by Gina Cariño
Home >> A Town Named Cariño
My heart skipped a beat when I saw the first baby-blue sign saying Concello de Cariño. The municipality of Cariño comprises five parishes named Cariño, A Pedra, Sismundi, Feás, and Landoi, having in 1987 separated from Ortigueira, yearly venue of a famous festival of fusion Celtic music.
Cariño and Ortigueira guard either side of one of the Miño’s northern estuaries (Rías Altas). That is, where the river flows out to the sea. Cariño is on the left bank and seaward, northward. Ortigueira is on the right bank and slightly more inland, southward. In a fluvial procession held every July 16, a statue of Our Lady of Carmen is rowed from Cariño to Ortigueira and back.
The town center of Cariño is a crescent of low red-roofed white buildings facing Cariño Bay. It is not pretty compared to other whitewashed towns elsewhere in Spain. Don’t go to Cariño if what you want is quaint folklore and frills. Cariño gives an impression of near-Cartesian rationality, tidy sparseness, and modest grace. Think of a girl without make-up but no pimples either, no blemishes to hide with foundation. Transparency is the word that comes to me and this applies to Cariño as a whole. You take in urban cluster and rural sprawl, beach and marina and port, fresh water and salt water, meadow and hills and paper-supplying eucalyptus-covered mountains, all in a single sweep.
In a very ordinary-looking restaurant facing Port Cariño, over a very fresh octopus dish prepared the local way, I play detective. The waiter brings me the town-by-town phone directory for A Coruña province. There is no Cariño in Cariño. I start to plan a visit to the town cemetery but the seafood placed before me is too good to be true. By the time dessert comes it no longer disappoints me that I cannot reinvent myself with a story about a fisherman named Suso Cariño who lived on the Rua Carrasqueiro until his boat went adrift to the Philippine Deep.
Cariño ends seaward in the form of a cape with three eagle-shaped cliffs. Face north. To the right of you is Bay of Biscay. To the left of you is already full open Atlantic. So, I may not be able to boast an ancestor from Cariño, but I can say that a town named like me marks the demarcation line between a sea and an ocean.
Now it’s your turn. Is there a place somewhere whose name is your name?
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-02-22 11:00:00 +0100
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Hi,
it’s quite interesting to do a research of your roots.
My surname, Arjona, it’s a village in Jaen, Andalucía. My father is from Jaen, from a village called Alcalá la Real that is not far from Arjona. Although I’ve not ever been in there, for the information I’ve analised, it’s a typical andalucian village.
The main product is the olive, and produces quite goog olive oil.
Next surname?
best wishes,
Begoña.
In the Valle de Soba, somewhere in the south of Cantabria, lie the scarce remains of a tumulus dating from the Stone Age. The tumulus is situated in a small range of hills called Los Lizares. A tumulus is a mound of earth and stone raised over a grave. So I can trace my roots all the way back to Prehistory! :-)
In December I went to the town that bears my surname, although once the name Trarbach got to America, it “evolved” (was bastardized?) into Trobaugh. Though my direct German Pfälzer ancestors came from a town called Kirchberg (Hunsrück), it’s more fun and more significant to take a picture with your name on a sign.
Hopefully this summer will include a trip to Denmark to make more connections with my roots, even though my names on the Danish side are patronymical and not geographical.
Hi,
I have an unusual surmane “Delgado Durán”, so I think that there isn’t a town or village with these names. I didn’t find it in Google!!
I can say that Delgado has its origins from the Mountains of Santander, and Durán is from Galicia.
Bye,
Leticia.
Hi Gina
My surname is Florez. I’ve been searching it in google and I haven’t found any town with that name.
I only know that the origin of Florez is Asturias, but I don’t know anything else.
My father’s name is Ramiro, and I know there is a little village with this name in Valladolid.
Bye.
My surname doesn’t match with any place, as far as I know, but my mother’s surname (Queiruga) is a little village in Galicia, too, in the same province that Cariño (A Coruña, as you said).
I have passed twice through Queiruga, since it lays in the road from Noya to Caamaño, where I have some relatives I went to visite. My grandfather was born in another parish, belonging to Porto do Son, called Baroña. This place become quite famous some years ago, because its inhabitants, incited by the priest, chased naked people that went to “their” wonderful beach. By the way, there was a celtic “castro” in this beach, whom traces can be visited.
There are a lot of people whose surname is Quiroga which must come from Queiruga. However, Queiruga is the galician name of a plant, “Calluna vulgaris”, brezo in Spanish, and heather in English.
I identify myself with Gina, because my surname also invites a smile or a smirk. My surname is “BUENO” , which translated into english would be “GOOD”. When I was a child, many people asked me if I was really a good boy. I got a little tired about the jokes about my surname.
I haven’t investigated about the origin of my surname but for sure it’s not related with a village or town name. There are not many people with this surname, but they are all around Spain. I suspect that my surname could come from an appelative given to one of my forefathers.
Hi,
my father is from Galicia and I always think my surname, Aboal, was Galician.
But, there is a town in west side of Asturias near Galicia called Boal.
Five years ago I went to Boal with my best friend in a trip by the north of Spain from Euskadi to Galicia.
I think it´s a pleasant experience to know your origins…
Best wishes,
David
The municipality of Cariño once won some award for Most Beautiful Town Name or something.
My name can be a problem. When asked what my name is, sometimes my reply, “Gina Cariño,” sounds like “Gina, cariño.” Also, Cariño may be a misnomer for me although THAT is a matter of opinion.
A lovely description Gina!
Unfortunalety, I ‘ve got a typical surname in Spain: “González” and I think no one has the brilliant idea to built a town called like that.
My girlfriend born in Galicia, in a little town called “Casayo” and I can say that Galicia is a fantastic place to live, in spate of a weather.
Bye all!
The best thing about Cariño lies outside the town cluster, up the slopes. Quique has turned the ruins of a very old stone construction into a very cozy and tastefully decorated farmhouse-inn. The day we stopped there for a drink, he had eleven guests, judging from the number of plates set around the narrow wooden kitchen table. Quique cooks himself. That day he was preparing shrimp on avocado and a wild pig roast. Outside, my son, 6 years old then, chased the hens and stroked the horses beyond the washhouse.
Grace Darling holds a special place in English hearts.
Hello,
My name is Rocio. I’m sure that everybody knows a little village in Andalucia with the same name.
The extraordinary thing is that I am from Colombia, and the name of Rocío is not very common there.
My name is a clear example of the influence of the Spanish culture in South-America.
Rocío
Hi.
My name and my surnames are very common, and I think that there isn’t any place here in Spain with those name. My father’s surname come from France, and my mother’s one come from Spain.
My mother’s birthplace name is very peculiar, Matarrubia (kill a blondie in english). The origin of the name is the wheat, the blondie wheat.
Now, my parents has got a house in a village named Venturada. I don’t know if the name came of a very lovely place, happines place, but I think that the mean of the name is something like ‘windy’, becouse all the time is flowing a very high wind in all the directions … is a terrible place.
Hi Gina,
my first surname is Alcazar. Alcazar is a word that comes from the Arab word ‘qsar’ whith the Arab article al- at the beginning. It means castle or fortress and in turn comes from the latin word ‘castra’ which is the plural of ‘castrum’ which was building used as a military defensive position for
Romans.
There are several villages and places with the name Alcazar. In the province of Cuidad Real we have Alcazar de San Juan. In Cuenca Alcazar del Rey , Alcazar de Venus in Granada and Los Alcazares in Murcia. Even in the north of Africa we have Alcazarquivir.
There are at least two famous buildings called alcazar: El Alcazar de Segovia and El Alcazar de Toledo.The latter was sieged during the Spanish Civil War, being almost completely destroyed and rebuilt again.
JC
Hi!
I think it’s really nice to have a surname like some of you … for example Joaquin “Bueno” ... it means that your forbears were a good people … or Gina “Cariño” , it’s really sweet … much better that mine:”González” ... what is that ?! ... it means nothing at all, only a bored and tipycal Spanish surname ;) ...
Bye all!
Hi Jose Victor,
of course it means something. As all the spanish surnames ended in -ez, it means ” Son of Somebody”. In your case “Son of Gonzalo”. So, you can know that one of your forbears was called Gonzalo. It is not much, but..
JC
I’s very interesting and exciting to know that it exists a place in the world with your same name, or last name, isn’t it?. And now you know that place in Spain but you can imagine that in other place in the world perhaps there is other place with your own name.
I have “the Concha Beach” in San Sebastian, I suppose you know very good, don’t you?, and other churches, and things like these, but I like, of course.
Best regards,
Conchi.
Hi!, It is not very easy to look for a village named Franco on the internet, you must understand why. However, if you are obstinate and patient you’ll finally find there’s a “council” named El Franco in the north-west of Asturias.
Now that I’m aware of it, I think I will go there to have a look someday. Asturias has a deserved recognition for it’s landscapes, food and, of course, it’s cider. I love it!