Valen Alcala He has been, for a few weeks, a councilor of the Dénia City Council. He was one of the great bets of Compromís during the electoral campaign, a young face that would bring a renewed vision. And now he is the youngest face of the local executive, but he speaks like any politician with years of experience behind him. In his hands will be the departments of Esports and Joventut, for which he has a good handful of projects and ideas to launch this legislature. Among them, of course, trying to make the new pavilion a reality.
The councilor meets us at the sports center, an obvious setting to talk about, among other things, the project of the Department of Sports. And he shows up in a tracksuit, as he attends us in a short break between his work and his training for the day. Although at first it seems that it is going to be a rushed and unprepared interview, the confidence with which he answers every question we throw at him is striking, and how well informed he is to have been in office for a month, and little else in municipal politics.
ASK. Why did you decide to run for councillor?
ANSWER. Politics is something that I have always liked a lot. Especially in the university stage is when I participate the most and I am most active. I think that many things can be changed in politics and I believe that my people need a slightly different vision from the one they had up to now. I can contribute something, so I decided to go ahead and introduce myself.
Q. However, you will combine it with working for your company. How is that?
R. Before the elections everything is very cool, they paint it very well. Now I'm 50-50. Half a day at the town hall and a half at the company, and today it is a bit difficult to be able to combine it. These three weeks are a bit crazy, scheduling schedules, we change meetings, we change the things we had planned... I have to say that my company makes it very easy for me. I am so lucky that I can combine both things, although it is not easy.
Q. And you enter the government with the Department of Esports and Joventut. Were they the ones you wanted?
R. From the beginning I was very clear that I was not going to say yes to a council, if it was in my hands, for something that I did not understand or that I could not carry. I was very clear that I wanted Esports, I also wanted Joventut, because I think they are issues that I control a lot. I have practiced sport all my life and in terms of Youth I think I have a very good relationship with many parts of youth society. And I think that I can contribute, because if I had taken another council position in which I could not contribute, and because of the pact it would have touched me, I would have had to say no.
Q. What were the other options?
R. The other option that I had in mind, although I was pulling back a little more because I didn't feel so safe, was Festivals and Culture, because I am very involved in the party, specifically in the Fallas, but above all very involved in the subject of culture. Both in the preparation of the llibret, cultural days, floats... Therefore, for that part I still wanted to, but I think I can contribute more in other sectors.
Q. What do you think of the work that has been done in this time in Youth and Sports?
R. I don't like to criticize what has been done because I suppose that everyone who has entered the council tries to do the best they can. As soon as I entered the council on the first day, I spoke to the teams and told them that I had come to add, not to destroy and start from scratch. Everything that can be improved I will try to improve it, of course. And what is good will have to continue. I think that there are many things that have been done, but that there is still a lot to be done because Dénia has enormous potential in Sports. We have a city that gives to do many things. We have facilities that, despite being outdated, have many options if we maintain them. And in Youth, it is a group that has to move the city forward and they have to bet a lot on them.
Q. What is the pending work and the main objectives for this legislature?
R. Look, I like being a Councilor for Youth and Sports because it is the first time that the two councilors are led by the same person in the Dénia City Council. And I think that you can work together on almost all issues. So, the main objective is to associate young people and sport, not only as leisure but as a healthy lifestyle. Show that sport is there for many things besides having fun and having fun.
The objective in Sports is to update the facilities we have, which have many deficiencies. That is why what I am doing is meeting with all the clubs and all parts of the Sport to update myself and find out the main issues that need to be resolved. And as a final objective to obtain the pavilion that we need in the city of Dénia and, urgently, a master plan that tells us what we have to do and where we need to act immediately.
And in Youth, above all, give visibility to all the work that the technicians do, because I think that it is a council that does a lot of work and not everything that should arrive has been achieved. I think that this field of making yourself known can be worked a lot.
Q. In terms of Sports, you have mentioned it, there is a very important task ahead: the creation of the new pavilion. Will we see this legislature?
R. It is true that I come from the private company and I am now getting used to how the public company works. I trust yes. My goal is to have the pavilion as soon as possible. I know it can't be done from today to tomorrow, but...
Q. Why is it so important to have a new pavilion?
R. Because the facilities that we have do not provide for all the activity that is in Dénia, nor do they offer us other possibilities such as trying to find another type of tourist offer, for example, or other activities that we can develop and that contribute to Dénia because we do not have those facilities. It is not about building a pavilion to be built. It is clear that it does not make any sense to build a pavilion and leave the current one as it is, because there will be the same problems. It is simply having a place that is versatile and where all the sports that today do not fit because it is very old and has not been invested in it have a place. It is necessary to try to give more options to the clubs that are growing within Dénia.
Q. And according to what they announced to us, it will be possible to practice soccer, basketball... What about the disciplines that are gradually succeeding in the country far from the traditional ones? Do the administrations still think that it is only a sport if it has a goal, a basket or a net?
R. No not at all. In fact, since I've been in the council, what I've done is take an interest in the status of the project, because the pavilion has to go under the supervision of the sports coach for the issue of uses and that it be really useful for sports. We cannot build a pavilion that is only limited to playing soccer or basketball. We have to look for that versatility that gives options to all kinds of sports that can fit into such a facility. I am very much in favor of promoting minority sports that in the end reach a lot of people. That there is not only football and basketball, there are many sports that give many values, that for some reason are not given and that have to have a place within the municipal schools, for example.
Q. There are notable competitions in Dénia, such as the stage of La Volta a Peu, the Sang Santíssima of cycling, the Diana de Oro... Would you like to bring to Dénia a competition that does not exist now?
R. It is clear that La Volta a Peu is quite an event, I would say the most massive that Dénia has today. But I would like to do a night race in athletics, a half marathon or a triathlon, which was done before and I think it can contribute a lot to Dénia because there is an important mass of athletes and that, in addition, it is fashionable and attracts.
Also in the pilot you can organize many new things that perhaps we have not seen in Dénia, such as world championships. Because pilota world championships are made even if it seems a lie. The Valencian pilota has many aspects outside of here and they are global, so it can be taken advantage of with all the history that Dénia has in the world of pilota.
In terms of water sports and swimming there is a lot to do. We live by the sea and we are not taking advantage of it. In the end, there are a thousand options that Dénia can assume, which have not been done so far, and I would like to try.
Q. You insisted a lot in the campaign on wanting to encourage a healthy life. ¿Why is it so important?
R. From what I told you before, precisely. There are many people who have sport as a reference only in a playful way, a festive way, to pass the time or to be well. Sport is much more than that and brings many good things to people's lives. It has to be a healthy habit from day to day. In fact, now Dénia has adhered to a program with which, through Public Health, we will implement it in health centers so that doctors can directly prescribe a class of physical exercise. We will coordinate this from both Public Health and Sports to create that habit that sport is also important for the issue of recoveries.
Q. Is Dénia a friendly city for practicing day-to-day sports, such as running or cycling?
R. I think not today. Surely Dénia was designed 50 years ago, it is not updated and it is not comfortable to play sports. I think that a modern, friendly city, as Dénia should be, has to have much more accessible facilities, more direct contact with the clubs. That people who want to do sports do not have to come only to the sports center, that they can have a smaller sports area within the city for those who want to do sports outdoors. There are no paths for running, cycling or other types of sports that are not located within sports facilities. You have to give that option to be able to practice these sports in a free way within the city that I think that today it does not have.
Q. Is being young in Dénia a luxury or is it a misfortune?
R. I don't know if I'm still considered young, but living in Dénia is very expensive and almost impossible if you don't have a very good job and, even so, it costs a lot because housing is impossible. Living in Dénia being young is impossible today and you have to work a lot to find the formula so that our young people, those of us who live here and want to continue living here, are not forced to go to the next town or outside because here we cannot pay the rent or buy a house. We have to find the formulas because it cannot be that a rent costs 700 euros with a room. It is impossible.
Q. Taking advantage of the fact that they have been Parties, something that is always said comes to mind, which is that the Quintos in Dénia are for decoration and they do not make them participate in anything to make decisions about how they want their parties. Should work be done to involve them more?
R. Yes, in fact it is one of the proposals I made in the Compromís program. I am very envious when I go to the towns in summer, which is when the festivities are, especially in the Marina, how the quintadas, the peñas, the commissions organize the festivities of their town. How they get involved and work throughout the year to try to get their activities or the program they propose. It is true that Dénia is a much larger town and surely the management is much more difficult as there are so many people, but the way of managing the Quintos does have to be changed so that they are really the ones who somehow self-manage the Fiestas. In this way I think that it would get them to participate more in the activities and that with the word of mouth of the Quintos themselves, people would participate more in Fiestas. And it would make them closer, more like a town. That they proposed It works very differently than the surrounding towns, and I think we could look at how they do it in order to bring something to Dénia.
Q. Now there is more leisure on offer than in our time, but almost all of it is focused on nightlife. Can this be a problem?
R. Yes, it is beginning to be a serious problem. When we go out on weekends and see how Dénia is doing at certain times... And the problem is increasing because Dénia is gaining popularity in that regard. Faced with this, we would have to propose healthy and youthful leisure alternatives, not only focused on nightlife, because in the end we live in an environment that gives us infinite possibilities to be able to do anything.
Q. What alternatives can be offered or are offered by the council? Because before, those of us who didn't like discotheques had a difficult time.
R. difficult or impossible. From Juventud we have spoken to see if we can have a self-managed youth center in Dénia. Have open spaces, be it a park or a leisure area, where they can do camping or adventure sports activities. That they not only have a nightlife offer, but that it is leisure related to the environment, nature and culture as well, because we have the capacity and we can do it.
I would have asked: How much have you received so far from the council. And what, or how many things have you done to earn that money? Apart from taking pictures.
Denia continues the same and you with the fullest pocket. But what have the citizens of Denia spent their money on for you to do what?
Our new councilor for sports, from the way he talks…promises for the better. I like it. We are going to give time to time to see how events unfold.
For my part…for whatever you need, here you have me
Franc Beneyto
Looking for a job?
They can use it from Festódromo like the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro.
With an ice rink included it would be great