The saffron king who gave the world Carmencita

Jesús Navarro Valero could smell the saffron for kilometers from his home in Novelda, Alicante, where he was born in 1928. His father began a saffron business that he would later take over and make the most famous saffron product in the world. These are the origins of the Carmencita brand - now known throughout the world as the Saffron from La Mancha. And it was also in Novelda, where he would invite artists, actors and intellectuals to chat about world affairs and social issues, including Spain's painful historical memory. Navarro died last Sunday at the age of 83.

His father learned to read at 14. One day he began to wonder how people commercialize saffron - the rare and exotic spice derived from the flower of the Saffron Crocus. That's when he began to think this would be a great business for him.

Jesús Navarro Valero followed ably in his footsteps, taking that great business and making it even more successful. Then, 20 years ago, Don Jesús let his son and namesake and other relatives take over the reins of the family company.

The spice business he set up has a 25 percent share of the Spanish market and rakes in around 50 million euros annually. But it is Carmencita - named after Jesús' sister - that is its flagship product. When he came up with the prototype, Jesús decided to put a typical Andalusian hat on his sister's image that would make the small package more recognizable and appeal to customers in Andalusia, he used to say.

His final creation was a paella pan that he would proudly show to visitors as if it were a painting or an amulet. Before the cancer, which would later claim his life, he would often walk through the Carmencita factory in Novelda as if it were his own home. The odors he breathed in there were part of his soul, his dreams and, at some points in his life, his nightmares.

His discourse was tasteful - if we can put it that way - because flavor is precisely what the company founded by his father survives on.

Jesús began working at the spice factory in 1950 when saffron was still packaged by hand. It was that year when the family business branched out into other ventures - marble manufacturing, grapes and tomatoes.

But it was the saffron that was his obsession. "In the Persian Gulf, the people put almost a gram of it in an eye dropper mixed with water and they drink it to give them vitality. Isn't that fantastic?" he would say.

He was also proud of how people in India would use his saffron as flavoring and in religious rituals.

Jesús Navarro Valero was the type of business owner who knew all of his employees by name.

When the company was automated - a car mechanic adapted a machine from another company as a saffron-packager - Jesús expanded the business so he wouldn't have to fire anyone. His son still holds that same philosophy.

"My father was like a torrent; I was never that way," he confesses. "My most valuable things have been my wife, my children and my nieces and nephews [...] and I am in Novelda. This is life!"