The Pueyos from Alcañiz

Eva Defior writes us —thank you— from La Comarca, a small newspaper from Bajo Aragón: “Sometimes, one asks oneself how to approach those special supplements each year, those about big events like the regional festivities. Sometimes the pages end up being repetitive and without essence. In Alcañiz, the regional holidays (which are religious festivals) were recently celebrated in honor of our Mother of Pueyos, an uncommon name related to this particular area. We thought about looking for all the women named after this Virgin and interviewing them. At the begging it looked impossible. We called friends, people we knew and family. We looked in the phonebook and in the register of inhabitants. We looked for the etymological origin of the name. Finally, we discovered there were only 15 women with the name “Pueyo”. It was the moment to give importance to those women from the village who carried on their ID the name of their patron saint. We found all of them and eleven wanted to participate. They told us their personal anecdotes and feelings tied to their name. People loved the supplement and some people have told us they will name their next baby Pueyo”. This is an outstanding example of investigative journalism.