Villages in Asturias, Spain: Cudillero

If there is something that motivates and ignites the imagination to unsuspected limits, it is the Sea. Far from thinking that turning its back on the great unknown of the inner space - the own planet and its circumstance, as Ortega y Gasset would say - man will find longing for all the prevailing unknowns of its existence peeping in this other inner space, conformed by seas and oceans, where possibly it is the key that has to open the rusty covers of the vital book of its own existence, at least in this world.

Perhaps for this reason, feel a special fascination for those small communities that millennia ago sailed candles in the soul, settling down at their side. And especially, those communities that did it in that monumental tectonic tear, which for us, the Spaniards, is our immeasurable Cantabrian coast.

To apply the adjective qualifying as picturesque to some of these peculiar communities would be, at least, a terrible contribution; something as ridiculous as pretending to reach a place long longed for and turning around when we are about to reach it.

So, to talk about Cudillero, I will apply - they think that I do not offend, if they consider that in a selfishly interested way - the qualifier of Symbol.

In effect: Cudillero is another one of the symbols - undoubtedly, one of the most spectacular - of Asturias and by effect, not by default, of the Cantabrian coast.

Have you ever seen a hive hanging over the sea? Well, imagine, instead of cells, there are little houses, crowded together, until they form an imaginary and metaphorical scale of Jacob, which connects not only the sky with the earth, but also the earth and the sky with the sea.

I imagine - and take me as a visionary if they wish - that it must have been a vision similar to this one, which suggested to the chemist Kekulé that dream where the formula of benzene was revealed to him.

Because after all, and despite the invasive influx of tourism that multiplies the population by ten during the summer months, Cudillero, although it seems paradoxical, continues to be a true revelation

Reaching the bottom of the inlet on which it rises, is like sliding vertiginously through an imaginary waterfall, saving the detail that instead of water, move houses, vehicles and people with a surprising and excessive fluidity.

Call me of exaggerated, but let me break my own rules and going to the odious world of comparisons, ask them a question: do you know the picture, attributed to Hyeronimus Bosch, El Bosco, entitled 'The vision of Tondal'? (1).

You will notice that the main part of the painting is an indeterminate head - who knows, if a self-portrait of Bosco! - from whose nose flow, like a tap, a multitude of objects, animals and people who end up splashing in a bowl. Well, that reminds me of Cudillero in the summer months. But of course, we must be lenient and think, that there is no paradise without its corresponding snake.

Cudillero is also a focus of attention for lovers of mystery, the enigmas of the past, the hermetic tradition and symbolism. Here was located the writer and theosophist Mario Roso de Luna, the place of residence of one of the Masters of that supposed and mysterious Universal Brotherhood of the Herbaceous Mountains - of which he was also a part, that singular character known as 'the German of Corao' and designer of the basilica of Covadonga, Roberto Frassinelli, who was none other than the old apothecary.

I do not know if the apothecary will continue to exist, where the members of the fantastic Brotherhood met, or if it is currently a sweet little hotel for tourists. But my romantic spirit wants to believe that precisely when he died, the spirit of Frassinelli embarked on Avalon, like King Arthur, in a Templar ship, with black and white sails, that was waiting for him in the port. And if you do not believe me, then friends, read Roso de Luna and that wonderful novel in code that is 'The treasure of the lakes of Somiedo', and maybe you are convinced of it.

Cudillero, then, is another pearl of the Bay of Biscay, which despite the sorrows, is worth knowing. It happens, unfortunately, that in his case it could be said that there are times when the god of tourism discovers man and seduces him, as the Genesis of the old Serpent with Adam and Eve affirms. And hairs to the sea: it would not be strange to be there with universal characters, like our knight of the sad figure, Don Quixote de la Mancha. What was said: Cudillero and its mysteries.

[Written text in the Hospital de la Fuenfría, Cercedilla, on Sunday, July 29, 2018]

Notes and Bibliography:

(1) This painting, although here a photograph of it is exposed, you can visit it in the Museum of the Lázaro Galdiano Foundation, located in the famous Serrano street, in Madrid and its theme, according to experts, is based on one of those strange episodes of 'descensus ad infernos' or descent into hell, so frequent in the classical world and also in medieval imagery.

(2) Mario Roso de Luna: 'The treasure of the lakes of Somiedo', Editorial Eyras, Madrid, 1980.

NOTICE: both the text and the photographs belong to my exclusive intellectual property.

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