Casas Novas - CSI 5*W a Coruña - 2, 3 & 4 Dec 2022

Casas Novas - CSI 5*W a Coruña - 2, 3 & 4 Dec 2022

Casas Novas - CSI 5*W a Coruña - 2, 3 & 4 Dec 2022

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Welcome to casas novas
Bienvenido a casas novas

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Mayor of A Coruña

As mayoress of A Coruña, it is a pleasure for me to dedicate some words once again to the Casas Novas Equestrian Centre on the occasion of the 42nd edition of its equestrian show, a competition that has been consolidated in the global reference tour.

For the city of A Coruña and all its outskirts, it’s a pride and a great opportunity having a centre as Casas Novas, that allow us to show to the world the potential and the beauty of this edge of the Atlantic Ocean. This new edition of the CSI A Coruña gives us the chance to host a top-level equestrian show once again, where hundreds of people will gather to enjoy the return of the world’s best riders to A Coruña.

For more than 20 years we have had the honor of hosting this competition in A Coruña, that every year takes us to Casas Novas to enjoy the best horse riding.

Last year, we met each other after two years of absence due to the pandemic and we did so with the deep happiness of meeting again, although with some restrictions. This year, we are back in Casas Novas, recovering normality to celebrate a competition that, like every year, will be a success.

A success that lies not only in the organization of its competitions, but also in the day to day, encouraging the practice of horse riding at all ages and all levels. A great work promoted from the equestrian centre that brings great benefits to the city and its surroundings; specially in the approach to sport and the contact with nature, opening the horse riding to the inhabitants and training the riders of the future. Therefore, as mayoress of A Coruña, I just can support an initiative that over the last two decades has made us an international benchmark for equestrian lovers, and which has also been useful to put in spotlight and spread the horse-riding practise among thousands of people. Congratulations.

Ines Rey
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Xunta de Galicia President

When you look at Galicia closely, you see an energetic, open-minded community eager to look outwards. The Casas Novas Equestrian Centre showcases these qualities, and is one of our best examples for international sport.

Because Galicia is also sport. Not just the medals or the competitions, but all the people who train every day, those who fall down and get up again, those who work tirelessly to promote new initiatives and those who make commendable efforts to place Galicia on the podium.

Casas Novas brings together all this commitment and vocation for excellence in one place. It was able to overcome a two-year hiatus brought on by the pandemic that stopped the clock for all of us. And in December 2021, it finally celebrated the 40th edition of the CSI5*, which scored for the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup. To put it another way: it put A Coruña and Galicia back at the centre of the equestrian world.

This December, it will do it again, demonstrating again its ability to answer the call and its exquisite organisation. People all over Galicia will be watching, proudly, this new milestone in our sport.

But Casas Novas is much more than this competition. Throughout the year, it does a commendable job to promote horse riding in our region: a sport that is also about nature and animals.

For this reason, we would like to thank all the organisers, workers, sportswomen and men, who make this event possible. And to all those who visit us from abroad for this event, I would like to extend our warmest welcome to Galicia. I can think of no better way to begin to bid farewell to this historic double Xacobean Year than in the company of the best riders in the world.

Alfonso Rueda
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FEI President

On behalf of the Fédération Equestre Internationale, it is my pleasure to welcome you to La Coruña for another thrilling qualifier of the Longines FEI Jumping World CupTM Western European League 2022/2023. As this new season unfolds, we are witnessing some of the world’s finest sport horses and athletes showcase their talent as they chase precious FEI World CupTM points, aiming for the Final in Omaha (USA), 4-8 April 2023.

Twelve leagues, including the Western European League, make up the highly successful and global FEI World CupTM Jumping series which has been in existence since 1978. The format of the FEI World CupTM series guarantees edge of your seat competitions while displaying the fantastic bond between horses and people; the trust, the communication, the hard work and the patience required. It is this bond which enables impressive feats of athleticism to be achieved and the core around which the whole FEI community revolves.

Currently, 14 suspense-filled qualifiers are setting the scene for the Western Europe league. Our journey began in Oslo and will take us to a few more great destinations such as London (GBR) and Basel (SUI), to name a few; at each leg, we are guaranteed to experience top-level sport as athletes and horses brave courses of highest standards, set up by some of the best course designers in the world.

This new season will once again be filled with fantastic sports moments, and I would like to thank Longines most sincerely for their vital contribution, which ensures quality competition and management throughout the series. Together, we are advancing the legacy of this tremendous series whose appeal continues to grow and stretch into new territories attracting many new fans along the way.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Organising Committee and their partners for their vision and efforts at enabling this event and acting as a motor for international equestrian sport in the region. To the volunteer body and sponsors, as well as the athletes, the enthusiastic public and the media representatives, thank you for your dedication and loyalty; this would not be possible without you! In whatever capacity you have come here today, I wish you an enjoyable event, conducted in the best spirit of great horsemanship.

Ingmar de Vos
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Longines CEO

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Equestrian Sports Enthusiasts,

Longines is proud to be part of the Longines FEI Jumping World CupTM in La Coruña, Spain.

As the Title Partner, Official Timekeeper and Official Watch of the Longines FEI Jumping World CupTM Western European League, we will continue to be a dedicated supporter of showjumping and reinforce Longines’ longstanding ties with the equestrian world that date back to 1869.

To further embrace the rich heritage of this revered discipline, we are pleased to cement the event’s world-class status with our unwavering commitment to precision and excellence, the same values that have been shared by many leading athletes in equestrian sports. We look very much forward to supporting the foremost riders vying for success.

On this special occasion, we would like to highlight the Official Watch of the event, a model of The Longines Master Collection. Distinguished by its elegance, character and purity, this refined creation for women featuring a moon phase indicator perfectly combines Longines’ watchmaking sophistication and tradition to delight those wishing to pursue both fine watchmaking and timeless style.

I wish you many wonderful and exciting sports moments at the Casas Novas Equestrian Center.

Matthias Breschan
Description
  • Longines
  • Sensormatic
  • CaixaBank
  • Prosegur
  • Herederos del Marqués de Riscal
  • Champagne Lallier
  • Porsche
  • Cervezas 1906
  • nh collection hotels
  • Pull & Bear
  • ClipMyHorse.tv
1906 cervezas
Cervezas 1906 Trophy
Start
12:30 H
Rules
Fault & time
NH Collection
NH Collection Trophy
Start
15:15 H
Rules
2 Phases
Herederos del Marqués de Riscal
Marqués De Riscal Trophy
Start
17:45 H
Rules
Fault & time
CaixaBank
Caixabank Trophy
Start
20:40 H
Rules
Fault & time
Santi Serra's Show
Start
22:45 H
Rules
-
Description

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By Carlos Miguel,
with images by: Manuel Queimadelos, Mattias Burling/Swedish Equestrian Federation & Equus Media.
Description

Equestrianism is the only Olympic sport in whichwomen and men compete on equal terms. Nevertheless, we cannot say that women and men approach in the same way their sport careers. Age, family and geographical situation, social and cultural environment have a direct impact on women's participation and success in the equestrian world. In this article, we try to get close to the role of women in show jumping competitions, their prominence, their relationship with the horse and the difficulties they have to deal with to achieve their goals and overcome challenges.

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Laura Kraut
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"When woman reach an age, they pay more attention to starting a family"

68 of the 99 participants in the last FEI European Jumping Championships for Juniors were women. In a smaller percentage (49 out of 86), there was also a majority of female riders in the Young Riders' category. However, in this year's FEI World Championships for adults, held in Herning (Denmark), the figures took a radical turn, as 82 of the 103 competitors were men. The figures confirm a reality that can be sensed on a daily basis and show the unquestionable feminine prominence in the younger categories and its progressive decrease as age increases. According to Laura Kraut, Olympic and World Champion with her national team, "especially in Europe, when women are in their twenties they get married, have children... and this is a very difficult sport but also a business. At that stage, for us, it's a little bit more complicated than for men to keep the level as an athlete and also take care of the business side, which is a male-dominated territory."

Malin Baryard-Johnson has 7 team medals (2 gold) in the Olympic Games and World and European Championships, to which we should add another 3 in junior categories: "I've been in the sport since I was very young and I'm still here. Reaching the top level is very hard, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Perhaps men have an advantage in finding horse owners or sponsors, but there are many factors that have an influence and women also reach an age when they sometimes pay more attention in starting a family".

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"Being a mother has helped me improve in the sport, to put things in perspective"

The equestrian world has many peculiarities; amongst them, women and men compete on equal terms and the competitive age of riders is much longer than in the vast majority of sports. Many sportswomen become mothers once they finish their careers, but this does not happen in the equestrian sport. The consequence is that many female riders disappear from the competition arenas or take a back seat when they reach the age where they usually achieve their best riding performance. Malin Baryard is mother of two children, but this fact has not prevented her from maintaining a successful sporting career. Laura Kraut also gave up on the competition to prioritize motherhood for a while. According to the American rider, "having a child has helped me improve in the sport and in the competition. It has allowed me to put things in perspective: instead of being super upset about scoring four points in the Grand Prix, you come home, you’re with your child and you say, ‘Well, it’s no big deal!’ I was lucky to have my mother who helped me a lot so I could go away from home to compete knowing that he was in good hands. It’s not easy, having children involves a lot of planning, but it’s worth all the effort you have to do to make it work." Malin Baryard has also managed to stay in the elite although she admits that her second motherhood made her change: "I have managed to combine both lives but when I had my second child everything changed. I used to compete every weekend and now I do it maximum twice a month. I have a job and I have to fulfill it, but I am also a mother. I am very happy to be able to stay in the top and be successful without competing every weekend. Now I enjoy the competitions and I also enjoy spending time with my children at home during the weekends."

The Spanish rider Pilar Cordón, who has represented her country in the Olympic Games and in three World and European Championships, has no children and admires what her colleagues that are mothers do: "There are many riders who continue to ride after having children, but everything becomes more complicated for them. Now it is no longer like before, when the woman worked at home and the man outside. It is becoming a little more equal, but it is still noticeable in sports. In the Nordic countries and the USA, on the other hand, it is very common to see a majority of women. It may be a cultural issue."

Malin Baryard
Malin Baryard
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"In Sweden, boys play soccer and girl ride horses"

During the last Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona, Norway and Sweden went with all-female quartets, something that is also common in the USA team. Henrik Ankarcrona, head of the Swedish World and Olympic champion team, believes that "it was a coincidence, the important thing is to create solid teams. What is clear is that in my country it is a tradition for girls to start riding very early. There are many riding schools in big cities and little towns, and it is a very popular sport amongst girls. That's why there are so many women competing." >According to Malin Baryard, "in Sweden, at a very young age, 99% of girls ride. It's like a girl's sport, the boys play soccer and the girls ride horses. It's common to see women competing in Nations Cups but then in the major championships everything changes and I've been the only woman on the team for the last ten years, so at the highest level in Sweden it's also male dominated". "It's not clear to me," says Laura Kraut, "which is the reason why there are so many women competing in the United States, but what is undeniable is that in Europe, with the exception of Sweden and Norway, it is a male- dominated sport. I think this is changing, now you see more women in the top competitions, for example in Germany or Great Britain. But there is still a long way to go".

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"Getting back to the top of the ranking after becoming a mother is very complicated"

The logical consequence of this disproportion in the top competitions is the dominance of men in the Longines FEI Rankings of showjumping. Only three female riders are currently in the top 50: Malin Baryard-Johnson (45th), Laura Kraut (48th) and Tiffany Foster (49th), but this does not mean that women do not get the medals or are absent from prize-giving ceremonies at major international competitions. Apart from those already mentioned in this report, athletes such as Bezzie Madden, Meredith Michaels, Simone Blum, Edwina Tops- Alexander, Jessica Kürten, Gail Greenough and many others have achieved titles and great successes. The difficulty lies in getting continuity over time. For Henrik Ankarcrona, "There are many reasons, but one of the main difficulties is coming back after motherhood. Many do it but getting back to the top of the ranking after leaving is very complicated".

"When I became a mother in 1999," says Laura Kraut, "the ranking was not important, but now it is important because it gives you access to many competitions. If there were more women running at a good level there would be more women in the top 50, that doesn’t happen now and it’s very frustrating.

But for me having a child is much more important than your place in the ranking, it’s not so much time away from your professional life and you have to prioritize. If you want to have children you have to have them and if you are good enough and have determination it won’t affect you so much". According to Pilar Cordón, "this sport demands a daily work that you can afford when you are young but as you get older you take on other responsibilities that consume a lot of your time and force you to leave the sport in the background. Under these conditions, it is very difficult to stay at the top".

Pilar Cordón
Pilar Cordón
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"Getting sponsors is difficult but if you go into the Arena and win, everything is easier"

In a high-cost world like the equestrian one, it is essential to have the support of owners and sponsors. In order to get this, good results and a good position in the ranking are very important. This seems to put women at a disadvantage, but it is not always the case: "Most women compete less than men and we are not as high in the ranking" says Malin Baryard, "but because so few of us are in top competition, access to sponsors can make it a little easier for us". Laura Kraut adds that "In the United States there are a lot of female riders and the treatment is quite similar. I've had great owners who weren't specifically looking for men or women, just someone who met their requirements. It's always complicated to get good owners, but I've been lucky and for me it hasn't been difficult". Pilar Cordón, a permanent figure on the Spanish team for many years but now far from the top of the rankings, has a different perspective: "For women it is more difficult to get sponsors, we are still considered the "weaker sex", we compete on equal terms but there is no real equality. However, if you get into the arena and win, everything is easier".

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"The athlete is the horse. The most important thing is the connection between the rider and the animal and not the strength"

It is clear that the conditioning factors are different for men and women, but once they go into the arena, they compete on equal terms, which makes equestrianism a different sport. "In other sports," says Malin Baryard, "women wouldn't stand a chance against men because of speed or strength. When you ride horses the important thing is to feel and to know the horse, the feeling you have with it, and that doesn't depend on whether you're a man or a woman. The physical part is not so important". Laura Kraut stresses that "this is a sport in which the real athletes are the horses and the stallions, the geldings and the mares compete together without any problem. It is not exclusively a physical issue. The connection between rider and animal is essential". When it comes to weighing the strengths and weaknesses of female riders against male riders, Pilar Cordón believes that "strength plays in favor of men and that perhaps allows them to ride a wider range of horses. But sensitivity is essential in this sport and that plays in our favor, as well as intuition although there are also men who are very intuitive". Malin Baryard doesn't like generalizations: "Every rider is unique. In the end, all riders know that the more you know your horses and the more time you spend with them off the track the better the relationship and therefore the performance is".

Henrik Ancarkrona also emphasizes on the uniqueness of each rider regardless of gender: "I don't think there are specific horses for men or for women because each rider is different. In the end, the success depends on how each rider connects with the horse: there are men with a great ability to ride sensitive horses and there are women who get a great performance out of strong horses". Laura Kraut stresses that empathy and points out an important difference in the relationship with the animals: "Girls love their ponies when they are little, we stayed a long time after riding, we played with them, pampered them, brushed them..."

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"There are more and more grooms because the mentality has changed and work conditions have evolved"

The difference in the relationship with the horse to which Laura Kraut alluded may be at the origin of the constant increase in the number of girls in international competition. According to Malin Baryard, "there are so many women who love horses and being a groom allows you to spend a lot of time with them, work with them during competitions, take care of them. There are a lot of girls interested in this work because of that".

"I know a lot of girls who are passionate about horses," says Laura Kraut, "and when they grow up they start working in the stable alongside them because it's something they're passionate about". That could be the case of Adeline Amary, Sergio Álvarez Moya's current groom after working 9 years with René López: "I started riding late, when I was 18 years old. I realized soon that I kind of enjoyed more being with the horse, taking care of him, cleaning him, more than riding. I had studied communications and was in charge of a company's website, but when I saw an offer to work as a groom with young horses, I didn't think twice". Despite the high physical demands, Adeline began then a professional adventure in which she is accompanied by many other women.

According to Laura Kraut, "to be good and hold on you have to love what you do and the horses. It is a very complicated job that takes many hours and a very important physical wear and tear". But this physical wear and tear has not prevented the number of young women from growing steadily in recent years. According to Adeline, "working conditions have evolved a lot in recent years. Technology has helped in making everything easier, but it has also changed the mentality. Many international competitions have staff to help load and unload and make your job easier, the manufacturing of trucks and different materials has improved a lot, the tacks are lighter, there are mechanical systems to load and unload material from the trucks and driving and life in a truck is much easier. There are also stables with 2 competition grooms, which makes it easier to rest between competitions". The improvement of these conditions has allowed a greater female presence in the stables but, as in the competition arenas, this presence is considerably reduced over the years.

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Adeline came back to work after leaving it for a while. Laura Kraut, Malin Baryard-Johnson also did it and they have continued achieving successes and international victories. The US rider add two more team Olympic medals’ (gold and silver) and other two of the same metals in world championship, besides of large grand prix. The Swedish rider has just proclaimed world champion and team Olympic winner in the last two years, add 10 medals in big championships and has won grand prix in arenas like Geneve, Gothemburg, Rome or Saint Tropez among others. Their cases aren’t one-of-a-kind. Edwina Tops-Alexander has won after being a mother in A Coruña, Paris, Prague, Miami or Riyadh, and this year, for example, Janne-Friederike Meyer Zimmermann has reappeared winning Hagen and Munster’s Grand Prix and the Nation Cup in Sopot. These examples, and many more, prove that the competition doesn’t fool, and men and women are the same at the arena. "I’ve decided that I wanted to be there – Laura Kraut said – I enjoy competing at this level. In this sport is not easy stay up, but it’s harder arrive there, go up from the 250th position to the top 50 is very difficult. I did it and I try to be sure that I keep this level all the time that I could. That’simportanttome". Also, Malin Baryard is in the top 50, in fact, is the best rider of the ranking: "I have been very lucky with a family that supports me a lot, good sponsors and owners. Being successful in this sport has always been my dream and I’ve worked very hard to get it."

The Casas Novas facilities will host this winter for the 6th year the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup, a competition won two consecutive editions, 2017 and 2018, by a woman, Edwina Tops-Alexander, who returned to the arenas after her maternity. The competition's list of grand prix winners, in its summer and winter editions, has other illustrious female names such as Eugenie Angot, Laura Kraut, Lisa Nooren or Kacklyn Duff and, for sure, those of many others will be added very soon. Equestrianism is a feminine word in many languages and it may not be a coincidence. It is the name of a sport that puts everyone on the same level on the track but in which, for women, time is the main obstacle. An obstacle that many overcome year after year through effort, dedication and talent. With some knockdowns or refusals along the way, yes, but with many runs without fault.

Edwina Tops
Edwina Tops
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By Manuel Jabois,
Images by Óscar Corral

The first time I thought about it was in Vilatuxe, a small town near Lalín, the place where once the mayor said that he would make a cow census as an electoral promise. (In Galicia that census was carried out by Manuel Rivas clarifying that they were basically one million). There in Vilatuxe, some locals decided to make the pig slaughter in 2007 but making a difference. It was not made in the traditional way because the Government had banned it. The Government, like so many others, sometimes has to overturn traditions, especially if they are harmful. It was decreed that the pig slaughter must be made without pain or suffer. Thus, the fusion of tradition (the pig dies) and modernity (the pig dies in peace) was imposed; instead of killing the pig with a knife, as it had always been done, it was killed with a stun gun, as in the Old West ("all parts of a pig are used, even screams, as gun manufacturers are going to demonstrate," Arcadi Espada wrote then). My grandfather, a notorious killer in his village, would thus become Billy the Kid.

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Vilatuxe’s people had a brilliant idea, something that I am still thinking about completely amazed. There, the locals decided that the pig was going to die as usual but as never before, both ways at the same time. And so it was done. That show (magical realism in its hard core, Galicia, always reaches its highest point) was attended by 1,200 people and there was even a comedy performance under the attentive and calm gaze of the mayor and a kind of central committee that had been rehearsed for almost two months. The pig arrived corpsed at its slaughter. He was taken there dead. What was done next was the usual procedure, that’s to say, it was slit from top to bottom, cut into pieces, its guts were washed, and the spicy sausages were made. All would be perfect if it weren't for the fact that, as soon as the knife was driven into the pig, it started screaming. It shouted and screamed in such a way that its shrieks shook the public, who believed they were attending a traditional slaughter, the slaughter of the pig.


There was a catch. In a nearby grain storage there was a music player that was blaring the pig's squeals. It was a playback. The ‘Milli Vanilli’ of pigs mixed with zombies from Thriller: a real show. At that time, I called it 'the CD slaughter’, and received the sympathetic trick with grace and admiration. With age comes maturity, and in the best cases, a new perspective. Mine was something I had never noticed after decades of studying the case of Vilatuxe’s pig: the squeals were recorded, that’s right, but which pig was recorded? If they were recorded from any pig in their knife slaughter to make the modern and legal slaughter, the pistol slaughter, didn't they already know that it was forbidden? What pigs are we talking about: wouldn't it be the same? Did they kill him first as God commanded, and then as God commands to tell society that things can be done differently, but first we had to do them the same?

For the last ten years, the same ones I have been living (rather having the center of operations) in Madrid, a question has besieged me: why so much about Galicia in my articles, why always Galicia in my novels, why the accent of Galicia so persistently in my voice every day on the radio, a decade later? I never explain - because I have never had time and because there are questions that can be answered by themselves - the story of that Vilatuxe’s massacre. Knowing that a story is never ended, that there are no open endings because everyone is open, that the popular doubtfulness with which we Galicians are labelled, is the vulgar way of naming something much more fun and interesting: mystery. That's why two years ago, when I went to the Costa da Morte to spend a few days there and place the action of my next novel on those cliffs, I knew that an Englishwoman, Annete Meakin, had gone and baptized it. It's a too simple and prosaic name for such an overwhelming view: it works, as a simple stun gun would work, but there's always something inside a grain storage.


A great book to know the real essence of A Costa da Morte is the one published by Rafael Lerma: 'Costa da Morte, dreams and shipwrecks'. It speaks about one of the most descriptive mythical stories of the Costa da Morte (stories about myth, between truth and belief, stories spread by word of mouth until they have lost their origin, if the origin really existed): reality and fiction, gesture and deception. Bullfighting before bullfighting. Lerma says that on stormy nights, "with rain and fog that prevented visibility, some inhabitants of the villages came to walk their oxen next to the cliffs, hanging from their horns lanterns lit that simulated the lights of other boats. In this way, they created confusion among the ships, which approached the coast and, inevitably, ended up rushing against the pitfalls, being then looted by the locals."


By the way, in one of the looting (not necessarily caused by that ruse), the book tells about the shipwreck of the Nil in 1927. Among the many belongings left by the ship floating in the sea, it seemed that huge boxes of milk were also lost that the inhabitants of the nearby villages quickly confused with paint, taking advantage of it to clean up their houses before the flies stuck to the walls like their lives depended on it desperately. A story as interesting as the shipwreck of the English ship Chamois that Lerma tells gracefully: the locals confused "Chamois" with "bois" (oxen), and turned up with sickles and knives while the English looked at them horrified as if that corner of Galicia, as if the entire Galicia, was still to be civilized and its inhabitants received foreigners as pieces of meat to gobble.

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I have always believed that the true poetry of territories, that which makes them genuine, is when one does not know if the geographical accidents we see are real or are happening to us. That is why I put all the characters in that novel in a land of shipwrecks to, by believing that they contemplated them, suffer a more intimate and delicate one, the one suffered when you do not know what is happening. There is not even a grain storage nearby to know where the screams are coming from. If there is no landscape more beautiful and wild than the landscape of the end of the earth, the place where the Romans believed that the Sun was swallowed by the sea because everything ended there, it is because we are also the end of something, the last and brightest light of all, the one that corresponds to the horizon.


And yet, just as the stun gun did its half-hearted job, so metaphors are half-breathed when reality sets in. Many years ago, in an old article published by the journalist Hibai Arbide in the magazine Enfocant, it was said that for five years corpses from shipwrecks in the Mediterranean had been lifted into the nets of tuna vessels. To avoid problems, they were returned to the sea without informing about them. "Lupo is a sturdy little man who has spent more than thirty years fishing. But today he can no longer do it, his neighbours pointed him out as traitor for having brought this story to light. He is alone, the community to which he belonged does not forgive his 'denunciation'. In Portopalo and Lampedusa everyone knew what had happened, bones had emerged for months, as well as small objects, signs of lives dramatically interrupted a few kilometers from the promised land." At the time I wrote that it was great news because it was not the usual forgetfulness, but a double one. The dead insisted that the truth must be known: the living returned them from the bottom. But the problem remains the same: humanitarian.

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Further, in Galicia, the Atlantic is like having a war at your gate surrounding everything: people live off it and people often die in it if they are fortunate. Sometimes people don’t come back. More and more people return there after death: the ashes are thrown away and the ocean is allowed to do with them what it considers (in A Lanzada those of the ex-footballer Héctor Rial were scattered; a local newspaper had announced that it would be in Pasarón, Pontevedra’s football pitch, and the next day it was announced that they had better scatter on the beach "contrary to what certain unfounded news had said"). It is a feat to explain the history of this land without keeping the sea in mind, including the appearance of oil tankers like a modern Santa Compaña returning home drunkenly. Anyone who thinks that the fire is hypnotizing has never seen the Costa da Morte: it strikes with the hulls of the thousands of ships that have been buried alive, the bones of the corpses that crawl inside with a terrible feeling of fullness. It looks like someone about to deliver. There is so much strength that you actually know that it is not the cliff against which everything hits but the continent: Europe itself with the will of that nobleman offended by being quoted in In Search of Lost Time who went in solitude to his castle to respond to Marcel Proust.


And then there's the cold. I sometimes go with her to Fisterra in winter to show her what Madrid or anywhere will never have. To stand it better I tell her that the cold is elegant. The overalls, the scarves tied around the neck like a rope or fallen to the waist, like the hair of La Pantoja. The booties too. Even cut lips have their charm. So do the eyes a little reddened. The chill is so tender, in solitude, while you are waiting to withdraw money from the ATM. Almost everything is beauty in the cold, I tell her. The snowy landscapes of inland Galicia. Recemunde, in Pobra de Brollón, under a large endless white blanket, as if that was Heaven. New York cannot be understood without snow, just as you cannot understand killing without wearing black leather gloves, tight to your fingers, whether to wield a gun or break a neck. It is cinema that educates us, Love. Literature. Think of a sub- zero temperature, whatever you want, and a living room with a fireplace while the wolves rub their snouts against the window of the village house, as if warning. Bateman leaving any pub waving a hundred- dollar bill in front of a beggar and putting it back in his pocket, almost impassive. The wool stockings of the little cousin, and grandma spending the afternoon in front of a stove as if lying in the solarium. The wool hats. And those gloves so elegant, those gloves to which they strip their fingers to pick up the mobile and answer any email, the first one coming to mind.

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All of that is at your fingertips. A ridiculous legend says that God created Galicia by putting His hand on it, hence the tidal inlets. But we actually squeeze it. That's why he sometimes snorts.

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