Carmina Useros Cortés (24 February 1928 – 23 March 2017) was a Spanish writer, ceramist, painter, and cultural manager. A researcher of the gastronomic, artisan, and cultural traditions of

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-ea ...

, she was one of the first women gastronomes in Spain. She was president and director of the , a member of the , a founding member of the Castilian-Manchego Gastronomy Academy, an honorary member of the , a director of the Cueva de la Leña Art Gallery, and president of the Gastronomic Association that bears her name.

Biography

Carmina Useros earned a licentiate in teaching at the Normal School of Albacete. She studied Philosophy and Literature at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid ( es, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; UCM, links=no, ''Universidad de Madrid'', ''Universidad Central de Madrid''; la, Universitas Complutensis Matritensis, links=no) is a public research university loca ...

. In the 1950s she taught women to read and write. Until 1972 she cooked for the . In the 1970s, she was the only woman to sign a letter of support for the anti-Francoist . She married the ophthalmologist Manuel Belmonte González, and in 1968 they began touring the

Province of Albacete Albacete ( es, Provincia de Albacete, ) is a province of central Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. As of 2012, Albacete had a population of 402,837 people. Its capital city, also called Albacete, is ...

, researching and recovering its cultural heritage. She drew on these experiences to write publications such as the 1971 cookbook ''Mil recetas de Albacete y su provincia'' (A Thousand Recipes of Albacete and its Province) and 1973's ''En busca de la Artesanía de Albacete'' (In Search of the Crafts of Albacete). The couple later expanded their travels throughout the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

and the Bealearic and

Canary Canary originally referred to the island of Gran Canaria on the west coast of Africa, and the group of surrounding islands (the Canary Islands). It may also refer to: Animals Birds * Canaries, birds in the genera ''Serinus'' and ''Crithagra'' i ...

archipelagos. The materials that made up the Belmonte-Useros collection would be the foundation of a museum of clay crafts, the in

Chinchilla de Montearagón Chinchilla de Montearagón or Chinchilla de Monte-Aragón, or simply Chinchilla ( ar, جنجالة), is a municipality in the province of Albacete in Castile-La Mancha, Spain. Spreading across a total area of , the municipality has population of ...

, an enclave in which clay had been worked since the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. In 1970 they restored the Agujero de Chinchilla Caves, making them an art gallery. Useros developed an intense focus on the dissemination and reading of ''

Don Quixote is a Spanish epic novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615, its full title is ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'' or, in Spanish, (changing in Part 2 to ). A founding work of Wester ...

'', organizing the "Ruta del Quijote" in 1971. In 1995 she began a cycle of readings of ''Quixote'' held every first Sunday of the month in La Mancha's village of Casa del Olivar, offering a Quixotic food to those who attended. Useros and Belmonte had five children – Manuel, Pilar, José Pablo, the politician , and the soprano . Carmina Useros died in

on 23 March 2017 after a long illness. Carmina Useros en el Museo

Publications

* ''Cocina de Albacete. Mil recetas de Albacete y su provincia'' (1971, 1992, 2001), * ''En busca de la Artesanía de Albacete'' (1973), * ''La Guía de la Gastronomía de La Mancha'' (1975), with Manuel Belmonte González * ''Fiestas populares de Albacete y su provincia'' (1980), * ''Guía de la Artesanía de Albacete'' (1986), with Carlos Villasante Pareja,

Awards and distinctions

In 2002, Carmina Useros received the Albacetian of the Year award from the President of

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, , ), or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, it was created in 1982. The government headquarters are in Toledo, and ...

José Bono José Bono Martínez (born 14 December 1950) is a politician of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He served as President of the Congress of Deputies during the 9th Legislature. Before that, he was the Minister of Defence of Spain fro ...

. The novelist and gastronome

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (14 June 1939–18 October 2003) was a prolific Spanish writer from Catalonia: journalist, novelist, poet, essayist, anthologue, prologist, humorist, critic and political prisoner as well as a gastronome and a FC ...

mentions her in his novel ''La Rosa de Alejandría'' as "the excellent Carmina Useros".

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Useros, Carmina 1928 births 2017 deaths 20th-century Spanish historians 20th-century Spanish painters 20th-century Spanish women writers Painters from Castile and León Writers from Castile and León Complutense University of Madrid alumni Spanish ethnographers Spanish potters Spanish women historians Spanish women painters Women potters 20th-century women painters