An employee says she fears losing her lifelong job at the world’s largest cross locality after the government of Spain passed a law in October to close parts of it down and “re-signify” its basilica.
Alejandra Gómez, who has worked for 30 years at the Valley of the Fallen’s guesthouse, says her biggest fear now is being fired.
“I would like for this place to remain open so that I do not end up on the street,” she said in an interview with CNA on Nov. 24 at the site.
“They are playing with the bread of many families here,” added Gómez, a mother of three. “There are many families working here.”
The Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen lies at the center of a memorial site about 28 miles northwest of Madrid.
The landmark under the towering cross includes an abbey and the basilica. The nearly 30 employees currently working at the Valley of the Fallen’s guesthouse and boarding choir school face the same uncertainty regarding their future.
Gómez came from Badajoz, a city in the southwest region of Extremadura, to work at the lodge’s restaurant when she was 22. She remembers the exact date she began working there: Oct. 21, 1992.
“I am very fond of the Hospedería because I came here very young and part of what I have is because of (my time) working here,” said Gómez, now 53. “I would be very upset if they closed it.”
She also got married at the basilica adjacent to the guesthouse, the Basilica of the Holy Cross of the Valley of the Fallen, in 2000.
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