Last Saturday, Bòbila Aguilera attended the talk “Brickmaking activity in El Papiol”, where four former brickmakers from the municipality—former owners of historic local brickworks—shared their beginnings in this artisanal profession and explained how the town’s history has been closely linked to the economic activity of brickworks and clay.
The speakers shared their professional journeys, the difficulties of their early beginnings, the success experienced during a golden era for handmade bricks, and the evolution they witnessed throughout their years of activity, moving from craftsmanship to the mechanisation of the trade.
During the talk, there were many emotional moments as memories of so much shared history resurfaced, and it was impossible not to address with sadness a very current topic: the brickmaking crisis, which has forced so many brickyards to close their doors forever in recent years.
But without a doubt, one of the highlights of the talk came when, while discussing this subject, Josep Aguilera stood up from his chair and exclaimed, “Well, I see a lot of pessimism here, but at Bòbila Aguilera we’re still standing, damn it!” — a remark that made everyone in the room rise to applaud, in recognition of our work, our years of craftsmanship, our perseverance, and our will to continue keeping alive in the future an activity as ancient as it is beautiful.
Yes, it is true that craftsmanship and the world of handmade bricks have gone through difficult years, but Bòbila Aguilera has known how to withstand the blows through hard work and by never losing its purely artisanal essence, the company’s hallmark of quality.
