Casa Marjaliza

Casa Marjaliza. Surrounded by old trees as could be seen in many of the old farming towns up and down the valley of Los Yébenes and in other places of the region of Mountains of Toledo, where the townspeople took pride of their communities. All these trees, separated from the extensive groves, had the dual function of shade and fruit bearing. Laborers on the farms and ranches could pick the fruit and prepare enough olives and oil for their own families, if their employers allowed it.

The landscapes of Toledo country is defined by the olive tree. This definition is mythical, symbolic, and religious as well as physical, historical, and agricultural. Quite apart from their important role as producers of food, olive trees have exercised an inordinate fascination over many people during the six thousand years they have been cultivated. No other food of equal or greater antiquity -with the possible exception of the grape- is surrounded by the same aura of myth and romance.

Across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Phoenicians were said to be the first to plant olive trees on the Iberian Peninsula. The Romans greatly expanded the orchards, including this Central region of Toledo. But the Moors were so thorough in their seventh-century conquest that almost all traces of Rome were expunged. Today, traces of Arabic in modern Spanish -olive oil is aceite- bear testimony to the power of the Saracen (Moorish) invasion and their centuries-long occupation of Spain.

Severo Sambrini, the father of Anastasio, was an expert in explosives working for railroad and engineering companies of Northern Italy and Switzerland; he had come to work to the Basque Country around 1920, established himself there in similar jobs and married a lady from Portugalete. Out of this marriage, Anastasio was born, his first years surrounded by the mechanical environment that went along with his father's position. The family underwent the difficulties of Spanish Civil war in late 1930's but father Severo's health was exhausted and died soon after; mother, Inmaculada Idiazabal de Sambrini, decided to move South in Spain, arriving to the Mountains of Toledo with her son Anastasio, where agro activities in cereal and olive fields were being developed extensively. New life in times of peace and a promising future as the country was in the need for everything after the war was over.

One of the first known pictures of Anastasio Sambrini, second from left, taken after a day of work at the fields (c. late 1940's) in Marjaliza (Toledo). Photographer remains unknown, and was probably a professional coming from the town of Toledo, where a number of newspapers were already active in the coverage of agro news.