La Alberca de Záncara is a municipality

Municipality

A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in Cuenca

Cuenca (province)

Cuenca is a province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha.-Guide to the area:Located in a natural setting of beauty, the Old Town of Cuenca occupies a superb site between two river gorges. Famous are its 15th Century "hanging houses" , that appear...

, Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...

, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

. It has a population of 1,901.

Economy

Situated in the region known as La Mancha, most of its economic activities are related to agriculture, specially to the production of wine. Garlic is another important cultivation of the area. Along with the surrounding villages, La Alberca cooperates with a company called Coopaman, which exports this product all around the globe. You might have seen these garlic under the name "Ajo morado de Las Pedroñeras" Less important but yet present are olives and some types of cereal such as barley. If you visit our village and find a totally yellow field, don't panic, they are just sunflowers smiling at the summer sun.

One well known product of this village is sheep cheese. It has been awarded several prizes in regional competitions under the brand "Coquem" and "El arriero".

Celebrations

On the 3rd of May every year it is celebrated "La Cruz de Mayo" (May's Cross). It is the name day for all María Cruz (woman's name) and all the Cruz (Men's name). People march to a small chapel in the middle of the hill called "La Serrezuela" to take San Isidro (St Isidorus) and then they go back to the village carrying the saint on their shoulders towards the church that belonged to an old convent (17th century). There, the saint waits for 12 days until he is carried back to the chapel where he will be resting until the next 3 May.

Other religious festivals that people of La Alberca celebrate are the "Moros y cristianos" (Moroccans and Christians) as well as the festivity of the patron saint: La Santa Cruz (The Holy Cross). This last festivity is considered the most important in the village. It starts on 13 September and ends about the 17th. All the streets are decorated with light bulbs of different colours and flags of the world's countries. In the evenings everybody goes to dance with their partners to a popular ball (el baile) and participate in the religious marches that go along the main streets of the village. At dinner time families gather to taste roast chicken, chorizo, paella, bar snacks (pinchos) and good wine and beer in the several street restaurants that invade the main square of the village just for a week. It is a happy time and for this reason we drink toasts saying salud!