DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE
Celia Viñas Olivella
Celia Viñas was born in 16 June 1915 in Lerida, her father was a mathematics head of department and a pedagogue and her mother a very intense reader and very intelligent woman; Celia inherited both traits from her mother.
Celia in her childhood and youth lived in Palma de Mallorca where she studied primary and secondary school.
In 1932-1933, she finished secondary school and she left for Barcelona to study Philosophy and Literature, with speciality in Modern Philology and Romance languages. Celia later obtained the highest grade from the tribune for her degree at the University of Barcelona.
After the Spanish Civil War, she finished her career studies and began to work as a library clerk in Circulo Mallorquin, with a scholarship from the Superior Scientific Investigation Council.
In 1943, Celia presented herself for a Language and Literature Head Department post; she obtained the best qualifiaction from the Tribunal. She was given the post in Almeria were she took charge in 1 March 1943.
Once in Almeria, she studied teachers training (1946-47) achieving the maximum mark. Studying teacher’s training she met her future husband, Arturo Medina Padilla; they were married in 8 September 1953 in Palma de Mallorca and lived together at number 25 General Duque street in Almeria.
She always wanted to have children and work as a kindergarten teacher. She was a teacher that tried to transmit her love of literature and taste for the beauty of literature. Celia had problems with her liberal teaching methods, she was denounced for perverting the youth before the Ministry of Education. When this occurred her own students defended her before the general society. She also had the support of her colleagues and the director of the institute Francisco Saiz who also named her head of department. She promoted and had an important influence in culture and education in a City with little intellectual restlessness.
She played an important part in Almeria’s cultural awareness, Celia also took part in the Indaliano cultural movement together with Jesus de Perceval, who she met in Madrid.
Celia Viñas always wished to have children as she had a deep love for children, sadly she had a physical impediment which in those times impeded her from conceiving. Celia had uterine fribroids, to be able to have children she was subject to surgery from which she did not survive. Celia died in 1954, she only had been married for a year with Arturo Medina. Her burial was a huge event; her coffin was carried by her students.
Celia Viñas was an innovative teacher with new pedagogical ideas; she filled her classes with passion for learning and motivated her students to better themselves day to day. Her friend Jesus de Perceval dedicated a bust to her in one of the most loved squares in Almeria: Bendicho.
