I confess I’ve been interested in stories since I was a child. I vaguely remember those that my grandfather told me while we both enjoyed a red tea with a nice slice of lemon. Those summer evenings, to the beat of rocking chairs, I heard my aunt sing coplas or pasodobles of his youth. To this day, he keeps reminding me how I insisted... but he no longer sings and we are not so many to listen to. I remember my grandmother’s childhood almost as well as mine, it was my hobby. I miss the stories of the orchard and how life was in the Elche of the sixties.

I remember for the first time I heard what a tuna and polze sandwich was. Thus, tuna and polze, medium in Castilian medium in Valencian, as a good family of the Vega Baja that settles in Elche. They explained to me that this sandwich was served in the bar Villalobos and that it consisted of a sandwich of canned tuna with tomato, even sometimes with anchovies. What was so special about it? Well, they put it together with their thumb, stuffing as much stuffing as they admitted bread. I am not a fan of tuna, but I was struck by the way of preparation and the enthusiasm of my relatives to remember it.

Years later, walking around the center with my father, he suggested me to go to lunch at a nearby bar. I, who have always been passionate about lunches, said without question. That’s when I first saw the sign. What a surprise, I didn’t even know it was still open. Casa Villalobos. Tradition since 1932. The first thing I thought about was what would have changed that business over the years. This thought lasted as long as it takes to cross the threshold. As the expression says: jack, horse and king. A list of snacks on a blackboard, pickles served in a cartridge of brown paper and some bag of chips.

But that was one of the secrets of this ancient establishment. Go to that counter, go over that letter of snacks skipping the tuna ones, even if they crucify me for it, pick up a cartridge of olives and sit on the chairs and tables railite or formica to hit the first bite. Everything as it has always been, the same ritual, as my father remembered, as a journey into the past. I left with that taste of mouth, and not because of the copious lunch, which you have left when discovering a unique place.

Two years later I started my career at the Pusol School Museum, where much of the city’s contemporary history is collected. My interest in local history and the near past began to awaken. Soak up photos, texts, carry out exhibitions in the city, some lunch in the Villalobos...

But you wake up one morning and you read in the press that the Villalobos closes its doors. You can’t believe it. You have already had this feeling before with the Cinema Rex of Murcia and the bar El Penicilino of Valladolid. But in these cases it seems that both will continue their activity sooner or later. But it is not the case of the Villalobos, who sees as its owner, Vicente Villalobos, reached the age of his retirement, ducks the blind of the bar after 88 years of history. 

It is a loss for the city and for its visitors to never be able to enjoy their lunches again. However, the Pusol School Museum has initiated a series of projects together with its last owner to perpetuate its memory.

Author: Borja Guilló, technician of the School Museum.