Fewer and fewer people continue to meet to play dominoes, a board game associated with the elderly or, on the contrary, with the little ones due to its simplicity. However, at Bar Paradero, at the entrance to The Realejos through Los Barros there is always an obligatory departure in the afternoon. “If you like dominoes, the best is played at the Paradero”, say some of those who frequent the place, a classic of this game.
There it seems that time has stopped because the parishioners follow the rules that have always been established before starting it. They arrive early in the afternoon, take the table, order the drink, place the 28 chips face down, mix them carefully so that they are well distributed, choose them and start the game.
Esperanza is aware of everything. It is she who hands them the game and enjoys watching them play while she brings them coffee, beers or a glass of wine to the table, she exchanges a few words and laughs despite the fact that concentration sometimes prevents them from even raising their heads.
He also participates in the debate, “because after the game comes all the analysis of the game” despite the fact that the rules are very simple, he maintains.
She was also the one who years ago had the idea of buying several units for the entertainment of her clients who did not stop playing even during the pandemic, with a mask included, and who will inevitably play their last game at the premises today.
And it will be so because after 26 years at the helm “and with 66 compliments” Esperanza Hernández Luis has come to retire and rest.
It was in 1996 when he decided to take over the operation and the person who has lasted the longest, although the bar has been open for 60 years. She started with her husband, Agustín, who is a cook and has always given her a hand, and then by herself, preparing homemade meals and goat meat that were interrupted by the crisis, but dominoes have overcome all obstacles and have always been her main attraction.
For her the whereabouts bar It is more than a bar and an obligatory stop at the entrance to the municipality because it was one of the few that existed when the road did not even exist. “It’s my family,” she stresses. And proof of this is that she had a cart with her name to participate in the pilgrimage of Tigaiga, the neighborhood from which she comes, whose structure rested in a small room, where she stayed until Tuesday when they took her away.
The chargers of La Carrera also kept there an image of the Virgen del Carmen that she cared for.
Last week he told his clients that he was saying goodbye “and every day they are counting down the days. They tell me, two days left, one day left. They make me nervous,” she jokes.
He can’t imagine what that moment will be like, because his feelings are confused and what he feels, he says, is “a mixture of emotions.” On the one hand she wants to close a stage but on the other, she doesn’t want the day to come.
She has the support of her family who always encouraged her to work and now also supports her decision to quit and “enjoy life”.
