FAMILY HISTORY

Pascual Bailac Sales

This story begins with the birth of Pascual Bailac Sales, occurred in the village of Mazaleon, Province of Teruel, Aragon region of Spain, on April 19, 1892, and with the birth of Leonor Calcena Siurana on April 11, 1902 in the village of Valdealgorfa located in the province of Teruel, Aragon region, Spain.  Both towns are near each other and you get to them down the road No. 420 which connects the Port of Tarragona with the city of Alcaniz.  Is in this city where the Calatravos Castle is located, dating XVI century and is today a touristic spot.

Pascual and Leonor met each other dancing Jotas (which is a Spanish folk dance) in Valdealgorfa where she lived, in the house of his father who owned an oven where all the people from the town took their bread to cook.  He kept a percentage (maquila) of the bread and they lived out of the sale of it.  Her father’s name was Jose and her mother Maria, she also had 2 sisters and 1 brother, who were called Pilar, Josefina and Isaac.

Meanwhile, Pascual grew up as an orphan, since his mother who was called Francisca, died during childbirth.  His life was very hard and precarious and even of hunger; when he was a baby he was raised by neighbors and friends of his deceased mother.  Then his father, named Pedro got married, so he then went to depend on his stepmother, who was a very hard and harsh woman, preferring her own children (she was a widower when marrying his father). Pascual had two older sister and brother:  Esperanza and Raimundo.  Esperanza, almost a child, went to work in Barcelona.  Once she was consolidated and stable she took her younger brother with her, who goes into work for a rubber factory.  Since then, and almost always throughout his life, he was associated with this product.

Pascual, once he was a grown ​​man got involved in the transport business, becoming a cart driver, as he drove a freight wagon pulled by 4 and sometimes up to 8 horses, it was on those trips when you fell in love with the young and beautiful Leonor.

They were married in the Parish Church of Valdealgorfa on January 26, 1918, he was 26 and she was 16.  As expected Leonor got pregnant with a little boy, but at 6 months was a victim of the Black Death, battled for her life for almost three months, losing their first child, she was gravely ill and was given the last rites.  After a long recovery, she got pregnant again with Jose, her first son who was born in Valdealgorfa on March 17, 1921.

In that same year, the couple decides to immigrate to America and embark on September 16th with destination Chile, but in Buenos Aires, lived his brother Raimundo, who welcome them into his home and has a freight wagon driver job ready for him.

On March 8, 1924, in Buenos Aires, his second son Pedro is born.  Pascual decides then to become independent, returning to his beginnings with the “rubber” and starting a small vulcanizing shop.

In 1926 with a small fund he decides to take a journey to Chile.

But going through Mendoza, is greeted by his sister Esperanza, who lived in that city since a few years back and with very good economic situation, who convinces him to stay in the city to try their luck.  He installs a new tire vulcanizing shop, where on November 5, 1926 Leopoldo, their last child is born, the workshop was also the family home.

The family develops and children study, but always in his head there is Chile as the destination Pascual always dreamed about.

The technology made ​​the vehicles to change, the tires to be developed, and so small vulcanization shops evolved, becoming modern retreading plants.

The children along with study at night, worked during the day at the retreading plant, learning all the modern techniques of this industry.

Leopoldo Bailac Calcena

In January 1953 Leopoldo travels to Chile to conduct a feasibility and market study in order to install a tire retreading plant, and with surprise he found that in this country, there was no this type of this industry yet, the tire retreading was not known.  So much so that in the month of May of the same year Leopoldo returned to Chile to start the first tire retreading plant, which began operations in the month of December of that year in the city of Santiago.  He was followed by Don Pascual, and then came Pedro and finally Jose.

They got installed, partnering and selling plants in Santiago, Viña del Mar, Talca, Concepción, Osorno, Punta Arenas, Antofagasta, Arica and finally Iquique.  The Tire Retreading Plant in Iquique was started by Leopoldo in 1969 in order to supply the mining market.

Leopold gets married in Mulchén, 8th Region, on January 14, 1956 with Lucia Arriagada Pimentel.  From this marriage, the couple had their children Leopoldo Jorge, Carlos Eduardo, Lucia Veronica, Alberto Javier and Beatriz Teresa.  His family is completed by 12 grandchildren.

Pascual and Leonor passed away, as well as their children: José and Pedro.

Written by:
Leopoldo Bailac Calcena, President Bailac Companies (1926 – 2015)