raft, once dessicated it is trampled or beats to do the sufficiently malleable thing, which piles up for his use.
Formerly, the ground was extracted in abundance, to allow her to hibernate, from this form the mass benefits and becomes more plastic, on having dragged with the rains and for the oxidation of the time the strange substances that they could contain. In these marls deposits there are lean and greasy clays, therefore it is necessary to realize the suitable miscellany for the work, and strange procedures are never used for desengrasar (sand, residues of fuels, of the coal, etc.)
The bricks and tiles, as well as the tiles, are done to hand on the soil of the age. The molds or gradillas they are of wood of major size than the piece to be made, because there is born in mind the drying and cooking, which produces a notable withdrawal in the material, this withdrawal can be 10 % of his size.
The humid wooden mold is refilled of the obtained pasta, he foresaw run aground of the surface. With the hands the surplus moves back and the rasero passes to him to level it. To obtain a more smooth surface he is retouched by the hand wetted in water. Once they have dried off a little they are piled up so that I circulated the air and dry off completely to be able to introduce them in the Stove, leaving the free space to begin to realize new pieces.
As for the cooking of the ceramics, it is done to 950 grades. To come to this temperature the materials they are suffering modifications as the heat grade goes rising, in such a way that to 120 grades they have lost all the water inserted in the pores of the clay. To 300 grades, the water that is combined chemically disappears and the material hardens, not resblandeciendose already although the material submerges in the water. On having spent this temperature, the organic matter burns with detachment of C02. Between 700th and them 950th turns out to be the porosity of the mass and a weight decrease takes place as a consequence of the modifications that has suffered the product, the entire hardness of the same one being obtained.
During this cooking, they take place the same way, a few changes of color in the materials, so that the clear color disappears to pass to other colors, which have relation with the lime or the oxides of iron contained in the mass, and with the process of the flame that is reductora or oxidizer inside the stove. If in the stove absence I become oxygenated, the brick will be less red, for being the flame reductora, that is what happens normally in Valentín.

MOORISH STOVE.
At present four stoves of this type stay on having modernized the industry: Two has the “Ratita ”, another Sánchez Lison and finally Juan Fernando.
This stove that is known popularly how Moorish, it is really of Roman origin, and they can be squared or round, with walls resistant to the fire, facts with the same mud and sandy stone or bricks. It consists of the following parts:
Cauldron with an exterior load door, to introduce the fuel.
On the cauldron there go a few arches of brick, separated approximately twenty cm. Between themselves and joined for “arquetas ” to unite them, which others call crosstrees. The hollow that opens the way to the fire is the “zabalete ”.
On this latticework, the load camera is, with a filling mouth.
The closing is realized by a brick vault, to which him a few “piqueras are left ”, that also know each other like ”respiraderos ”, “braqueras ” or “boquillas ”. The top Hole names him “amofre ”.
The process of the baked one is as it continues:
The first line always loads the stove with bricks in superposed lines, called “puente ” and “daga ” each of the following batches. Separation is left between the “dagas ” for the step of the fire. Next there are placed the tiles or another material that to cook is foreseen.
Once I fill the stove, the load door wraps up with “tamo ” (I sweep with straw), with the object of avoiding the earnings of cold air, since if this one happens, ventearían the pieces and they would crack. After loaded the cauldron with fuel, puts fire and for 4 hours it is necessary to do a warming up. Later the stove puts itself to full load. The fire is regulated by the mouthpieces and it is supported for 22 or 26 hours. To cool it is taken from 7 until 8 days. These stoves reach temperatures of up to 1.000th.
The production process of the tiles is equal to that of the brick. Only it changes the name of the mold: It is called “grailla ” the part troncoconica and “galápago ” the part of the mold that gives the curve. The tiles badly been called Arab have also the following names: “curva ”, “de cannon ”, “cónica ”, ”lomuda ”, “acanalada ”, “de gutter ”, “loreña ”, “troncocónica ”, and finally his Latin name, “imbrix ”.
Most of the production of Valentín's ceramics, it is used in the Languedoc (France).

Personages and Heifers:
Valentín's heifers get lost in the nights of the times, it is a topic that I take looking, many years, of when these holidays began and still have not located his beginning.
Nevertheless, at the beginning of century, there happened the anecdote of the Frasquita, very well-known, but that for his singularity, I am going to remember: The Frasquita one night went out to visit a relative, but in Valentín, they had the habit of having the heifers free in the plateau of the Old Chapel, a few young Town incordiando scared the heifer, it jumped the protection, and running for the street that goes about the age, scared saw the Frasquita and rushed forward at her throwing it to soil, the young Town who were going after heifer, they gathered the woman, who addressed to them. “ The one Who is your animal, which with so bad shade has thrown me to the soil, on the verge of crippling me, for not looking where you go ”.
In the year 1964, it was going very much for Valentín with my father-in-law, he was always visiting the Lossa of the House Wine-cellar, become related to him, but especially to his cousin Isabelita (mother of Catalan Juanele Muñoz “El ”) where it was obligatory to take the excellent cheese that tapeworm with a beer, I suppose that his son Juanele would bring it to himself, since for these grounds there was not.
Where also he was eating up, hard PERSON was in the Marvels house “la ”, it had heard a history on her, that I asked him if it was real and she told it to me herself, “ Every Monday it was going to the Caravaca market, staying with his husband in the Bar of Paco, (behind the Square of Supplies, in the ancient one down the building of Jesus's Company), taking in the basket a kid that he had bought, he said to the proprietor of the Bar, DO THESE CHOPS TO ME WHILE I WAIT FOR MY HUSBAND, but he kept on saying to him that make these small to me more, and this way successively, until the kid one had lunch in this sitting ”. Really he saw her eating and it was the envy of all that it could transfer in his wide body, but in the work it was similar to the meal, terrible; The children: Sebastián Pérez, of the seventh generation and driving a strong industry of ceramics and innovator in this union and his sister Quiteria, who has many exits to the mother, but who is the queen of the honey of the rosemary, along with his missing husband a marriage of strong contrast in height but fully of fondness between them.
Of the history of the PERDIO, I do not count anything more, for acquaintance, since it appeared in Argentina and with his progeny I have affectionate friendship.
But non-alone sound ceramists, also good farmers and I do not have any more remedy that to remember, to my friend Antonio Marín López (the Spike), of his hands I could have had a potato that weighed 1,210 kg, and broad beans with eleven segments bigger that I have known.
I have to remember Pablo Mosser, when there were mounted the offices of the Savings bank of the Southeast (1.954), it gone to be visited by Paco Lorencio (Mayor who belonged to Cehegín) accompanied by his friend the ceramist Sebastián Lossa (the Ratita), the Manqui, Antonio Ciller Lossa (the Tecnos), Pepe “el Barber ” and others, so that he was becoming a client of the Box, as it is natural this gentleman invited them to a drink that they were not knowing “el Tequila ” one took it of a gulp, and with salt in the hand I begin it to the mouth, the others were going to be less, all to one of a gulp without salt nor anything, a fair was the colors and the drowning between the visitors, they had to give water to the ex-mayor because he seemed to die, therefore it tells me never again it has taken it, of evil that spent it.
The first teller (1.954-1.989) that it had was José Sánchez Alvarez (the Pepico), with an extensive delivery life to the others, since he was the practitioner, dentist, accoucheur, one day had two inspectors in the box, when they went a bricklayer, who had fallen down of a scaffold, the broken nose, with several wounds, on having seen it, one of the inspectors fainted, with water in the face I resuscitate it while inside the box he was attending to the injured man, it was doing of dentist, medicate in the moment that entablillaba the breaks of arms, legs etc. Y since it is natural it was intervening of accoucheur, and was advising the farmers when they had problems with his animals, and if tapeworm was little the store of fertilizers, activities that it could develop for the valuable help of his wife. What less we have recognized after him is his lack of interest, and I am thinking about remembering that in Gilico, more than one day remained without eating for the penuries that existed to avoid expenses to these poor families of the mines, with free fees in spite of the long trip in mule.
Of the wide scale of the Cilleres, which in the XVIIIth century even were writing it with Z, I will speak about Cristóbal Abril Ciller, guitarist, musician, creator of several bands of street musicians, it is excited of the guitar I form many of the guitarists that today we know.
Of Valentín's Germans, like they I say that you are an anachronism, to say this, although a reality, I have verified ten generations of potters, and even do not know when they began in this office, Antonio “el Blond ”, Blas + and Felix, that they are already realizing the transmission of his knowledge of the mud to the children.
The humanism, and giving the others in Valentín, makes his Sanador my big friend Alfonso “El ”, person of whom we hear speaking continuously for his good to do.
In the year 1969, they threw Pedro's house to themselves “el Fat person ” to do the current square, and this year 2.004, the radical change of Valentín will be realized, on having provided with new water networks sewerage sewerage and the modern paving of streets, which for themselves wanted many cities, before the effort of his neighbors, that the Mayor, José Soria, has been able to correspond.
And speaking about politics I have to refer to an anecdote of II Republic, mayor Salvador Piñero Ferrer, before a request of a neighbor of wanting two harvests a year, he said to his accompanist that “ your request will become real it points, that the year should be 24 months ”.
The same way there exists a fragrant industry, of my big friend, Pedro Miñano, the “Pichote ”, of whom I could have tasted often his products essential in a good kitchen, the onions, which it is employed at all his forms and varieties for industrial supply.
And finally I remember Gregorio the Mailman, who with a simple nickname, was taking the letters to his destination.
The inhabited, more well-known places are: Ventorrillo Luis, The Militiamen, You will Weave Them, Mill Sahajosa, The Path, Marsh of Argus and The Tollos.
The limits of this district are.:
North, with the Calasparra term. South, Ravine of Hawthorn, Peak Teruel, Peaks of Juan González. East, Source Farín and the Ciezano. West, Saw of the Door.

Like singular reliefs, we emphasize the Marsh of Argus, whose project began in the year 1962, with the brothers Escario (Engineer of Ways and Architect) and that I worked for them, this topic is developed in Vademécum de Cehegín, my first book, exhausted and missing person in the libraries.
For this district there spends one of the most important Paths of this municipality known with the nº 8, Cord of 54 poles of Caravaca to Gilico, that of Moratalla joins this one in the Source of the Pine, which is a Drinking trough Cocejil with 90 poles.
Other interest points are: Mild pines, Plain of the Pines, House of the Cable, Pine grove Hondo, High Bench-cover, Allies Azaga, Fuensantilla, Sale Dries, Marries of the Watches, Consists of the Guapuso, Peak of the Foxes, The Channels and Hillock of the Turrets.

The Marsh of Argus
The Marsh of Argus finds located in Valentín's District, inside the municipality of Cehegín, discussion that I had with the exmayor of Lorca José Maria Campoy, on the emplacement of the marsh, as it is natural it lost, and for whose motive, the meal owes us to all those of the Tartulia of Eagles and that this year we will take on account of Valentín.
The ordinary wealth of the Rio Argus, in this place is 1,00 m3/seg., overcoming in the avenues 200,00 m3/seg.
The prey is of free materials, jetty and ground; it has been constructed in the closed one constituted by impermeable marls in the river bed and left hillside; in the right hillside the limestones and marls alternate with horizontal stratification, existing a contact in the river bed, a laundering, with what it has been replaced in the area of the impermeable nucleus of the prey, for a concrete massif.
It has two water captures in each of the margins, one for current irrigation and other one for possible enlargement of the irrigations.