The History of Higueruela
December 7th, 2007
How many people do you think know where Higueruela is in Spain or have any idea about our history? A handful of people do, if we’re really lucky. Unless your from Almansa, not even Spaniards know of our existence. So let us give you some perspective. Higueruela, with approximately 1,300 inhabitants, is a quaint, little village in the province of Albacete, located in the Cordillera Montearagón. To give you a better idea as to where we are, you can find us in eastern portion of the region of Almansa, just 45 km. west of the city of Almansa and 38 km. east of Albacete. Although our town is tiny red dot on the expansive map of Spain, our history is rather impressive.
The history of Higueruela goes back to approximately, 1,350 A.D. when the region of Chinchilla was abundant with forests. Actually, the entire Iberian peninsula was completely blanketed with trees during this time, and it wasn’t until we transitioned from a hunter and gather culture to a farming culture that we lost our precious trees. Coupled with Columbus’s discovery of America, when we used our wood to build a fleet of boats to travel across the Atlantic and see this newly discovered land, when we stripped the land of its precious resource. It is said that at one time, a squirrel could start on the western coast of Portugal and jump from tree to tree all the way to the western coast of Spain. But in 14th century, well before America was discovered, there were very few people occupying this land, only tiny little hamlets and villages were scattered across Almansa, La Roda and Villarobledo. Together, the population amounted to no more than 2,000 inhabitants, all of which considered Albacete the ‘main’ or ‘capital’ city. According to the albacetense (citizen of Albacete) Aurelio Pretel in his book Don Juan Manuel, Lord of the Plain, during this time “We started to hear from people settled in farms and small villages call themselves: Madrigueras, Cenizate, Higueruela, The Santana, etc. ” signifying the beginning of new communities and new identities.
Apparently this was the beginning of Higueruela, which became independent from Chinchilla in the year 1,820. Now just to clarify, I am not referring to the rather obese little rats running around the mountains of Spain. I am referring to the region itself. However, if you interested in a little trivia, I can tell you that although Chinchillas are from the Andes, the very first literature reference to chinchillas dates back to 1591 in a book published in Seville, (a town just southwest of us in Andalusia) entitled Historia Natural y Moral de los Indios, written by Father Josef de Acosta: (from Spanish) “About mountain animals. Chinchillas are another type of small animals such as squirrels. They have a fur (coat) that is of wonderful softness”. Did we have an infestation of these little furballs back in the day when they christened the region Chinchilla? To be honest, we have no idea, but if we do find any reference to its origins, we’ll be gladly pass the information on to you.
However, we can tell you about the origins of the name, Higueruela. According to the book entitled “Geographical Dictionary, Historical and Statistical Spain” (Pascual Madoz) said in a historical text about the town of Higueruela: “… On the western side of the hill that faces the village, there is a place called, The Gila, which grows fig trees, which we assume to be the namesake of the modern name of our town, Higueruela.” (Extracted text of the article in the newspaper Jose Colmenero local Higueruela “Stizerola”). In future articles, we promise to share some of our favorite recipes made with figs and dates grown in our own backyards!
Now, in 2007, our little town is expanding and growing at a slow but consistent rate. We have installed new houses and municipal buildings in the valley were thick orchards once occupied the land. And unlike the old part of the city where streets are narrow and curvy, the new part of the city was designed in a very ‘modern’ fashion with wide, symmetrical streets and large expansive parks for children to run and play. Although we are rather fond of the old part the city, filled with historical landmarks, and rich stories from centuries ago, we are excited to see our town grow. Every day, we are attracting people from around the world who are interested in both visiting and settling in our little town. And hopefully, if you should ever decide to see our beautiful vineyards, our enormous windmill park or merely pass by on the Camino de Santiago, we hope you stop by and say hello. It’s one thing to hear about the history of our town in a blog, but it’s quite another to experience the stories first hand.
Cheers,
Tintoralba
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