Former students of the « Hispano Americano » of Valladolid (Spain)
On 25 and 26 June 2011, a group of friends, once Marist Brothers and who had lived in our houses of Hispano Americano or Peñafiel, came together at Mota del Marqués to share their friendship and their memories. It was the 31st such gathering.
On Saturday 25/06, around midday, the participants arrived from various parts of Spain at Mota del Marqués. After an exchange of greetings, we prepared for the meal, an important aspect without a doubt, and shared what each had brought as sign of friendship. A hymn served as grace before the meal.
After the meal, we had a little get-together, punctuated with songs from memory accompanied enthusiastically by stringed instruments. The afternoon was warm, so some preferred to stay in the shade playing cards, while others, not familiar with the monastery of the Clarisses – a former Palace – went to Tordesillas for a tourist visit. We admired the art of the place as we followed the explanations of the guide.
At a certain moment, she took us into the meeting room and spoke to us about its barrel vault, its extraordinary acoustics and the frieze where one could read, in Latin, the Salve Regina. One of the group suggested to the guide that the acoustics of the room could be tested, and the group intoned the Salve Regina which we had so often sung. The acoustics proved perfect! It was an unforgetable moment of spiritual vibration which wakened pleasant memories. After the visit, we quenched our thirst in a little bar.
Saturday ended with a meeting of exchange. On the screen we viewed the voyages made by the volunteers, the activities carried out by the former Marist students of Chile and Peru, who had gathered in memory of their teachers and carry out works of solidarity in the places they find themselves.
The morning of 26 June was devoted to the celebration of the Eucharist at Tordesillas, and to a visit of the town, near Douro. The gathering ended with lunch in the hospitality centre run by the nuns.
The group photo left everyone with a souvenir of the meeting; and it is already a question of the next one… For those who do not know the group, I can say there are already 73 on the roll, not counting the wives. We also count each year on the presence, as friends of the group, of three, four, or five Brothers, who were their first teachers.