More than a guesthouse

The story behind the name  There used to be another shop right next door. So when Rafa’s grandmother and her sister opened their own a few doors down, the village simply called it la tienda nueva — the new shop. The name stuck. It stuck so well that even today, in Cómpeta, the family is known as “the one from La Tienda Nueva”. The house and the family share the same name.

A small shop, a whole village  The ground floor was the kind of place every village used to have. Behind a wooden counter, glass cabinets held thread, lamps, perfume, small electrics, toys. There were aisles, a window display, and lamps hanging from the ceiling — so many lamps that Rafa, as a child, remembers looking up and not quite being able to count them.  The shop opened during the day and stayed open into the evening, when neighbours pulled chairs out onto the street and sat by the door talking. That was village life in Cómpeta.

Christmas and weddings  Every Christmas, the second floor turned into something close to magic. Toys were laid out so that the children of Cómpeta could come up with their parents, choose what they wanted, and write their letter to the Three Wise Men. On the night of January 5th, the family wrapped presents until late — long after the children had gone to bed.  When a couple in the village was getting married, they came to the shop first. They chose their crockery, their pans, their glasses, their small appliances. Then friends and family came after them, picked something off the list, and brought it to the wedding. For decades, this was where Cómpeta celebrated.