Anecdotes

The current name of Casa'l Churro comes from Alejandro Casona's brother, José Rodríguez Álvarez, who in his childhood had curly red hair, like a "churro". Previously the house became known as Casa Pacho La Gata and Casa La Maestra.
Casona's parents met when her father Gabino was riding to Riello to take over the children's school. At a stop along the way (Llanos de Alba), a group of teachers, including Faustina Álvarez, invited their colleague to a hot chocolate. Years later Gabino would remember that this "chocolatín" was his perdition. The wedding took place in Canales, then part of the diocese of Oviedo, on October 6, 1897.
"In my village, when we were children we had a barn just separated from the house by a corral - the smell of cows and apples, a soft stable with ferns and heather - in which one of my uncles, wounded in a distant war (Tell us about the Philippines again, uncle! -One night, the Tagalogs ...) kept a beautiful saddle similar to an antique chest with its golden studs, its clog stirrups and its high silver pommel, placed on a log with four legs like Sancho's pack on the four Ginesillo stakes". Casona refers to Ildefonso Farfante Lima (married to Quintina Rodríguez de Alba, Casona's great aunt, who received as a dowry a third of the family home in Besullo), who appears in the report of the US War Department and who served as First Lieutenant of the 20th Third Regiment, based in Manila. Ildefonso was wounded in the taking of the Annabó II trench on March 8, 1897, in an action in which the command of the Spanish troops, General Zabala, died.
All the children of the marriage formed by Gabino Rodríguez and Faustina Álvarez were teachers. José also graduated in Philosophy and Letters and Law; while Matutina studied Medicine in Madrid, becoming director of the Childcare Institute of Oviedo. Teresa and Alejandro, for their part, not only graduated in Magisterium, but also achieved the rank of Inspector of Teaching.
The organization of the Floral Games of Zamora informed Alejandro Rodríguez Álvarez that as the winner of the Flor Natural Award he was invited to receive the award together with his wife and children. When his father replied to the letter, he said that the winner was only 11 years old.
During his stay in Murcia, the young Alejandro decided to abandon his studies, and in this situation his mother forced him to learn a trade, entering as an apprentice in a workshop of luxury cases. He spent only a few months in that occupation, more than enough time to fill the family home with cases.
When he was studying for his Baccalaureate in Murcia, young Alejandro had a Literature teacher who was nicknamed "El Martín Pescador". During an exam the teacher recited some complicated verses by Rubén Darío and addressing Alejandro said to him: "And now, tie me this fly by the tail for me". The young man responded by reciting some even more convoluted verses by Góngora and ending with: "Do you want to tie me this other one?". Needless to say, the anecdote ended with a failing grade for the student.
Matutina, Casona's sister, moved to Madrid to study medicine at the Central University, settling in the Residencia de Señoritas, directed by María de Maetzu. In a letter addressed by Maeztu herself to Faustina Álvarez, Matutina's mother, she told her that her daughter "is hardworking until she is exhausted [...] she has no guarantees for the future other than her own effort and has to excel a lot to achieve little" . A brilliant student who earned her degree for free with honors and would work decisively at the Oviedo Childcare Institute.
According to Casona, his daughter Marta Isabel got her first tooth during her stay at Casa'l Churro on August 27, 1930.
Teresa, the first-born of the marriage formed by Gabino Rodríguez and Faustina Álvarez, visited the schools of Cangas del Narcea as Inspector of Primary Education from May to June 1935, and from January to May 1936, leaving a record in a small notebook of the situation of the sixty-seven that worked at that time in the area.
Alejandro Casona wrote the libretto for Don Rodrigo, an opera in three acts by Alberto Ginastera premiered at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires on July 24, 1964. On February 22, 1966, the play served for the opening of the New York State Theater as the venue for the New York City Opera with the performance of Placido Domingo as the protagonist, being the first important role in his career.