Asturian-American Migration Forum

Suronda posted some photos that show members of the Arias family, who were good friends with my father's family. All of the identifications below are based on information from my father, who was born in Spelter and lived there during his childhood.

Several homes in Spelter are shown in this photo.

Just at the bend in the road, there is a house with a white roof. This is the first house that the Arias family lived in in Spelter. They later moved to another house in the same town.

The Arias family had four sons, Joseph (Jose), was the oldest, followed by Jesus (called Jesse), Ernest and Manuel (called Manolo). Suronda has posted two photos of Manolo Arias on the website. In the first image, he is shown in his basketball uniform.

In the next, he is wearing a sailor's uniform and is standing with an older woman, who is Suronda's great grandmother Bango.


I remember visiting the Arias family in Spelter, West Virginia when I was very young (It's hard to forget locking myself in the bathroom and having to be rescued.) I remember that the bed I slept in was so high and I was so small that it was hard to get into it. I must have been between five and seven at the time. I also remember the sport of swatting flies on the front porch. It kept us kids amused for hours.

One of the Arias sons later lived in Baltimore. According to my father, all four of them have died. They can live on in our memories on this website.

I sent a copy of the photo of the houses in Spelter to my father, and he remembered quite a bit of information from about 1924 to 1925. The photo is taken from a vantage point as one enters Spelter.

The first house on the right was Dr. Lynch's office. The next house was a combination pool room, barber shop of bowling alley. It also sold candy and ice cream (only two flavors, vanilla and strawberry). When kids would hang out there too late into the evening, the owner, Mike Alvarez, would tell them "take a piss and go to bed". Mike Alvarez was also called Mike Pinales.

The next building was the meeting house and movie theater. Across from the poolroom was the house where Mike "Pinales" Alvarez lived. Next to it was a shed that housed a reel of hose--firefighting equipment. My father remembers it being used only once, when F. J. Fresler (a general store) burned. Next to Mike's house was the protestant church. A little further along was the Catholic church on the same side of the street. Both churches were across the street from the poolroom.

One or two houses away lived Maria Perida (a sister of Mike Alvarez). She had a son called Joe "Bananas".

There was another poolroom on the other side of town. Other people who lived nearby included Italians: the Belottis, Pete "Scranitt" and the Perri family (who had a daughter named Christmas).

Bob Martinez

Bob, just ran across your posting on the pool room, etc., in Spelter.

Joe (Mike) Alvarez (alias Mike Pinales) was my grandfather. His children were Joe Jr., Donald, Arthur, Ruth Jean and my mother Katherine. My mother married Andrew "Pike" Menendez, and they lived near the Ziesing school.

I hadn't heard the term Mike Pinales in over 30 years, and it seemed strange seeing it again. I used to help my grandfather in the grocery store in the 1950's (I attended Ziesing Junior High School then).

I remember Dr Lynch's office and across the street was the Standard Supply store (two story building that still stands). My grandfather's building was torn down this past year. However, his daughter, Rurth Jean Book, still lives in his house across the street from the store site. Between the Methodist church and the Catholic church, still lives an Alvarez (no relation to us).

Ken Menendez

It just dawned on me that "Pinales" is the plural, in asturianu, of pinal, which is pinewood (pinar or pineda in castellano). I should have recognized it immediately because I know some other, similar forms like mazanal (manzanal in castellano, apple tree or apple orchard) , peral (the same in castellano, pear tree or pear wood), rosal (rosebush) and nozal (nogal in castellano, walnut tree or walnutwood). I just didn't make the connection with the "es" plural. So your grandfather's nickname was clearly Asturian. It may refer to the area he came from in Asturias. Some of the Asturians in Niagara Falls were nicknamed by their places of origin.

Of course, there could be another origin or meaning of the nickname too. My DALLA (big Asturian dictionary published by the Academy) is in Rockport and I am in New Haven right now and for the next few weeks (the nagging necessity of earning an income--we are in the second week of the semester).

If I am wrong, I would appreciate correction from some of our Asturian friends. I'm still learning.


Bob Martinez

Bob, the Maria Perida referenced in an earlier post was not a sister of Joe "Mike" Alvarez. The Alvarez that lived between the Methodist and Catholic was Eugene and Mary Alvarez. They had eight boys, Herman, Paul, Henry, Raymond, Louis, David, Kelly and Richard. We believe Joe Bananas was their son, Kelly.

Joe "Mike" Alvarez was one of six children of Antonio Alvarez and Josephine Garcia. His sisters were Aurara (Gonzalez), Dammas (Bartha) and Pasqualla (Alvarez). They stayed in Spain. His brothers were Andres and Jesse.

Ken

Ken,
The Alvarez family who lived next to the church was the family of the greatest handiman in all of Spelter, Pebida (sp?). He was also called Peabody. His son, Bananas, had a dairy queen in Bridgeport for a number of years.
You're right about the family, all boys. Mother was Maria Pebida and must have attended the funeral of every Aturiano who passed during her last 20 years.
I have many fond memories of Spelter having spent summers there with the Cuetos until I was 13 or 14. On my last trip two summers past I stopped to see Marty DeFasio whom I had not seen in over 60 years.

Lou Alvarez