Departures of note

In 1913, Manuel María Puga y Parga, writing under the pseudonym “Picadillo,” published an article titled “I want to be a councilman” and launched a campaign for election in A Coruña. His speech to the food market sellers urged women, who could not vote, to pressure their husbands and children, even suggesting the use of a slipper, claiming that private coercion had nothing to do with electoral law. He was elected and took office in January 1914, becoming mayor in October of that year after the resignation of Javier Ozores Pedrosa, though he was deposed in just two months when the central government changed. He became mayor again in July 1917 when Eduardo Dato rose to power, but his behavior during a general strike on August 13, 1917, led to his removal. In response, 6,000 unionized workers paid tribute to him with a certificate signed by 27 unions, expressing gratitude for his noble attitude toward municipal workers during the strike.

Born in Santiago de Compostela in 1874 and baptized in San Fiz de Solovio, Puga y Parga lived in A Coruña from a young age. He studied law at Santiago de Compostela, presenting his thesis “Nobility Jurisdictions” in 1895. Through Cánovas del Castillo, a friend of his father, he was appointed to a position in the Criminal DG without competition, but unhappy with the political environment in Madrid and longing for his homeland, he returned to Galicia after Cánovas’s assassination in 1897. He married María del Carmen Ramón, was appointed municipal judge in Arteixo, and inherited the Pazo of Anzobre in Arteixo after his father’s death in 1899. He became a prominent figure in the social and cultural life of A Coruña, with close friendships with writers Wenceslao Fernández Flórez and Emilia Pardo Bazán.

As a gastronome, Puga y Parga popularized and updated traditional Galician cooking, writing cookbooks including “The Practical Cuisine” in 1905, which was a great success, and many articles. He claimed the cod, sardines, and traditional “Lacón con Grelos” (shoulder of pork with turnip greens), contrasting them with the French cuisine fashionable among the upper class. He said one of the best experiences of his life was a rustic fish stew eaten on a fishing boat. His recipes often revealed his humor, such as one for cod dedicated to his friend Wenceslao Fernández Flórez, describing taking a piece of cod as thin as Flórez and tomatoes as fat as himself. He also gave precise timing for a good “Lacón con grelos,” starting at nine in the morning and finishing at one, with the table surrounded by hungry citizens and plenty of Ribeiro wine.

Puga y Parga’s excessive weight, reportedly reaching 275 kg, made him well known. Writer Luis Anton de Olmert recounted that a circus visited A Coruña showing a German man as the fattest in the world, but people were disappointed, saying “Manolo Puga is fatter and you can see him down the street.” In his political autobiography, he wrote humorously: “In 1882 I was an eight years old man weighing about 75 kg.” He died at the age of 44 in A Coruña, a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic.