Neighbor jeweler for 59 years

Maria Victoria Quinza Aldaz She did not decide last Monday to place a sign on the door of her jewelery shop announcing what is there: this jeweler is retiring after 59 years working in her shop, at Gran de Gràcia 56. “Neighbor Jeweler & rdquor ;, specifies with pride. Six decades in a 9.58-square-foot store, a shop formerly entered through a side door at the entrance of the building. Over the years, only access from the street remained. He was there with his mother for about 40 years., although his mother formally left him in 1982: “And then they fired me, because before that a self-employed person could not have an insured family member & rdquor ;. The mother stayed with her for the remaining 20 years of her life.

“If I can, I will close this afternoon,” Quinzá said on Monday., nearby known as MaryVí. He said it looked out of the corner of his eye at the door, watching who was stopping, because some of his loyal customers still did not know he was going, and he did not want them to push him there. Practically, he says, they are already friends. A woman approaches: “Yes, Gemma, if I can close, this afternoon & rdquor ;. It is a slow drop that follows one another:” Until when? “a woman asks.” If I can, I will close & rdquor ;, urges Quinzá. In the end, Wednesday was his last day and the store will already be closed this Thursday.

Neighbor of the Eixample

Despite spending so many years, so many hours in Gran de Gràcia, Quinzá has never stopped living in Eixample. Single, she always lived with her parents: “A very good life & rdquor;, she sums up with a satisfied face. He is 73 years old and at 15, in 1963, he announced this to his parents: he does not want to continue going to school. He did not like it: “I used to go to Las Tereses, to what is now the Diputación de Barcelona. Kan Serra ”. And he started working with his mother. It was not an unusual age then: “Those who started as pupils were 13 or 14 years old & rdquor ;.

His parents took over the business at the end of 1957, when the González family, with whom they were friends, left it. Trade has been jewelry since 1904, but he does not know who wore it for the first 20 years. In 1924 it was taken over by their predecessors, the Gonzálezes, and it stamped a date of that time on it: “On March 23, 1933, they were robbed. It was like us at the beginning. The safe was small, it only fit four things, there were no security systems and what was really good, you took home. I still have the suitcase in which we moved the genre & rdquor ;.

The jewelry box

The circumstances made the arrival and departure of the store a dangerous point. “They have the owner’s son & rdquor; killed, explains MaryiVí. His name was Feliciano González and he opened that day. They were waiting for him to snatch the jewels he was wearing. The father, of the same name, continued to run the business.

The store that now says goodbye, and it used to be the González Jewelry, it is called Trimer after the names of the two women who have directed it since 1957, Trini and Mercedes, the latter, the mother of MaryVí. After two years, the partners left him: “The man has a placista business & rdquor; that is, installment sales, something, remember, then very normal and what you then maintained in your trade.” I have a client. who came to live with Travessera in a pension in Gran de Gràcia and to go to work she came to buy an alarm clock in installments, he paid two pesetas every week & rdquor ;. That was when she was a child, in 1958. “I still have her as a client.”

“If I could, I would withdraw & rdquor;

Will you go back to the life you have had so far? Yes, says the jeweler. “It is that if I could, I would still withdraw. I’m very used to dealing with the public, at the store. After so many years, customers are already friends. It was a store with a regular customer ”. Health problems made her decide to leave an activity in which she spends many hours on her feet, which is not good for her circulatory problem: “Three doctors told me.”

His career leaves another physical mark on him: “On April 13, 1983, they robbed us. it was a couple. They looked good. He wore a stiletto, she a knife. They asked for diamond rings. He cut all the tendons in my hand “, he explains as he shows the affected one the rights.

Fourth stage as jewelry

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See Gràcia more or less like a few decades ago, a town: “If I open earlier than usual one day, they will call me to find out if anything has happened to me.”. He is clear about his future and that of his store. First things second: “I had offers from someone who wanted to sell pens. Many came for electronic cigarettes. I always refused. I wanted it to remain a jewelry store. ” And so it will be. He transferred the business and sold the premises.

And next Monday, now apart from her previous working life, her agenda is clear: “I will go to Cardedeu, to Can Tram, to bring bread that I keep for the horses they bring to Sant Medir”. She was president of the Tivats group for more than a decade and now she is another member: “We consider ourselves a family & rdquor ;.