Notable people
Historical biographies of people linked to the municipal life, politics, art and literature of Boqueixón.
The mayors
Click on each name to read their biography.
José Moscoso Salazar
First mayor of Boqueixón, in 1839. Born in Codeso into a noble family, he died in 1841 at the age of 66.
José Joaquín Illobre dos Santos
Born in Noenlle (Sergude) in 1784. He was mayor in 1840, while the municipality was still being formed. At that time the council was made up of two representatives from each parish, chosen from among the highest taxpayers.
Manuel Ballesteros Vaamonde
Born in Ardesende (Codeso). He belonged to one of the most powerful families in the municipality in the 19th century.
In 1841 he was appointed mayor after General Espartero took over the regency. This period lasted until 1842.
In 1854 he returned to the head of the council when Espartero came back to power. He remained mayor until a new coup d’état drove the progressives from power.
Bernardo de la Peña de Castro
Born in Regueiro in 1790. He died in 1853 in the city of A Coruña while serving as councillor of the Provincial Council.
He was mayor twice: between 1842 and 1844, leaving office when the conservative Narváez came to power, and again from 1850 until his death.
Manuel Mareque Garís
Born in Reboredo (A Granxa). He began a long period in which his family dominated the municipality. He was mayor three times: from 1844 to 1845, from 1853 to 1854 and from 1856 to 1864.
Manuel Couto Maceira
Born in Ardesende (Codeso). He died in 1884 at the age of 73.
He was mayor between 1864 and 1868, until his council was dissolved by the new regime established by the revolution known as La Gloriosa.
José de la Torre González
Born in Codeso, where he died in 1906 at the age of 85. Throughout the 19th century he held important local posts.
He was mayor twice: at the end of 1868, and for just a few months in 1876.
Andrés Mouriño Castro
Born in Deseiro (Sergude), he died in 1907 at the age of 88. He was mayor after the fall of the First Republic, between 1874 and 1875.
In 1883 he was appointed mayor again and held the post until his death. During this long period important decisions were taken, such as moving the Town Hall from Lamas to its seat in Casanova (Boqueixón). At the end of the century, as a result of the heavy call-ups for the Cuban War, there were many cases of conscripts deserting.
Antonio Ballesteros Gil
Born in Ardesende (Codeso). He died in 1885 at the age of 68.
Son of Manuel Ballesteros Vaamonde, he held several posts until he briefly became mayor in 1875. He held council meetings at his home in Codeso.
Manuel Vilas Ínsua
Born in Prevediños (Touro) and resident in Lamas. An important 19th-century figure who benefited from the sale of Church property during the confiscations.
Mayor of Boqueixón from 1877 until his death in 1882. The strong opposition he met around the municipality led him to hold council meetings at his house in Lamas.
Miguel Millán Couto
A resident of A Igrexa (Boqueixón), related to the leading families of the municipality. Mayor from 1908 until his death in 1912. This period is marked by the heavy call-ups imposed by the Government because of its war in Africa.
Rafael Pérez Boo
He died in 1923 in Sucira, where he had been born 83 years earlier. He was acting mayor between 1812 and 1813, after the death of Miguel Millán.
Manuel Cereixo Lareo
Born in A Igrexa (Boqueixón). Mayor from 1914 to 1923, when he was removed by the civil governor after Primo de Rivera’s coup d’état succeeded.
A time when the Mareque family had the greatest control over all administrative posts.
Daniel Romay Pérez
Born in Codeso and a descendant of former mayor Manuel Moscoso. He was mayor in two short periods from 1923 to 1924, presiding over the council imposed by the government delegate under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera.
During this period the Guardia Civil barracks were moved from Ponte Ulla to Lestedo.
In 1930 he became mayor again after the fall of the dictatorship, but died in July of that year.
Francisco Sinde Sinde
Born in Ramil (Lestedo), he died in 1937 at the age of 78. Mayor from 1924 to 1930, when the Government Delegate chaired a session of the new council.
Ramón Maceira Cristobo
Born in 1898 in the village of León (Oural), he died in 1966 at his home in Santaia (Codeso). Appointed in 1930 on the death of Daniel Romay, he remained in office until February 1936.
José Couto Iglesias
Born in Orto (Boqueixón) in 1896, he died in 1986. Elected mayor in February 1936, he remained in office until he was removed in July, after the coup d’état triumphed in Galicia.
Domingo García Cao
Born and resident in A Picota (Lestedo). He died in 1957, aged 56, in a plane crash at Barajas (Madrid). In July 1936 a new council appointed by the military governor met in a session chaired by the Guardia Civil commander, and he was elected at that session. The most important decisions were imposed by the provincial Governor and the Guardia Civil.
On 15 September the Town Hall moved to Lestedo. From then on there were many disagreements among the councillors over which village should be the seat of the municipality.
Antonio Orza Couto
Born in 1908 in Casaldesuso, he died at his home in Ardesende (Codeso) in 1980.
In 1942 he was appointed mayor by the governor. At his first session he moved the seat of the municipality from Lestedo to Ardesende (Codeso).
His long term of office (29 years) is notable for the construction of a new building for the Lestedo Guardia Civil. In 1950 he decided to move the seat of the municipality to O Forte, where the new Town Hall and the court office were opened in 1953. In 1967 he presented the project for the school in O Forte, which opened in 1971.
José Ramón Corujo Quián
Born in Ames in 1931, he is a doctor by profession. He lives in Ponte Ledesma.
He presided over the council from 1971 to 1979, governing during a period of transition in which decisions were always taken unanimously. The most important decisions concerned support for land consolidation and the improvement of communications.
Luis Bragaña Neira
Born in 1927 in A Corna (Pousada), where he lives.
The first democratically elected mayor, he took office in 1979 and left in 1983.
In 1981 he began the refurbishment of the Town Hall, which was in a sorry state. The main concerns of this period were also communications and sports and school facilities.
Secundino Torres Vázquez
Born in Xiadás (Gastrar) in 1930 and resident in Rodiño Grande.
Mayor from 1983 to 1991. This period was marked by great municipal activity, with heavy investment in communications, the improvement and surfacing of rural roads and the building of municipal facilities such as the sports hall and the health centre. Street lighting was also installed in every village.
Politics
Xosé Antonio Orza Fernández
He studied Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela, where he later also taught: between 1967 and 1969 he was an assistant lecturer for practical classes in the Department of Economics and Public Finance of the Faculty of Law. Xosé Antonio Orza lived in Madrid, Zamora, Bilbao and A Coruña because of his work as a civil servant in the Senior Corps of State Finance Inspectors, from which he is on voluntary leave.
His public career began in 1982, when he became Director General of Taxation and Financial Policy at the Galician Department of Economy and Finance, a post he left in 1985. In 1990 he was appointed Minister of Economy and Finance of the Xunta de Galicia, a portfolio he held until 2005. The municipal biography also records his career as a PP member of the Parliament of Galicia since 1997.
Art
Gregorio Ferro
In the world of the arts, Boqueixón is fortunate to have a figure of the first rank, although he is not sufficiently recognised. This illustrious son of our municipality was born in the parish of Santa María de Lamas on 24 December 1742, into a family of the local gentry.
His peaceful early years were cut short in 1750 by the death of his mother and his father’s remarriage. Perhaps this is why he moved to Santiago, entering the monastery of San Martín Pinario as a servant or “sacristy boy”, where he had his first contact with painting.
With financial help from a priest connected to the family, he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1759, where his teachers were the sculptor Felipe de Castro, also from Galicia, and the Neapolitan painter Corrado Giaquinto.
He left these studies to assist Anton Raphael Mengs in decorating the Royal Palace of Madrid until 1769. Mengs, the leading representative of Neoclassical taste, was to have a decisive influence on our artist.
In 1775 Gregorio Ferro married María Benita de Castro Quintela, very probably a relative of the sculptor Felipe de Castro. The couple had no children, as our protagonist was soon widowed.
His long career at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando brought him important prizes and honours. He even competed against, and defeated, one of the greatest painters of all time, Francisco de Goya, for one of the most coveted posts in Spanish art: Director General of the Academy, in 1804.
However, despite his many efforts, Ferro never achieved the title of Court Painter.
Gregorio Ferro died suddenly at his home in Madrid in 1812, as his death certificate shows.
With him ended one of the most direct lines of the great Neoclassical theorist Mengs, and one of the figures of what some call “Rococo classicism” because of the mixed character of his style, wavering between rationalism and sensualism, formalism and spontaneity.
Literature
Anxo A. Rei Ballesteros
Writer, born in Codeso (Boqueixón) on 24 January 1952, died on 29 October 2008. A Law graduate from the University of Santiago de Compostela, his literary career began in his youth, when he contributed to the magazine “Bonaval”. His first novel, “Dos anxos e dos mortos”, was published by Castrelos in 1977, and that same year he received the Pedrón de Ouro award for his story “Querido Brais”.
With his second novel, “Loaira”, he won the Losada Diéguez prize in 1993, and went on to write “Non sei cando nos veremos” (2005), in which he questions the social norms and ways of life accepted by the majority.
He also wrote for the theatre: his play “Xogos de damas” was premiered in 1987 by the Malbarate company, and in 1991 he directed a version of Jean Cocteau’s “A voz humana”. With an interest in philosophy, he published essays in magazines and artists’ catalogues, among them “Tempo e vinganza”, which won the Ramón Piñeiro award. He also translated major works by 20th-century authors, such as Samuel Beckett’s “Molloy”.
He left two posthumous works: “A noite do moucho”, published by Editorial Galaxia in 2009, and “Presenza dunha ausencia” in 2013.
An author who is hard to categorise, both personally and as a writer. Even so, among his fellow writers he is spoken of as the most gifted writer of his generation.
