His co-workers scolded him for giving up a job with higher pay and better conditions. Francisco José Barbero Liébanas, one of the 69 killed in the Urda train accident, had been working for a year as a teleoperator in a financial institution, but his dream was to be able to work “as his own”, as a Language and Literature teacher. He had finally gotten an opportunity at an academy. “Fran, don't be an idiot, think about yourself first,” his colleague Ángeles Millán told him. “At least introduce yourself,” he insisted. Barbero, 32, resisted. She had a second job: taking care of an elderly woman in exchange for a room in Madrid and she had her doubts. “I can't leave the lady alone,” he replied. That, says Millán, gives you an idea of how generous he was.
Francisco got on car 7 of the AVE that at 8:53 last Wednesday collided with an Iryo near the Urda station (Toledo). The young man was heading to Córdoba, where he was originally from, to spend the bridge with his family, as he did on other weekends when he was off. Her last call, says her cousin Maite Liébanas, was to her mother, before getting on the train. “He told her that he was getting on the AVE, that he would be with her soon and that he loved her,” he recalls of his aunt's story. “Those words have stuck with him.” They learned the news of his death on Friday morning, thanks to DNA tests, but this Saturday morning his parents, who traveled to Toledo as soon as they heard about the accident, were still waiting to receive his body.
"He was pure sweetness, pure love, a boy who was worth millions, very familiar, very close, who helped in everything he could without ever asking for anything in return. He was the best and everything suddenly went away from us," describes his cousin Maite through tears. The young man sported characteristic blonde hair that contrasted with his short, black beard. Whenever he could, he escaped to his mother's hometown, Belmez de la Moraleda, in Jaén. The Facebook page of his town hall was filled with messages of support when the tragic news was announced. His relatives had been making pilgrimages to all the hospitals since Wednesday. "I called 16 hospitals in a row looking for it like a desperate person and all of them told me that it was not listed in their databases. It was all crazy," says Maite.
At the table where Fran, as he was called in those around him, worked his eight-hour day as a telemarketer, a bouquet of flowers has been displayed since the tragic news of his death. "I got angry with him. I told him not to talk to me if he wanted to, but I insisted that he take that new job, that he at least do the interview and that the children of the woman he was taking care of suffered the consequences." That job exceeded his salary as a teleoperator, which did not reach 1,500 euros. Barbero was a lover of series, computers, copla, classical songs. "A calm person, always with a smile on his mouth, you asked him for help with a computer and he came. There are no words to describe what a good person he was," Millán remarks.
"I just hope they find a solution, that this doesn't happen again. You never think about what you suffer until it happens to you. My cousin had a beautiful future and it has been taken away from him," his cousin denounces. Ángeles spoke for the last time with Fran the day before the accident when they were both waiting for an Uber, which they sometimes shared, outside work. "His came first. I told him to forget about us these five days, to enjoy his people and that we would see each other on Tuesday, after the long weekend." In his office they are “destroyed” after his death. “We can't talk to each other because we break up,” says Ángeles, hours before returning, after a few days of rest, to the room they shared. “It will be very hard to see your table empty.”
