Cecilia McWeeny Chacón has very deservedly received the Medalla de la Ciudad and declared Hija Adoptiva de Almuñécar.

Everybody knowns Cecilia in Almuñécar; perhaps not by her first surname, but certainly by her second, Chacón. She’s lived here since Bronze Age and is as much a Spaniard as an Englishwoman.

Born in Bradford in the UK in 1940, she came to Almuñécar in the 60s along with a friend; they both married locals with Celilia marrying the local butcher Francisco Chacón. She had decided to check out Almuñécar in 67 after holidaying in a Scandinavian country, where she had met an Almuñequero who spoke highly of his native land. That Almuñequero was none other than Paco Chacón.

Paco, you might remember partnered up with the Olivares family to open Almuñécar’s first supermarket in the 90s (El Híper). Long before this, Paco had started off with a fish stall in the old Municipal Market, which was a round building half way down Avenida de Andalucia before it was demolished and turned into a block of flats.

But if Cecilia Chacón is remembered for anything, it is for her charity work: The cancer association AECC (together with Netty Ashby), la Asociación Contra la Drogadicción, Alcohólicos, SIDA and the church charity, Cáritas.

In short, she is a beautiful person and utterly deserves this recognition.

(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia).