A Celta de Vigo aficionado

I root for *Real* Club Celta de Vigo and I have nothing to do with royalty
;-)

But my great-great grandfather was a "gallego" (from Galicia, Spain) who came to Venezuela in the 1850's or 60's I suppose.

Moreover I had this friend, Jóvito, the "gallego" who owned the café kiosk by the parking lot of my Faculty and usually invited me to watch at his home the matches of the European Cup (CL of the time), where we would have a couple of beers and later, after the games, he would tell me about his experiences after being compulsory recruited as a cook for the Franco Army, on the Spanish Civil War. He spent the whole war peeling potatoes :-s, because with his 1.45 metres, was not able to fight in the front line.

Before that, he was saved  by his father of being shot when he was on the line for being executed, because his father was a friend of the commander of the execution squad. He was captured by "nationalists" with the Number 7 membership card of the Construction Trade Union of Galicia, because a cousin of him was a leader and recruited him among the first members.

"This fellow must be a leader, has a very low number of membership !" - shouted the guy who captured him on a routinary check.

So thin was the line among life and death at that time in Spain.

During a long time the "historical" Celta de Vigo was, as Jovito called his club affectionately, the "lift (elevator) club": one year in first division, one year on second division. But recent seasons showed a explosion on Celta's performances.

Enough reasons for me to be a Celta "aficionado".

http://www.celtavigo.net/

JV

P.S.: The "historical Celta de Vigo" was a term coined in the Spanish press to name the side who had what they call their Golden Era, between 1939 and 1959, being 4th in 1947-48, their best performance of that period. A side "feared and respected" among La Liga.