TVs and Dollhouses

Teté is man who has lived in a small port town called Portosin all his life and everytime Jose and I go there, we always stop by and pay him a visit. I am always amazed by all the wonderful things he has in his workshop, where he sits all day. Tools, a computer, TV and radio parts, handmade objects carved out of wood, a radio that he built himself, and a beautiful dollhouse that he made himself. Teté is extraordinary. Not because he fixes TVs and radios, nor because he makes such beautiful things out of wood, but because he can do all of these things in a wheelchair, with crippled hands.

When Teté was a child in the 1950s he came down with a serious illness (I can't remember what) that was treatable. But to be treated he had to go to the hospital in Santiago, which is now only 45 minutes away, but then it was like travelling across country. Dirt roads and a cobblestone "highway". To go to Santiago was unimaginable. Sounds pretty primitive for the 50s, but you have to remember that Spain was under the dictatorship of Franco. They were 40 years behind the rest of the world.

So, the illness took over and left Teté crippled. Unable to walk, move his hands properly or talk properly. He wasn't allowed to go to school because the teacher said he wasn't "normal", so he never had any formal education.

But Teté was determined not to be an uneducated vegetable. He studied electronics by reading books and learned to build and repair TVs and raidos. How he was able to do this with his hands is amazing. He didn't stop there, though. He was also incredibly talented carving wood and building things. He built a huge dollhouse for his neice which sits in his workshop. But all of this still wasn't enough, he wanted more. So he started a distance learning course to learn how to use computers at the age of 55. Jose gave him our old computer and he learned Windows, Word, Excel, HTML, etc.

I wanted to tell everyone about this extraordinary man, because Jose and I found out that Teté passed away on New Years Eve from respiratory problems.

He was probably the most loved person in Portosin. He was always smiling and loved conversation. He was never alone. People would practically wait in line outside his workshop to come in and sit with him and chat. He overcame hardships with a positive attitude and was able to do amazing things.

Jose and I will miss our conversations with Teté.