The cover of the printed edition of ABC this Tuesday, November 5, showed the photograph of a resident of Picaña who, with gestures of clear exhaustion, was dragging a donkey with mud-stained clothes through streets that continue to be full of mud. The protagonist is Carlos Pavia, a resident of the Valencian town who, at the time he was caught on camera, was removing belongings from the garage of his parents’ house that the flood had left unusable.
“I am one of the lucky cases,” Pavia is quick to clarify at the beginning of the conversation, as he highlights that he has not lost any family member. Yes, he has suffered material damage, but nothing comparable to other neighbors whose entire house has been taken by DANA. The water flooded the garage of his parents’ house and also left his apartment in very bad condition, but nothing that cannot be fixed in a few weeks. «There are people who have lost their entire homes and people who have died. People have died in the day center next to my house. In the end I appeared on the cover of ABC, I am the iconic image of the tiredness and exhaustion of all Valencians, but I am nobody,” he points out.
Pavia is a film locator, that is, it looks for spaces for filming films, series or advertising in the Valencian Community. He has worked with renowned filmmakers such as Alejandro Amenábar or Koldo Serra. When he saw what was happening in his town last Tuesday, he immediately thought of a movie: ‘The road’. “That movie came to mind, which is when the world ends up destroyed, a man who goes with his son with a shopping cart through desolate spaces…”, he comments. Despite the countless images of similar scenes that have been reproduced on the big screen, one never thinks that it will happen at the doors of his house, he admits. “It’s something you can never imagine will happen to you.”
This neighbor from Picaña was caught by the flood at his parents’ house. He began to see on social media how the town was beginning to flood and tried to cover the garage doors so that the water would not reach, although it was inevitable. Even so, they were “lucky” that the water did not enter their parents’ home. Yes he did in his, but he insists that he does not have to regret serious damage. «I have been lucky because I have not lost personal belongings or memories. Now it’s time to rebuild it, pay the mortgage… in the end it’s an economic loss and we’re going to have to suffer, but I haven’t lost memories, it’s just furniture and appliances,” he says.
The social network
Carlos and his family have been throwing away the furniture and clothes that were useless for days. Since last Friday, groups of friends have come to help them get rid of everything that has become useless. “When I saw your cover, I was already blocked from fatigue and they told me to go and rest.” When he returned, he says, his friends had cleaned practically his entire apartment. «They left it for me to move in and I started crying again. “These are very emotional days,” he expresses, and is grateful for all the support received from his “social network” and also from the volunteers who have come to help these days. “I am very lucky,” he celebrates.
For the towns and their neighbors to recover from this catastrophe, Pavia reflects, it will be “very complicated.” “We have lost houses, roads, means of transportation… there are people who have lost their businesses, others who have lost their cars, which are the means they had to go to work,” he says, but the help of all the people who They are moving to the towns, he concludes, encouraging them to continue and try to rebuild everything that DANA took from them.
#story #ABCs #cover #Tuesday #image #exhaustion #Valencians #lucky
