La Unión (Spain)

Municipality of La Unión
The old market hall in La Unión
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Murcia
Province :	Murcia
Comarca :	Campo de Cartagena
Coordinates	37 ° 37 ′  N , 0 ° 53 ′  W Coordinates: 37 ° 37 ′  N , 0 ° 53 ′  W
Height :	86  msnm
Area :	24.79 km²
Residents :	20,225 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	815.85 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	30360
Municipality number  ( INE ):	30041
Nearest airport :	Cartagena
administration
Official language :	Castilian
Mayor :	Pedro López Millán ( PSOE )
Website :	www.ayto-launion.com

La Unión is a Spanish city in the autonomous community of Murcia . It belongs to the Comarca of Campo de Cartagena and the judicial district of Cartagena .

Community structure and boundaries

The community consists of:

• the city of La Unión in the strict sense
• the western village of Roche
• the port of Portmán, located south on the coast

To the north, east and west, La Unión borders the urban area of ​​Cartagena. The sea coast forms the southern boundary of the municipality.

history

Mining tools from Roman times in the Museo Arqueológico de La Unión in Portmán

The history of La Unión is inextricably linked with the history of mining in the adjacent coastal mountains.

The oldest settlement was in the Portmán area. The name is not derived from a presumed Catalan or Catalan name Port Many , but from a Latin name Port Mágn or Port Mán . Before the Catalan era, during the Arab period, the place was called Burtuman al-Kabir , an Arabic equivalent of the Latin dialect form Portu Magnu , or Portus Magnus , great port . In the dialect of the Murcia region, the pronunciation is slurred to Pormán or Polmán .

In the entire mountain range there is a multitude of archaeological sites that prove mining back to prehistoric times. In the mines of Carthage Nova was silver , lead , iron ore and zinc mined. These metals were shipped to the entire Roman Empire via the port of Portmán .

Under King Alfonso X of Castile , by virtue of the Treaty of Alcaraz of 1243, the region was subjected to the Kingdom of Castile .

In the 19th century mining became a profitable, rapidly developing industry. In this environment, in the villages of Garbanzal, Herrerías and Portmán, the decision was made to separate from Cartagena and to create a community together. On January 1, 1860, Villa de El Garbanzal was founded . Portmán continued to serve as a mining port. Efforts by the residents of Garbanzal and Herrerías led to the fact that in the course of the Spanish Revolution of 1868 the communities were merged and the name was changed to La Unión . In 1894 La Unión was named a city. A considerable number of people immigrated from Almería , Jaén and Granada who sought a livelihood in the mining industry. This resulted in an interesting ethno-cultural mix, which was reflected, among other things, in a special form of flamenco , the so-called Cante de las minas .

Working in the mines was and remained dangerous. The workers were not legally protected. Their working conditions, with enormously long hours, resembled slavery with low wages that were not appropriate for the strenuous and dangerous work. Mining recorded the highest fatal accident rate of any industry in Spain. The air in the tunnels contained a high concentration of silica and sulfur-containing dust. Life-shortening occupational diseases such as silicosis were the result. To help the accident victims and the sick, the Hospital de Caridad was founded in Portmán. Most of the wealth that was mined in the mines did not benefit the community of La Unión. With the silver from their mines, for example, the Palacio de Aguirre and the mansion on Calle Jabonerías in Cartagena were financed.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the population peaked at around 30,000. From 1919 the lead and silver deposits were exhausted. After the First World War , the demand for lead, which was previously used in projectiles, decreased significantly. This led to economic decline and heavy emigration.

Decommissioned mine in La Unión

Acid lake in the Mina Agrupa Vicenta

Ignorance, negligence and the pursuit of profit led to the demolition of interesting 19th century architecture. Structures such as the old market hall, the Plazas and Piñon houses , the old telegraph office and other structures in the streets of Calle Mayor and Calle Real have been preserved . In 1940 the town hall and its archives fell victim to a fire. This makes it difficult to research the history of a community that was founded late on its peninsula and developed at the same time as the mining regions in North and South America.

The economic situation improved in the 1950s. Modern technology made it possible to re-develop the abandoned areas and to use what was left of the previous generation. Remnants of ore in spoil heaps were tapped and open-cast mining became possible. In the 1960s, the first immigrants from Morocco started working in the mining industry. From 1957 to 1988 the multinational Sociedad Minero Metalúrgica de Peñarroya had a monopoly on mining exploitation in the Sierra Minera of La Unión. In 1988, the monopoly passed to the local Portmán Golf company . This endeavored to bring a limited mining operation in line with the expansion of tourism. With the final closure of the mines in 1991, the more than 2000 year old mining tradition came to an end. The deposits were so well exploited that mining was no longer profitable. What remained were the poisonous remains. The contamination led to repeated protests among the population, which grew stronger from time to time.

Economy and Transport

After the abandonment of mining, La Unión became a satellite town of Cartagena.

Due to its proximity to the beaches of the Mar Menor , the city benefits from tourism in the region.

In the area of ​​La Unión, red and white wine with the protected designation of origin Vino de la Tierra is grown - as in other municipalities in the region such as Torre Pacheco , Fuente Álamo , and Cartagena.

The city is connected to the FEVE railway lines with a train station and three stops and thus has connections to Llano del Beal and Cartagena.

Population development

Declining mining resulted in a loss of two thirds of the population from 1900 to 1940. Since 1940 the population has tended to increase again.

Demographic evolution of the municipality of La Unión
	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960
Residents	30,275	30,249	24,837	11,776	10,079	10.131	11,687
	1970	1981	1991	2001	2005	2006	2007
Residents	13,145	14.097	13,732	14,793	15,599	15,599	16,180

administration

Mayor since 1979

period	Surname	Political party
1979-1983	Andrés Martínez Cánovas	PSOE
1983-1987	Andrés Martínez Cánovas	PSOE
1987-1991	Salvador Alcaraz Pérez	PSOE
1991-1995	Salvador Alcaraz Pérez	PSOE
1995-1999	Juan Antonio Sánchez-Castañol Conesa	PP
1999-2003	José Manuel Sanes Vargas	PSOE
2003-2007	José Manuel Sanes Vargas	PSOE
2007-2011	Francisco M. Bernabé Pérez	PP
2011-2014	Francisco M. Bernabé Pérez	PP
2014-2015	Julio García Cegarra	PP
since 2015	Pedro López Milán	PSOE

Culture

education

There are two secondary schools in La Unión: Sierra Minera and María Cegarra Salcedo , as well as a number of primary and preschools.

language

The immigration of Andalusian miners around the turn of the century 1900 shaped the place characteristics of an Andalusian enclave. The local dialect is therefore related to Eastern Andalusian . Catalan sprinkles testify to the Aragonese rule under the Kingdom of Murcia . This can be seen in place names such as Calblanque (White Cape), Calnegre (Black Cape), Carmolí (Cape of Molí) and El Gorguel.

flamenco

La Unión is a center of a special genre of flamenco: the Cantes de las minas . Every year in August is on the Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión the tradition of the festival Taranta , the Cartagenera , the mineral and other Palos kept alive of flamenco. The festival first took place in 1961. First-class artists such as El Farruco , Matilde Coral , Mayte Martín , Rocío Márquez , Paco de Lucía , Enrique Morente and Antonio Mairena performed there and won prizes for dance, singing and playing the guitar.

Historical sights

Archaeological site Villa del Paturro

Eclectic Casa del Piñón

Archaeological Museum in Portmán

Portman lighthouse

• Roman Villa del Paturro in Portmán
• The Agrupa Vicenta mine has been open to inspection since 2010 in order to familiarize the public with the mining conditions in the region.

Buildings

• Old market hall of La Unión, architect Víctor Beltrí
• Casa del Piñón , architect Pedro Cerdán
• Ruins of the Hospital de Sangre , architect Carlos Mancha
• Liceo de Obreros (High School for Workers)
• La Cooperativa , architect Carlos Mancha Escobar
• Casa Cortés , architect Víctor Beltrí
• Old Hospital de la Caridad in Portmán
• Casa del Tío Lobo in Portmán
• Portman lighthouse

Churches

• Parish Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario
• Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores in Roche
• Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de Los Dolores in El Garbanzal

Museums

• Museo Arqueológico de La Unión in Portmán.
• Museo Minero (mining museum)
• Museo Etnológico (Ethnographic Museum) in Roche.
• Museo de la Semana Santa Minera (Museum of the Mining Holy Week )
• Museo del Cante de las Minas

Local cuisine

• Salted mullet
• Salted mackerel with tomatoes
• Grouper in a Dutch oven
• Fishsoup
• Sopa de gurullos
• Caracoles chupaeros
• Pork fillet in tomato sauce
• Pelotas de pavo (turkey meatballs)
• Goats out of the oven
• Sausages : chorizo ​​blanco , longaniza , botifarra , morcilla , morcilla with rice, morcón
• vegetable stew
• Michirones (a preparation of white beans) with chili
• Capers
• Easter pastries: mantecados and rollicos
• Mostachones
• Crespillos
• Láguena , a cocktail made from wine and aniseed brandy
• Reparo , a cocktail made from wine, aniseed schnapps, and brandy
• Migas with chorizo

Festivals and Celebrations

• Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas in August
• Holy Week
• Celebration in honor of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario ( Rosary Festival ) in October.
• Folk festival in Roche in July and August
• Celebration in honor of the Apostle James on July 25th.
• Annual festival of minerals and fossils

Personalities

• Román Sánchez Arias (1871–1949), sports journalist and writer.
• Emilia Benito (1880–1962), flamenco and folklore singer
• Ramón Perelló y Ródenas (1903–1978), poet.
• Santos Martínez Saura (1909–1997), writer, secretary to the President Manuel Azaña
• Asensio Sáez García , stage name Ascensio (1923–2007), poet, chronicler, debater.
• Juan Pujol Martínez (1883–1967), poet, journalist, correspondent in the First World War, founder of the Madrid daily newspaper , Francoist politician
• María Cegarra Salcedo (1903–1993), professor of chemistry and poet
• Juan Hernández Giménez (1919–2006), Republican pilot in the Spanish Civil War

References and comments

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ^ Justo García Soriano: Vocabulario del dialecto murciano . 1932, ISBN 978-84-500-4063-0 (Spanish).
3. ^ Francisco A. Marcos Marín: La diptongación protohispánica . Ed .: Universidad de Madrid. (Spanish).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Historia de La Unión. In: Murcia Region website. Retrieved January 17, 2018 (Spanish). 
5. ↑ Historia. In: portman.nom.es/. Archived from the original on April 1, 2010 ; Retrieved January 16, 2018 (Spanish). 
6. ↑ Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística de España
7. ↑ ^{a b} Juan Vergillos: Conocer el Flamenco - sus estilos, historia below . Signatura Ediciones, Sevilla 2010, ISBN 978-84-95122-84-1 , p. 67 (Spanish).
8. ↑ Juan Vergillos: Conocer el Flamenco . S. 64 .
9. ↑ Juan Vergillos: Conocer el Flamenco . S. 152 .
10. ↑ Gurullos are small spindle-shaped noodles. The soup is often served with a fish or mussel insert.
11. ^ A preparation of snails in their shell in a soup or sauce
12. ↑ rather a kind of light salami, not comparable to the southern German white sausage
13. ↑ an elongated chorizo
14. ↑ a regional type of chorizo
15. ↑ A sweet shortcrust pastry with anise and lemon
16. ↑ Cookies made from flour, eggs, sugar, and lemon
17. ↑ crispy savory biscuits
18. ↑ ^{a b} Bebidas típicas de Cartagena: el reparo y la láguena. In: www.decartagena.info. March 30, 2013, Retrieved January 19, 2018 (Spanish). 
19. ↑ A traditional pot or pan dish made from dry bread, with different ingredients depending on the region

literature

• Pedro María Egea Bruno: Estructura demográfica de la sierra minera de Cartagena (1900-1920) . Anales de la Universidad de Alicante. Historia contemporánea , n.º 3-4, 1984-1985, págs. 213-252.
• Pedro María Egea Bruno: La minería cartagenera en torno a la Primera Guerra Mundial (1909-1923) . Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 1983.
• Pedro María Egea Bruno: Esplendor y miseria de la minería cartagenera (1850-1855) . En Papeles del Departamento de Geografía . Universidad de Murcia, 2002.
• Pedro María Egea Bruno, Juan Bautista Vilar: La minería murciana contemporánea (1840–1930) . Madrid: Instituto Tecnológico-Minero de España, 1991.
• A. Fernández de Avilés: El poblado minero iberorromano del Cabezo Agudo, en La Unión . Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica. Instituto Diego Velázquez, 1942.
• F. Linares Martínez: La crisis de la comarca minera de Cartagena-La Unión (1987-1991). Un estudio sociológico sobre las paradojas de la acción racional . Cartagena: Concejalía de Cultura del Ayuntamiento de Cartagena y la Cámara Minera, 2001.
• I. Olmos Sánchez :: La ciudad de La Unión durante la II república (1931-1939) . Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 1997.
• A. Sáez: Libro de La Unión. Biografía de una ciudad alucinante . Murcia: Asociación Belenista de Cartagena-La Unión, 1998.
• E. Sintas: Prospección arqueológica en la Sierra Minera de La Unión , Evolución de la industria metalúrgica en la Región de Murcia, I Jornadas Técnicas, Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, 1990.

Web links

Commons : La Unión (España)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• City administration website
• History of La Unión