Voces del Prado

1972: Beginnings As a Lift Operator

Juan Manuel Gómez Agredano, Service Technician for Electricity and Air Conditioning (Electrician), 1972-What's on

My name is Juan Manuel Gómez Agredano. I work in the Electricity Department at the Museo del Prado and I started in November 1972. When I joined the museum I was really excited because, after working in a restaurant, being able to work at the Museo del Prado, that was really something quite unbelievable. I couldn’t believe I was there. That was the feeling I had.
I joined the museum because my mother worked there as part of the cleaning staff. And she got in because the caretaker, who was called Diego, was my father’s second cousin. And thanks to this family connection she joined the museum. After four years, she fell ill and I had to start working here, thanks to my uncle. He got us in as lift operators, and I’ve been here ever since.
When I arrived, Nicolás Madrid gave me a class over one morning. He showed me how to work the lift and, after that, I was on my own. There were four lifts, one for management, another at the Goya Door and another at the Murillo Door. And we lift-operators rotated. They weren’t push-button lifts but consisted of a wooden cabin with a lever. You had to level them up so that the passengers could get out; you were the one who levelled the lift, because they could stop either too high or too low. We devoted ourselves to informing all the people who took the lift. They’d ask you things and you would tell them whatever you could in English or in French. In broken language you would explain the itinerary at the Museo del Prado a little. This was a period in which the visitors were all quite well-off and they gave you tips. So what you were really looking for was a tip. In fact, you earned as much in tips as you were paid in wages. The tips were really good, although it was prohibited, they weren’t permitted. But unofficially they were tolerated, because with the wages you earned at the Museo del Prado you couldn’t survive with just the one job. In those days, the law allowed you to have a number of different jobs, which was why most of the employees at the museum had more than one job.