Bar-tienda Suarez

A feature of rural Asturias was the "bar-tienda". "Tienda" here meaning "shop". Santolaya has two surviving, Bar Josélu and Bar Suarez. "Suarez" is Patricia, the daughter of the original Suarez owners. Other bar-tiendas in the village were the Gato Negro (Black Cat) and El Furaco ("the hole" in Asturian idiom), but in both those cases the owners reached retirement age and their children did not want to pick up the reins. In part this will have been because of reduced demand - Santolaya into the 1960s had over 2,000 inhabitants, but with the closure of the  mine at Viñón that was cut by more than half. In part it´s due to increased aspirations. 
The function of the bar-tienda is, of course, split. People will enter and drift off either to the bar area or to the shop area. 
Their closure is offset in the more remote areas by vans, which might bring, according to their specialisation, fish and/or meat, or bread, or everything. That doesn´t compensate for the loss of the bar, of course. 
The photo shows the interior of Bar Suarez on a sunny day - the bar  customers were out on the terrace or over the road on the plaza. It´s taken from near the front door, and shows the bar to the right, Patricia´s helper (he has a Basque name that I´ve not been able to master) behind the bar, and the shop-area over on the left. 
These places are central to their communities: looking for a viable village with a viable bar-tienda was an important part of our choice of area when we moved here. I hope they survive.