Ana’s father, Manuel Abarca Císcar, joined the then Sociedad Valenciana de Electricidad in 1903, at the tender age of 20. He worked there for some years, married and transferred to La Pea hydro station in Villamarchante. It was in this healthy environment that the family lived for over a decade with five other families and where Ana was born in 1916. She had a happy childhood, playing in the street with the children of the other families and as there was no school, it was her mother who taught her to read and write. However, in 1923, when Ana was eight years old, Manuel moved back to Valencia so that the kids could go to school.
After several years of school, Ana decided to study for a career. The family did not have much money, but she received a education in French, shorthand, spelling, grammar, maths and book-keeping, to name but a few such that, when the opportunity arose, her father encouraged her to take some tests to see if she could join the company where he worked… and she went and passed them! In 1933, at 16 years of age, Ana joined the Compañía de Luz y Fuerza de Levante, S.A. (LUTE). She was bound for a secretarial career and her first job was to manage the filing.
Ana married Carlos Clausí Lázaro in 1937, but just a few days after the wedding Carlos was drafted to fight in the Civil War. The respect and understanding of her boss, though, meant she was able to take time off to coincide with her husband’s leave and soon they had their first son, Carlos, born in 1938. A few years later, in 1942, her husband also got a job in LUTE.
Once the war was over, Ana was pregnant a second time and she bore Manolo in 1944. Then there was a gap of 14 years until Ana María arrived in 1958. This was the year that the company became Hidroeléctrica Española, S.A. Ana continued to manage the corporate archive, a duty she performed until her retirement. She was also the only one authorized to present correspondence for the director to sign.
Ana always felt her work was appreciated. “All my memories are good ones,” she would later recall. “I always received a lot of attention and kindness.” She retired in 1981, after almost half a century of dedication to the companies. And she was one of the founders of a group of retired employees who got on well together and formed, the jokingly named, the “Low and High Tension Youthful Front”, ‘tension’ being a pun on electrical voltage in Spanish. The ‘front’ met every month – it even took minutes – meaning they continued their friendships to the end.
She, evidently, knew how to convey her love for the Company to her three children, who all successively incorporated into the enterprise. Carlos, in 1960, became an administrator; Manolo, in 1969, was appointed assistant to the district head, and; Ana, since 1984, has worked in the commercial department.
On Ana’s 95th birthday, I wrote to her: “Our friendship began the afternoon in which we prepared the story that would be entered for the competition, Deja tu huella (“Leave your mark”), held to celebrate the centenary of our Company. That autumn afternoon in 2003, I learned that the Company is not a corporation, but the people who form part of it. You conveyed to me, through your 50 years of service, two key values: humility and gratitude.”
