Tuesday, September 26, 2023, 2:49 p.m.
The II Solidarity Meeting of Ham Cutters will be held next October 8 in the municipal park of the Badajoz town of Puebla de la Calzada, with 60 professional cutters from different parts of the country and as many Iberian hams, donated by companies or associations of the region, for the benefit of four associations.
Specifically, these four entities are the Puebla de la Calzada delegation of the Extremadura Oncology Association (Aoex), the Diversity association that works in the region dedicated to the integration of people with ASD, ADHD and TL, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of Vegas Bajas (Ademveba) and Cáritas Parish of Puebla de la Calzada.
The ham cutter José Muñoz, who has no hands or forearms, will participate in the meeting, and in which the ham plates will be priced at 5 euros, in addition to a 20 euro voucher that can be exchanged for five plates.
The provincial deputy of the Badajoz Provincial Council and mayor of Puebla de la Calzada, Juan María Delfa, accompanied by the organizer of the event, the ham cutter Francisco Gallego, have presented this event that is completed with live music by the group Al compass, and which last year brought together some 1,500 people, exceeding initial forecasts.
In this sense, Juan María Delfa explained that this initiative was born in 2022 by the aforementioned ham cutter and has detailed that it reaches its second edition this year after the “success” of this pilot project that “came together in a fundamental way and phenomenal” in the Las Vegas Bajas region.
In this way, he continued, the Municipal Park of Puebla de la Calzada will once again host this meeting on October 8 in which the “star” product of the land’s gastronomy, together with “good” music and “solidarity with capital letters” of 60 cutters from different parts of the country will put on “again a unique show” in Las Vegas Bajas del Guadiana, and in which the 60 Iberian hams that will be cut have been donated by companies and associations in the region.
The councilor has referred to this event as a “chain of solidarity”, whose final link is the recipients of the proceeds from the sale of these hams, while pointing out that the Puebla de la Calzada City Council and the Provincial Council of Badajoz are part of that “very important” institutional support that this type of event held in the province requires, and they are collaborators and sponsors of it.
For his part, Francisco Gallego has recognized that from what at the time was a dream, an idea arose that they made a reality last year, when, as he has acknowledged, the situation “overwhelmed” them and “it multiplied several times” with respect to what they expected, given that he pointed out that in 2022 they were going to cut 50 hams and in the end there were 58 because there was more demand, or that it was 5:00 p.m. and there were still people who wanted plates of ham.
Thus, and looking ahead to 2023, in addition to having 60 hams, they wanted to give “more category” to the event by going from white ham to Iberian ham, he stressed, while also adding that it is a form of make their profession known, given that the issue related to ham cutters “in fact is not even legislated yet” and “it is not a profession in itself.”
Among his colleagues, he wanted to highlight the presence of a ham cutter who he believes “is going to cause a lot of talk”, José Muñoz, who has neither hands nor forearms and in relation to whom he has indicated that, despite being amputated since I was about 7 years old, I wanted to learn how to cut ham and I started seven years ago. “I wish you could see him cut ham, surely at home most people don’t know how to make a slice even half as well as he does with his stumps, which is what he cuts it with,” he highlighted.