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It’s great to see how much they enjoy it
In his daily work routine, Emilio passes
every day in front of a school in Madrid’s
new neighbourhood, Las Tablas. The chil-
dren wait for him and as soon as they hear
the noise of the waste collection truck, they
run to the fence and wait impatiently for the
greetings and song of Bob Sponge that
Emilio dedicates to them and that they all
sing in chorus.
“I’ve noticed that if I miss a day, when I go
back again and they see the truck they
come looking for me with more expectation
than on other days, it’s really great to see
how much they enjoy it”, he told us.
Emilio believes that he is spontaneous and
a joker and that this could be the reason
why he began to organize his Bob Sponge
show in front of the fence of the school in
Las Tablas.
He said that it all started spontaneously
when he realised that the children were at-
tracted by the waste collection truck. “One
day”, he said, it occurred to me to say hello
to them and they all answered. I did this the
next day a couple of times and, again, they
continued to answer back”.
He continued doing this, greeting them and
mimicking the heroes of his childhood, the
clowns Fofó and Miliki. The children beca-
me even more enthusiastic until it occurred
to him one day to sing them a song from his
7-year old daughter Paula’s favourite car-
toons, Bob Sponge. “I saw that the children
responded, were having fun, that they were
happy, and I kept on doing it”.
Emilio was happy from the start, “when
I saw the way that they responded, I was
really pleased and proud of making them
happy”.
Like in the film, “Life is beautiful”, that
makes us wonder about the real meaning
of life and the importance of little things,
Emilio has managed to make thousands of
people smile thanks to his small but brilliant
initiative. We should never forget that hap-
piness is found in minor things.
Emilio is
a symbol of joy
for children
In the centre, leaning against the truck and surrounded by his colleagues, Emilio Cuartero; on his
left, Ángel Garcillán, the general supervisor and head of the Manoteras and La Resina waste collec-
tion park; on his right, Rafael Melendo, deputy-supervisor at Manoteras Park.