ià. El seu pare Heliodoro Calatayud Tornos havia nascut a Rafelguaraf (Ribera alta) i la seva mare Joaquina Espinós a Benilloba (Comtat) malgrat que es va criar a Gorga, ben a prop. Ell era maquinista de la companyia del Nord – la línia Xàtiva Tarragona pertanyia a la companyia-, i al llarg de la seva vida laboral va estar destinat als diversos diposits i reserves de tracció de la companyia.El 1894 era a Valladolid-Campo Grande i allí va néixer la Josefina. Poc després es traslladaren a Catalunya, a Lleida on confluien la linea a Reus i Tarragona, la de Saragossa-Arrabal i la de Manresa-Barcelona Nord i Sant Joan de les Abadesses. La fotografía el mostra a la seva màquina al diposit de tracció de Lleida. Vivien a un pis obrer a la Rambla de Ferran de Lleida, ben a prop de la estació.

La meva avia era una extraordinària contadora de contes. Crec que sabia tots els publicats per Saturnino Calleja (1853-1915), i malgrat que no podía coneixer el rondallari de Joan Amades, el seu repertori incloïa també contes catalans, els de Grimm i alguns d’Andersen que coneixia per tradició oral.

Josefina, when I was born in 1949, was 55 years old. For me and my sister she was “grandma”, even though she always spoke to us in Western Catalan nuanced by Barcelona dialects because she lived in Barcelona since 1922. Her husband had died in 1939 in exile and she lived in our house. I had a very vivid memory of the years of exile and the war, and my childhood consisted of listening to hundreds of stories in the small living room of the tiny apartment where we lived in Corsica-Sardinia. It was a small room with a sofa that served as a bed, two wingback chairs, and before dinner he would tell stories. Among the stories were memories of his life, of his father, of Lleida, of when he lived in Camarasa and of his trips to Valencia where his uncles and cousins ​​lived.

I remember as if it were today the story of his trip to Valencia in 1909. He was thirteen years old. It was to go to the Valencia Regional Exhibition of 1909. It was a month before Tragic Week. He had very vivid memories of the exhibition, of his cousins, of the premiere of the Anthem in Valencia by Jose Serrano sung by the tenor Lambert Alonso.

A few days ago, I found this photo

I don’t know why it didn’t appear in some corner of my parents’ house and I hadn’t seen it before. To my surprise, I discovered her, tiny, second to the right of the image. I was captivated by the ethnographic value of the image. I know it’s her and I can imagine that in the group of girls dressed up for the occasion there were also her Valencian cousins. I think the photo is from the Plaça Rodona in Valencia and since the quality of the image is extraordinary, it allows us to capture in all the details what the festive dress of the girls in Valencia was like in their time. Enjoy it as I enjoy it.