EspañolOUR HISTORY
When Ángel Mompradé joined Lidio Molinero’s fishmonger’s shop at the age of 13 as an apprentice, he did not know that this would be the most important decision of his life.
Times were bad. The year was 1946. A major drought, which had caused a severe crisis in the agricultural world, meant that the boy’s dream of becoming a mechanic could not be fulfilled.
This long story began in that fishmonger’s shop located at No. 4 Coso Bajo.
Lourdes Viñuales left Sipán and her mother, sister and stepfather, and went to live with her aunt and uncle in Huesca. She was only 15 years old but had an infinite desire to work when she joined La Coruñesa, a company dedicated to the sale of fish, in 1949.
It was in a small fish market owned by La Coruñesa in the Plaza de San Lorenzo when the two coincided and those two stories became one.
Those were times when working conditions were difficult: huge boxes of fish weighing up to 60 kilos, stores without doors in the harsh winters, working seven days a week, or practices such as chopping ice and going from house to house to offer it.
Street vending in the villages was the next step after a few years. But on a bicycle. A heavy bicycle loaded to the brim on roads that were often unpaved. Lupiñén, Ortilla, Montmesa, Plasencia, Quinzano, Loscorrales, Losanglis, Biscarrués, Loarre, Aniés…
Sixty pesetas he earned on his first day of work, enough to make him forget the enormous effort he had had to make. Those were other times, as evidenced by the fact that he sometimes had to sell fish in exchange for eggs or fruit because some customers did not have cash.
Little by little he progressed and bought a motorcycle cart, a motorcycle with a rigid trailer on the front and, later, a van. At that time they already combined selling in the villages with selling in the store. Once they were married (1959), they took over a fish shop at 3 Padre Huesca Street as a joint tenancy. The first day it rained heavily and only four customers came in. They made three sales because the first one they gave away the purchase.
But through perseverance, enthusiasm, dedication and sacrifice, little by little they were able to move their business forward. As they sold more and more in the store, they stopped selling in the villages. They had to look for help to get the job done: Narciso, Pedro, Santi, Clemente, put their grain of sand for what we are today.
A transfer took place in 1982. The re-rental regime they were under forced them to change their location. In order to maintain the same clientele, we looked for a location as close as possible. No. 12 San Orencio Street was chosen. The former bicycle sales and repair shop became the largest and most modern fishmonger’s in Huesca. Soon after, his son, Fernando, joined the company. It was not until 1994 that the daughter, Lourdes, also began to write this story.
In 2001, the establishment underwent a thorough renovation and the usual range of products was expanded to include a high-end gourmet product section.
Now our parents are retired and Josemi is with us. A lot has changed since that distant 1946. All of them. But what we try not to change is the interest, enthusiasm and eagerness for a job well done. Selecting from the early hours of the morning the best quality goods possible to satisfy both our catering clientele and the customer who comes to visit us at our premises.
The creation of this website is one more step in this story that began in a harsh black and white Spain. We are now part of a modern society and we look to the future with illusion and hope.
Hope that you will join us and help us to write together the next chapter of our history. Thank you all.