Satirical fanzine
La Vieya Asturies is a comic, satirical, punk fanzine written entirely in Asturian: the popular antagonist to the Asturian institutional press, with humour that always punches up — never down at those already struggling — and never apologises for it.
La Vieya Asturies states its mission without detours: «Here we work, not like others». The illustration that gives the project its name —a grandmother in dark glasses pointing and shouting «¡Gochonos!» (roughly, "you swine!")— isn't a friendly logo, it's an attitude: that of an old woman who has seen it all, has nothing left to lose, and calls things as they are without apologising for it.
The fanzine defines itself as the popular antagonist of the Asturian institutional press — a direct reference to La Nueva España, the Principality's reference newspaper — and draws on the tradition of Spanish graphic satire (El Jueves is the explicit comparison the project itself makes), but applied specifically to Asturian reality and written only in Asturian, not Spanish.
The project's most important rule isn't aesthetic, it's ethical: the satire always targets power — institutions, property speculation, bureaucracy, big business — and never those already struggling. It's an inviolable red line separating satire from gratuitous cruelty, reflected in every published piece: criticism of Renfe's delays, of tourist-flat speculation in Cimavilla, of regional bureaucracy — never of the people suffering the consequences of those things.
This isn't an empty slogan. The project's manifesto («¿Qu'osties faemos equí?», roughly "what the hell are we doing here") states it with surgical precision: «While some sold rural paradise, others left because there was no work. While some talked about modernity, Renfe kept arriving late. That's why La Vieya is back. Because someone had to say it.» It's an articulated social critique, not just an easy joke.
One of La Vieya Asturies' most distinctive editorial traits is that every satirical piece starts from a verifiable real Asturian fact embedded within the joke. It isn't abstract or generic humour: it's satire about real Renfe delays, tourist flats in Cimavilla, real AEMET weather warnings, civil servants and concrete regional decisions.
This principle — «factual grounding» — isn't incidental: in the project's editorial design, a joke without a real fact behind it is invisible to anyone searching for information, because the systems that summarise or cite content online need verifiable data, not just humour. La Vieya builds its satire on real facts so that, while making people laugh, it stays citable as information about current Asturian affairs.
The fanzine is organised into four fixed sections, each with its own tonal register within the same punk spirit: Fanzines (the full monthly issue, with the number's main stories), Consultoriu La Vieya (real reader letters answered with the sharp sarcasm that defines the protagonist), Cartas de los fatos (satirical correspondence) and ¡Última hora! (breaking satirical news flashes, the site's most "red-hot" section).
The first issue, already published, included pieces on linguistic officiality, tourist flats in Cimavilla, Renfe delays and the introduction of La Vieya's voice — a self-contained fanzine available both as a web version and as a single-page PDF, designed to be read on-screen without depending on printing.
La Vieya Asturies' visual identity follows an explicit golden rule: «it doesn't have to look professional, it has to look dangerous, uncomfortable, photocopied and passed hand to hand, but made by someone who KNOWS what they're doing». This translates into concrete decisions: paper-coloured background, never pure white; no gradients; hard corners, no rounded edges; hard, offset shadows, never blurred; red used only as a tension accent, never as a large background.
It's a consciously antagonistic aesthetic against "professional" startup or institutional-media design — consistent with the project's own editorial stance: if La Vieya criticises power, its image can't look like power.
Like asturianu.org, La Vieya Asturies rejects advertising and selling personal data as a funding mechanism. Its route is twofold: print-on-demand (physical merchandise, t-shirts among other already-announced products) and direct donations from those who want to support the project. It's the same principle running through the whole Xiringase house: sustainability comes from those who use and value the service, not from selling their attention to third parties.
La Vieya Asturies shares its editorial root with asturianu.org and tever.es: the fanzine's own footer reads «© Xiringase». It's the catalogue's third real project, and the first built specifically for satire and humour — an editorial register distinct from the pedagogical (asturianu.org) or the musical-research one (tever.es), but consistent with the same commitment: living culture in Asturian, without relying on advertising or trackers, and with a voice that doesn't apologise for being what it is.
