Voces del Prado

Directors willing to discuss things

Luis Lapausa Arango, General Operations Service Technician (Carpenter), 1960-2008

Diego Angulo too was a man you could talk to. When Sánchez Cantón retired, Diego Angulo took his place. Yes, he was a man who would come through the halls and stop to talk to the staff. "Hello there, how are things going, was it a good day with the visitors, did they put their foot in it?" "No problem with the visitors," we would tell him. Yes, he was open to discussion. We needed to buy some armchairs and benches, and he bought some benches to replace the old ones, which were outdated. He was the one who brought in the new benches, which were subsequently replaced again. Yes, he was a conversational man. Others were not at all that way. Xavier de Salas, for instance. Always kept his distance. He'd walk through the halls and never bothered to stop. He always looked down at you. And then Felipe Garín, there was another man you could talk to. The closest of all of them was Zugaza. The closest relationship here for me was with Zugaza. Definitely a man you could talk to.
When he came in as the director, I introduced myself as a trade unionist and when we were speaking I told him, "Another thing we would need is for the director to show up every now and then in the halls, because of all the directors I've known here, none of them have ever said anything in the way of a hello to a watchman." One or two days later the man came through all the halls stopping to speak to the employees. I said, "It's so nice for a director to come by and let himself be seen!"
He even had a chance to joke around with me once. I was in his office and there was a lock to be changed. A colleague of mine who was a locksmith was doing it. When he walked by he said, "What's up, Luis, it's taking you longer to change that lock than it took Velázquez to paint Las Meninas". And I replied, "Isn't that something!".