| TOTANA EN EL RECUERDO - Interview published in El Periódico (July 1999) | He has returned to Totana and some people have not found out and it is that José Juan Ample Rios, or what is the same, Father Crisóstomo, as he is known in Totana, has been transferred to our town.
With him we wanted to keep the last interview (until after the summer) framed in the already consecrated space of Rostros Totaneros.The newspaper: Where was Father born? "I was born in Vinalesa, a small town in Valencia in 1922."Why did they give you the name Chrysostom if your name is José Juan? "Because when I entered the religious order, I was part of a new situation and began a different life, where they chose the name Chrysostom for me.
This situation brought me great problems, especially when in America I had to pick up the correspondence that they sent me with my given name and couldn't justify that it was actually the same person.
" When did you realize that you really wanted to be religious? "In my family, there has always been a great religious tradition, in fact I had two religious aunts on my mother's side and on my father's side there were two men and two women religious, and of them they shot a religious who was in this convent in Totana.
So I knew it forever.
"What year did you enter the seminary? "Before the War, about the year 1935". In what university degree did you graduate? "I graduated in philosophy and I have taught at Universities, Institutes and I have educated young children."Where have you been most of your life?"I have traveled a lot, but perhaps in America (at intervals of time) it has been where I have been the longest.
Especially in South America; Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, ...
But I was returning to Spain and I was in Orihuela as Director of Theology and Philosophy and from there they transferred me to a town in Alicante and from the Alicante municipality to Totana, where the first thing we did was clean up because this place had become a prison since when I arrived there were still aftermath of the Spanish Civil War ".How long did you stay in Totana? "I was there for nine years, and it was when the Legion of Mary was founded, because I saw that there was a great need to gather the boys and girls in a place where they could also enjoy themselves.
Little by little young people were added, eventually having to celebrate a mass, only for children with the prohibition of older people entering ".In what way did you appeal to children? "One Saturday I went up to the pulpit at mass, and invited the mothers to send their children because if until then that had been a prison it would become a school.
In a year that actually became the place of recreation, of teaching, of piety ..., we did many things for the nations of America, which I already knew ".During your stay in Totana, did you achieve great achievements?"Yes, he managed to build a soccer field, a basketball court, a Tuna was created, in short great things, numerous contests were created, others were won at the national level, etc."Why have you been transferred to Totana? "Because during my stay in Mexico, where I left by order of Father General, due to the kind of spicy foods, my stomach suffered so much that I fell ill, and the doctor told me" Father, this is not for you, go back to your home, that will be better for him.
" What did you think, when they communicated your transfer to Totana? "I was white, white, because I had always said that I wanted to be buried in the Capuchin pantheon of Totana.
But I was very happy because I knew that I could recover here, and in fact it has been, I feel a little better since that I'm in Totana ".How did you find the town?"Very changed, but the people are just as loving and welcoming, I remember all my little ones from the Legion and I have always carried them in my thoughts, especially Diego and Roque, those children who were burned with torches 33 years ago in the procession of the Monday of the Friars ".But did he come back a few years ago? "Yes, because it was 35 years since the creation of the Legion of Mary, and they paid tribute to me."Interview published in El Periódico (July 1999)Father Crisóstomo died on March 10, 2001 at the age of 79 and is buried in the Capuchin pantheon, in the Totana cemetery, just as he desired.
