Doña Angelita: la historia de una Valencia

The bittersweet tale of a woman with nearly a century’s worth of memories

By Melissa Kindma

With the arm of her daughter, Gemma Pascual, grasped in one hand and a cane in the other, Ángeles Domínguez-Barberá shuffles her way through the outdoor tables of Café Lavin as she heads to a quieter place.

She greets everyone around her with a warm smile, a silent message of connection and kindness. Her nails, painted an iridescent white, subtly glimmer in the sun.

At 97 years old, she clearly still takes pride in the way she looks. She wears a brown and white, patterned blouse, tastefully accented with gold jewelry.

I made this shirt many years ago and it’s still perfect,

Ángeles, who goes by Angelita, says.

Her clothes are a testament to her youthful spirit, unchanged by time. She became a skilled seamstress after the Spanish Civil War. She says that before the war, her family was one of the most important families in Spain and one of the wealthiest in all of Europe. They developed a packaging company that became the first leading producer of burlap sacks during World War I. The sacks were used to carry loads of potatoes and other items, edible and Everything changed for not, across the continent.

Angelita Dominguez-Barbera and her daughter, Gemma Pascual

However, everything changed for Angelita when her father and her brother were kidnapped in 1938.

The introduction of the Second Spanish Republic gave rise to the Communist Party of Spain, a coalition of leftist political forces, who were the elected government before the conflict began. They fought against the right-wing Nationalists with fervor in what came to be known as the Spanish Civil War, which lasted from 1936-1939.

During the war, the political climate in Spain was thick with tension, pitting neighbor against neighbor. The Communist Party of Spain was notorious for invading Spanish cities, burning churches, and murdering members of important nationalist parties.

Angelita’s family was one of those targeted, belonging to a political party known as “El Partido Popular” (translated to mean “The People’s Party”). When her father and brother were taken to jail to be killed, she did everything she could to save them. She prayed to God and beseeched her closest friend,

Please help them. They are going to die.

Her friend, the daughter of an important Communist leader, pleaded with her own father to release Angelita’s family from jail. Against all odds, they were freed, but not without a cost. The Communist Party of Spain took everything familiar to them -- their home, their business, their livelihood. For Angelita, it marked the beginning of a life that was unrecognizable in comparison to her first 16 years.

To avoid further conflict, Angelita and her family took refuge in a small town south of Valencia, called Agres, where the houses hung precariously on the side of a steep mountain. Even in the countryside, they felt the effects of war. She stayed in a house with four floors; she and her family lived on the second.

In the evenings, they would move to the ground floor to protect themselves from a real-life nightmare: the nighttime bomb raids.

“Every time the siren sounded, it meant that they were bombing our city and that we needed to hide underground,” Angelita says. We would hide with much fear, [but] they would mostly focus on capturing and killing the wealthy people and [people in the] churches.”

As the war raged on, Angelita’s family grew politically divided. One of her brothers joined the Communist Party and earned the rank of lead officer, in charge of all the guards. Another brother worked as a driver of Francisco Franco, head of the right-wing Nationalists, who would go on to become dictator of Spain until his death in 1975.

When the war ended in 1939, Angelita says the joyful atmosphere was tempered by feelings of sadness and loss.

“Madre Mia, we celebrated with a party,” she says. However, the man that saved my father and brother was put into prison and killed by them [the Nationalists]." To this day, I am still friends with his daughter."

We go out together, but we do not talk about the war. Those days are behind us.

Angelita’s parents went on to establish a successful transportation service in Spain. Angelita stayed in Valencia because that’s where her family lived, but she followed a different path, and became a skilled seamstress instead. She made everything from simple shirts to wedding dresses, even her own.

“I started sewing because I liked sewing,” she says. “I made my dress for my wedding, but I didn’t want to dress up in white. I was so tired of sewing [white] wedding dressings.” Angelita sewed a black wedding dress instead.

There was a lot about her wedding that was unconventional, most importantly, the man she married. Her husband, Facundo, was the son of her father’s cousin. In the beginning, she found comfort in their simple friendship. So did her parents. She says that they were never concerned when Facundo took her to the movies because they were family.

"One day when we were out, he told me ‘I love you,’ and I responded, ‘I love you too,’ and so he said, ‘Well then, let’s get married,’" Angelita says.

The two married in the fall of 1956, despite their families’ vehement disapproval. Angelita’s parents and brothers considered their marriage a dishonor. Her mother and father didn’t speak to Angelita and Facundo for more than 15 years; even after all that time, their marriage was never forgiven.

Facundo and Angelita on their wedding day

Though their situation was challenging, Angelita and Facundo overcame their struggles by opening a restaurant and starting a family of their own. In addition to having a daughter, Gemma, they had a son, Javier Pascual, both of whom live in Valencia.

When asked why she decided to stay in Valencia despite her traumatic history there, Angelita responded matter-of-factly, “I love Valencia.” She found love in Valencia. Her whole life was there. Valencia is home.

They called the restaurant “El Trinquet de Pelayo,” the name of a popular Valencian game similar to tennis, but players use their hands instead of a racquet. It was there that Angelita became known for her warm greetings and a spectacular rice dish made with sardines and cauliflower.

“I would cook sardines, beans, cauliflower, and paella,” she says. “Sardines are delicious. The most important is the cauliflower.”

What began as a family dish grew in popularity after her husband encouraged her to add it to their restaurant’s menu. In this way, Angelita’s and her husband’s passions, their family traditions, and their business worked in harmony.

Her daughter, Gemma, FSU Valencia’s housing manager, admires her parents’ incredible tale.

My parents did not have an easy and comfortable life,

Gemma says. “For 15 years, they didn’t have a family: no siblings, no parents, nothing. It was just them. Even though both of their parents had a lot of money, they didn’t give our family anything when they died. They had to start from nothing… [but] their loved flowed into everything; the family, the restaurant [...] it was relaxed. They wanted to last their whole lives together.”

While recording the interview for this article, Angelita caught a glimpse of herself in the small screen of the cell phone.

“I look so small,” she said as she adjusted her position. She inched forward on the simple, black couch and continued to muse about her life in Valencia, about her family, about Gemma.

(from left) Pepé, Vincenté, Angelita’s mother (Ricardo in the womb), her father, Angelita, and Juan

As she spoke, her eyes sparkled with pride—a true Valencian through and through. There is nothing small about this incredible woman’s spirit nor the powerful stories she eagerly shares.

Her life is a reminder of a great responsibility to not only participate in history, but to preserve it, to share it—and for younger generations, to simply listen.