WEBVTT

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Dear friends,

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here am I transported overnight

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to my hidden valley of Veruela.

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here am I settled anew
in the dark corner

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that I left for a moment

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to have the pleasure
of shaking your hands once more,

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smoke a cigar together,

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chat a little,

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and remember the pleasant

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although restless, hours of my old life.

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Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is that
Sevillian poet

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that everybody knows,

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although I always say
he is the great unknown.

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Bécquer is a symbol of love
and mystery, but for me, basically he is

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a person with a special charm,

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a joy of life, and a very special
way of understanding the world.

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He is a man of his time,

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who also goes ahead of his time.

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The “Rhymes” is the most read poetry book
in the Spanish language.

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It is poetry that attracts simple people,

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just looking for some pretty words,

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with no need
of going any deeper.
Pilar Alcalá García, Philologist and poet

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But it is also
a cultivated poetry
Pilar Alcalá García, Philologist and poet

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where an educated person
finds what there really is.

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This is the greatness of Bécquer:

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he was able to express
beautiful things to everyone,

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so that everyone could
understand them.

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He is everybody\'s poet.

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Bécquer touches
the deepest,
Rogelio Reyes Cano
Professor of Spanish Literature.
University of Seville.

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most intimate fibers
of the human condition,
Rogelio Reyes Cano
Professor of Spanish Literature.
University of Seville.

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particularly in the field
of love and feelings.

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That is a universal language.

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It transcends Romanticism

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projecting it towards new times.

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The themes of Bécquer\'s poetry

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are those of poetry in any
culture and any time.

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A few themes:
Jesús Rubio Jiménez.
Professor of Spanish Literature. University of Zaragoza

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life, death, love,
illusion, disillusion...
Jesús Rubio Jiménez.
Professor of Spanish Literature. University of Zaragoza

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The “great themes”.

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What changes, and his contribution
to Spanish poetry in my opinion,

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is the way they are expressed.

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And another relevant element:

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he is one of the most influential
of latter poets and writers.

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The origins of magic and sorcery

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are as ancient
as humankind.
Maria Tausiet
Doctor in History.
Specialist in religious beliefs and witchcraft

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Even in the first
prehistoric paintings
Maria Tausiet
Doctor in History.
Specialist in religious beliefs and witchcraft

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we see the importance of magic.

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Paintings to propitiate the hunt.

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What is represented shall be obtained.

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Already in the Old Testament

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there is some connection
to the world of sorcery
José Antonio Adell Castán
Ethnographer and historian

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If we study the world of the pharaons

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the Mesopotamian culture...

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The Code of Hammurabi...

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In the Koran itself,
the sacred book of Muslims,
José Luis Corral
Writer and historian

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those sorcerers also appear.

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In Europe, we have the
influence of different cultures.
Ángel Gari Lacruz
Doctor in History and anthropologist.
Specialized in witchcraft and Inquisition in Aragon

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The closest to us:

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the Greco-Roman culture...

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For instance in Ancient Greece,
the Pythonists.

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The Pythonist of Delphi
that would go into a trance,

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can be a precedent of that
witchcraft\'s world.

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In Shinto culture, and
in all cultures around the world,

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there is always a shaman,
a sorcerer.

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There´s no doubt about this:

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from the very beginning
humans would try to change

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the course of things through rituals.

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The issue is to distinguish
magic and religion.

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In old cultures, we cannot distinguish
one from the other.

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BECQUER AND THE WITCHES

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\"Letters from my cell\"

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All my luggage was not more
than a little night bag,

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after bidding farewell to you,

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I arrived to the railway station,
about to get on the train.

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Madrid had remained
at the other end of the world.

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the railway that flies,
leaving behind stations and towns,

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overcoming rivers
and piercing mountains,

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was a dream of imagination

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or a premonition of the future.

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Seville

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Bécquer is born in Seville
in 1836,

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in a family of painters.

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His father,
José Dominguez Bécquer,

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was one of the most relevant
painters of Romanticism.

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He was specialized in portraits
and landscapes of Seville.

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He was born in the San Lorenzo,
Seville.

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A neighborhood full of mysteries

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and tradition.

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His experience as a child
in the streets of Seville,

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full of suggestions,

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influenced him
and the creation of his work.

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Bécquer\'s childhood
must have been sad.

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The child lost his father
at the age of five

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and his mother
at the age of eleven.

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He then had to live
with his uncles.

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The reason for Bécquer
becoming a great poet,

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as he could have become
a great musician or painter,

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originates with
 his own family of artists.

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Becquer\'s godmother
had an excellent library.

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When he became an orphan
he used to spend many hours at that library.

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He read there the great authors
of the moment,

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the Romantics:

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Lord Byron, Hoffmann,
Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo...

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When he reached adolescence,

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he was already hooked on literature.

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Here is where his literary vocation emerges,

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leading him
not to abandon painting

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but to at least resist his uncle

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Joaquin Dominguez Bécquer,

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who wanted him to initiate
a career as a painter

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in order to attain
economic stability.

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Bécquer is closer

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to the terror style of Poe,

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than the terror of
First Romanticism

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whichi is much more dramatic,
more excessive.

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The terror component

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is an essential ingredient

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since the First Romanticism.

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A lot has been said

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about the relationship between
paganism and witchcraft.

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In reality, what is paganism?

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Pagans were those living
in the countryside.

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Christianity arrived mainly to cities.

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Those still living in the country practiced
a more superstitious type of religion

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linked to Nature.

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In the second and third centuries,

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when Christianity was not yet
the official religion of the Roman world

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there were several types of Christianity.

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The Church had to organize
the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD

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to establish a Creed

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because there were several ways
to understand Jesus Christ\'s message.

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But heresies still remained.

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In the South of France
and in the Alps region

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paganism was stigmatized.

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Diana, Hérodiade, Holda,
are substituted for the devil.

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And the wandering souls

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are substituted for witches.

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Paganism is mainly the worship
of natural elements

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and the dead.

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The dead become demons.

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The spirits of the dead
that could be good for somebody,

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mainly for their family,

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became demoniac spirits.

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These rituals endured
Carmen Espada
Researcher and writer

00:13:17.708 --> 00:13:19.375
mainly in isolated places.

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The Catholic Church in some ways
contributed to this.

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Its rite was not
a communicative one.

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Mass was in Latin,

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and the priest had his back
to the public

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facing the altar.

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In this situation,
the Church had to act.

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And the Inquisition arose.

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At a certain point,
Bécquer decided to move to Madrid

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to try to make a living
as a writer and a journalist.

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Bécquer goes to Madrid
at the age of 18

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with the little money
his uncle Joaquín gave him,

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because his godmother
didnt give him anything.

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With little funds, and a couple of
letters of recommendation

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he gets to Madrid with all the illusions
of a young teen

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not imagining all the difficulties
he would find in Madrid.

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In hostels of bad reputation...

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owned by people from Seville,
who would help him...

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It is the beginning of a dark period,

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of which we know little.
The second half of the 1850\'s.

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Until he was able to start working
in the world of newspapers.

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Many times he didn´t sign
his writings

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and he collaborated
with several fellow writers,

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writing scripts for “Zarzuela” or theatre

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one of the few possible ways
to earn quick money.

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Eventually he was promoted ending up as
editor-in-chief of several newspapers.

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He made a living from
journalism, obviously.

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The “Rhymes”,
that we all value and know

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were written and
sometimes published

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in magazines,
even non-literary magazines

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that we would see today
as gossip and fashion magazines.

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The life of Bécquer in Madrid
had very different periods:

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a period of misery
and a period of illness.

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After his illness
he met Julia Espín.

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And we know
what happened after that...

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Madrid acts as a magnet,

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attracting young people
that are interested in art.

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They come from different places
around the country

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to try to start a career there.

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When a city is left for another,

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, particularly today, when all
the big population centres look alike,

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the isolation in which we find ourselves
it is barely perceived,

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having the feeling,
at the identity of buildings,

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garments and customs,

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that just around the corner

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we are going to come across
the house we visited,

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the persons we appreciated,

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the people that we used
to frequently see

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and talk to.

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The famous Spanish Inquisition

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started at the end of
the 15th century.

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Before, another Inquisition had existed:

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the medieval Inquisition.

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It wasn´t very well known

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because it only happened in Aragón,
not in Castile.

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Its purpose was to chase the heretics
from the South of France:

00:17:07.791 --> 00:17:08.791
Cathars.

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In the Languedoc region,
in France,

00:17:10.916 --> 00:17:14.791
a very relevant movement arose:
the Cathars.

00:17:14.791 --> 00:17:19.500
They distinguished two worlds:

00:17:19.541 --> 00:17:21.583
the material and the spiritual.

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They rejected all that was material.

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Why did they
reject Christianity?

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Because they did not even admit
the materialization of the Son of God.

00:17:30.208 --> 00:17:32.750
And it was because
of this Cathar movement,

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which became so important,
that the Catholic Church

00:17:37.375 --> 00:17:39.125
\"We have to stop this no matter how”

00:17:39.125 --> 00:17:44.958
The Inquisition of bishop jurisdiction
happened in 1184.

00:17:53.916 --> 00:17:59.750
Once the medieval Inquisition
was established in Southern France...

00:17:59.750 --> 00:18:01.916
Cathars were being chased...

00:18:01.916 --> 00:18:04.000
they escaped,
Crossing the Pyrenees,

00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:08.375
settling in the area
of the future Aragon Crown.

00:18:08.375 --> 00:18:10.666
The jurisdiction of this medieval Inquisition

00:18:10.666 --> 00:18:12.916
was of the Pope,

00:18:13.250 --> 00:18:14.625
was of the Pope,

00:18:14.625 --> 00:18:15.625
not of the bishops.

00:18:15.625 --> 00:18:18.166
From that moment the position of
the Inquisitor consolidated,

00:18:18.166 --> 00:18:22.166
in the 13th century
mainly with the Dominicans.

00:18:22.166 --> 00:18:25.125
The Dominican Order,
called “God\'s dogs”,

00:18:25.125 --> 00:18:27.000
was created precisely

00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:28.750
to stabilize the Christian dogma.

00:18:28.750 --> 00:18:31.833
In the Middle Ages,
the three Justices emerge:

00:18:31.833 --> 00:18:33.208
the Medieval Inquisition,

00:18:33.208 --> 00:18:36.000
regular or Royal Justice

00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:37.458
and the Justice of the Bishops.

00:18:37.458 --> 00:18:41.833
In that time
society was very superstitious.

00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:46.833
The bubonic plague wreaked havoc

00:18:46.833 --> 00:18:48.250
there were many wars

00:18:48.250 --> 00:18:50.000
much uncertainty.

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.666
That climate is when
the figure of the witch appears.

00:18:53.666 --> 00:18:56.791
They had powers that
other people didn´t have

00:18:56.791 --> 00:19:00.833
so the leaders thought
they should be eliminated.

00:20:11.791 --> 00:20:13.708
At the bottom of this valley,

00:20:13.708 --> 00:20:17.041
whose melancholic beauty
deeply impresses,

00:20:17.041 --> 00:20:20.333
whose eternal silence
both pleases and startles,

00:20:20.333 --> 00:20:22.250
it would seem,
on the contrary,

00:20:22.250 --> 00:20:25.833
that the mountains that enclose it
as an inaccessible bulwark,

00:20:25.833 --> 00:20:29.000
completely separate us from the world.

00:20:33.875 --> 00:20:37.833
The Monastery of Veruela is a Cistercian abbey
founded in the 12th century.

00:20:37.833 --> 00:20:40.541
The dense forests
of the Moncayo Lands

00:20:40.541 --> 00:20:43.791
had everything the monks
were looking for:

00:20:43.791 --> 00:20:47.666
silence, water,
stones, solitude...

00:20:47.666 --> 00:20:52.041
It had great importance since it represented
the resettlement and Christianization
Noelia del Río
Historian and Guide
of the Monastery of Veruela

00:20:52.041 --> 00:20:56.416
of an area that had been
under Muslim rule for 400 years.

00:20:56.416 --> 00:21:00.125
In 1835 the Mendizabal
privatization took place,
Ana Bona
Graduate in History and Archeology

00:21:00.125 --> 00:21:03.708
and part of this Monastery of Veruela
turned into an inn.

00:21:03.708 --> 00:21:10.750
Travellers start arriving from the high society
of Zaragoza and its surroundings

00:21:10.750 --> 00:21:15.125
and also artists of Romanticism,

00:21:15.125 --> 00:21:19.041
looking for beauty, solitude,
and peace

00:21:19.041 --> 00:21:22.125
of a medieval setting.

00:21:24.666 --> 00:21:27.208
Seated there at the foot of the cross

00:21:27.208 --> 00:21:30.416
and holding in my hands
a book that I hardly ever read,

00:21:30.416 --> 00:21:33.541
and which I often leave forgotten
on the stone stairs,

00:21:33.791 --> 00:21:35.625
I stay for one or two,

00:21:35.625 --> 00:21:39.083
even three hours awaiting the journal.

00:21:40.458 --> 00:21:43.250
He was a man of precarious,
frail health.

00:21:43.250 --> 00:21:45.666
He had had many health problems,

00:21:45.666 --> 00:21:47.208
probably syphilis

00:21:47.208 --> 00:21:49.625
and other venereal diseases.

00:21:49.625 --> 00:21:53.541
He had complications
from tuberculosis, etc.

00:21:53.541 --> 00:21:56.875
He went to Veruela,
to breathe healthy air

00:21:56.875 --> 00:21:57.875
and to get cured.

00:21:57.875 --> 00:22:00.416
We know from the first drawings
signed by Valeriano,

00:22:00.416 --> 00:22:06.166
the poet\'s brother,
that at the end of 1863

00:22:06.166 --> 00:22:10.958
Becquer, Valeriano, Becquer\'s wife,
and his children

00:22:10.958 --> 00:22:12.666
traveled to Veruela.

00:22:12.666 --> 00:22:15.583
He worked for the newspaper of Madrid
“El Contemporaneo”

00:22:15.583 --> 00:22:16.791
as a correspondent.

00:22:16.791 --> 00:22:20.708
He sent articles to this newspaper

00:22:20.708 --> 00:22:25.250
that were later compiled into what is now known
as “Letters from my Cell”.

00:22:25.250 --> 00:22:28.000
It was named precisely that way

00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:29.916
because the place
that inspired him to write

00:22:29.916 --> 00:22:32.208
was one of the old cells of the monastery,

00:22:32.208 --> 00:22:35.708
which at that time were rooms of the inn.

00:22:44.791 --> 00:22:48.791
I still have not finished reading
the first columns of the journal,

00:22:48.791 --> 00:22:50.625
when the last reflection of the sun,

00:22:50.625 --> 00:22:53.958
that slowly turns
to the summit of Moncayo,

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:57.416
disappears from the highest tower
of the monastery,

00:22:57.416 --> 00:23:01.041
in which the metal cross
flames up for a moment

00:23:01.041 --> 00:23:02.500
before being extinguished.

00:23:26.208 --> 00:23:28.958
The Inquisition in Spain
arises in the 15th century

00:23:28.958 --> 00:23:30.166
with the Catholic Kings.

00:23:30.166 --> 00:23:33.500
It was an institution
that tried to solve

00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:36.208
some problems of the Church
Nacho Ares
Director of the Ser- History

00:23:36.208 --> 00:23:40.083
such as the presence
of other religions,

00:23:40.083 --> 00:23:45.708
which were slowly destroying
the pillars of Catholicism.

00:23:45.750 --> 00:23:50.458
In Zaragoza, the clergy, the nobility,
and the civil society

00:23:50.458 --> 00:23:52.666
were asking the king.

00:23:52.666 --> 00:23:55.000
since this modern Inquisition
depended on the king,

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:57.458
not on the Pope or the archbishops.

00:23:57.458 --> 00:24:01.166
They pleaded with the king:
“For God\'s sake, stop them!”

00:24:01.166 --> 00:24:03.791
Torquemada, the Major Inquisitor,

00:24:03.791 --> 00:24:06.708
brought Pedro de Arbues
to Zaragoza.

00:24:06.708 --> 00:24:11.333
There were conspiracies and meetings
even at the churches.

00:24:11.333 --> 00:24:14.041
At the church of Saint Engracia they met

00:24:14.041 --> 00:24:17.291
to prepare the murder of Pedro de Arbues.

00:24:17.291 --> 00:24:23.166
In September 1475 they agreed to kill him
as he was celebrating matins service

00:24:23.166 --> 00:24:25.000
at the main altar of
The Cathedral of the Saviour.

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:27.750
They entered through the “Pavostria Door”,

00:24:27.750 --> 00:24:29.916
that we see now,

00:24:29.916 --> 00:24:35.208
they left through the Choir, on the right
side the canons were singing matins...

00:24:35.208 --> 00:24:37.166
Peter of Arbues was there
at the main altar,

00:24:37.166 --> 00:24:40.166
with a helmet, a coat of mail,
and half a spear hidden.

00:24:40.708 --> 00:24:42.958
Then Tristan de Leonis,

00:24:42.958 --> 00:24:45.041
one of the squires

00:24:45.041 --> 00:24:47.333
gave him the mortal stab

00:24:47.333 --> 00:24:53.833
through the under-arm
to avoid the coat of mail.

00:24:53.833 --> 00:24:57.958
The blood on the floor of
“the Seo” was miraculous.

00:24:57.958 --> 00:25:01.291
People went there to collect the blood because
they thought it had healing powers.

00:25:01.291 --> 00:25:04.541
There are notarial acts to prove it.

00:25:04.541 --> 00:25:09.625
And from that moment, the persecution
started to become very violent.

00:25:09.625 --> 00:25:14.041
Zaragoza becomes a bloodbath.

00:25:14.041 --> 00:25:20.875
People flee, people are captured,
convicted...

00:25:20.875 --> 00:25:25.041
Those who they could capture,
who were present at the murder

00:25:25.041 --> 00:25:27.916
were quartered.

00:25:27.916 --> 00:25:34.000
We have four quarters,
two arms and two legs.

00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:37.166
when one gets quartered, each quarter
gets tied to a horse and they dismember you.

00:25:37.166 --> 00:25:41.416
horses are whipped and run in four different
directions and you get quartered

00:25:41.416 --> 00:25:46.000
The prosecution against
the converts was brutal.

00:26:15.041 --> 00:26:16.500
Dear friends,

00:26:16.500 --> 00:26:18.375
about two or three years ago,

00:26:18.375 --> 00:26:21.583
you might have read
in the journals of Zaragoza

00:26:21.583 --> 00:26:27.125
the story of a crime that took place
in one of the little towns of this surrounding area,

00:26:28.333 --> 00:26:31.083
regarding the murder
of a poor old woman

00:26:31.083 --> 00:26:33.625
whose neighbors accused her
of being a witch.

00:26:34.291 --> 00:26:36.875
Recently, and due to
a strange coincidence,

00:26:36.875 --> 00:26:41.208
I have had the chance to find out
the details and the entire story

00:26:41.208 --> 00:26:43.541
of an incident
that is barely understood

00:26:43.541 --> 00:26:47.833
in the middle of a century
so unworried as ours.

00:27:21.041 --> 00:27:23.833
“Letters From my Cell”
is a personal report

00:27:23.833 --> 00:27:26.583
written by Gustavo Adolfo
while at the Monastery of Veruela,

00:27:26.583 --> 00:27:30.875
which was a landmark
of 19th-century journalism.

00:27:30.875 --> 00:27:33.416
He went to Veruela
with his brother Valeriano.

00:27:33.416 --> 00:27:37.125
Valeriano was awarded a grant
to record folkloric aspects

00:27:37.125 --> 00:27:38.666
of the society through
painting and many more things.

00:27:38.666 --> 00:27:40.875
In the spring,
Bécquer went to Madrid,

00:27:40.875 --> 00:27:43.500
probably to solve
some personal problems.

00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:49.833
And when he returned
he started writing “Letters From my Cell”,

00:27:49.833 --> 00:27:53.583
which was published
in the spring of 1864

00:27:53.583 --> 00:27:55.333
in the journal “El Contemporáneo”
(“The contemporary”)

00:27:55.333 --> 00:27:57.875
where he frequently published
his writings.

00:27:57.875 --> 00:28:01.458
In those letters he addresses his readers
as he would address address his friends,

00:28:01.458 --> 00:28:04.208
telling them about his experiences
at the Monastery,

00:28:04.208 --> 00:28:07.125
and his walks in the surrounding area

00:28:07.125 --> 00:28:08.708
and in the little towns
around Moncayo.

00:28:08.708 --> 00:28:13.958
Life at the Monastery,
especially after summer

00:28:13.958 --> 00:28:17.791
lacked a social life.

00:28:17.791 --> 00:28:21.250
Bécquer, who had arrived
to Veruela fairly ill,

00:28:21.250 --> 00:28:24.625
gets entertained and exercises

00:28:24.625 --> 00:28:27.208
by walking around and taking trips

00:28:27.208 --> 00:28:31.041
to the towns surrounding
the Monastery of Veruela.

00:28:31.041 --> 00:28:34.375
We should not forget they came
from Madrid, where the Court is

00:28:34.375 --> 00:28:37.958
and the daily life of these lands
was very unknown to them.

00:28:37.958 --> 00:28:42.041
Obviously, he had contact with
different persons in the area,

00:28:42.041 --> 00:28:47.708
and it is perfectly possible that he was transcribing
some of these conversations.

00:28:47.708 --> 00:28:51.000
I see the letters as some of Bécquer´s
most meaningful writings,

00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:57.375
which best reflect
his own conception of the world.

00:28:57.375 --> 00:29:01.375
The first letter tells about
a trip from Madrid to the Monastery,

00:29:01.375 --> 00:29:04.041
which in reality was a trip
from modernity to,

00:29:04.041 --> 00:29:07.125
its exact opposite,
the world of tradition.

00:29:07.125 --> 00:29:08.916
In the second letter

00:29:08.916 --> 00:29:11.958
he told about the story
of the Monastery

00:29:11.958 --> 00:29:13.875
and its condition.

00:29:13.875 --> 00:29:19.625
It is a letter particularly rich
in the transmission of emotions.

00:29:19.625 --> 00:29:21.458
What has been lived,
and the atmosphere.

00:29:22.625 --> 00:29:24.791
You cannot imagine

00:29:24.791 --> 00:29:26.750
the loot of ideas and impressions

00:29:26.750 --> 00:29:28.875
to enrich my imagination

00:29:28.875 --> 00:29:32.125
that I have gathered in this trip
around a country still virgin

00:29:32.125 --> 00:29:35.291
and reluctant to civilizing innovations.

00:29:36.208 --> 00:29:39.000
Thanks to the conversations
that Bécquer had

00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:42.166
with the inhabitants of the
little villages around Moncayo,

00:29:42.166 --> 00:29:45.708
their legends will remain
known for all of posterity,

00:29:45.708 --> 00:29:48.458
such as the legends
of the witches of Trasmoz,

00:29:48.458 --> 00:29:52.625
the legends of the mythical foundation
of the castle of Trasmoz,

00:29:52.625 --> 00:29:56.083
as well as other legends
about the mountain, Moncayo.

00:29:56.083 --> 00:29:59.125
Moncayo is a magic mountain.

00:29:59.125 --> 00:30:04.375
In the time of the Celts and Romans,
they mined iron,

00:30:04.375 --> 00:30:09.166
and it was considered one of the best irons,
not only because of the iron itself,

00:30:09.166 --> 00:30:11.791
but because of the ice and snow

00:30:11.791 --> 00:30:14.625
used for cooling the swords
after tempering.

00:30:14.625 --> 00:30:16.416
The most well known legend
is the one

00:30:16.416 --> 00:30:19.250
in which Moncayo
is created by Hercules
Óscar Castán Garcinuno
Founder of the
\"Trasmoz\'s Museum of Witchcraft\"

00:30:19.250 --> 00:30:21.541
Hercules lived in Tarazona,

00:30:21.541 --> 00:30:25.916
and he realized some of his cattle
had disappeared.

00:30:25.916 --> 00:30:28.750
He was told that a giant
living on the mountain

00:30:28.750 --> 00:30:29.750
was stealing them.

00:30:29.750 --> 00:30:31.666
This giant was Caco.

00:30:31.666 --> 00:30:33.500
Hercules, being much stronger,

00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:35.458
kicked so hard

00:30:35.458 --> 00:30:37.708
that he created the Moncayo.

00:30:37.708 --> 00:30:41.958
Moncayo... well, like the Pyrenees,

00:30:41.958 --> 00:30:44.250
like the Albarracín Mountains.

00:30:44.250 --> 00:30:46.916
There are areas of Aragon
that have a rich world of legends

00:30:46.916 --> 00:30:49.333
even more so because of the legends
Bécquer left us.

00:30:49.333 --> 00:30:51.458
Moncayo is a mountain that attracts you

00:30:51.458 --> 00:30:53.375
from wherever you look at it,

00:30:53.375 --> 00:30:54.833
from the area of Zaragoza,

00:30:54.833 --> 00:30:57.291
or from the area of Navarra,
or from the area of Castile.

00:30:57.291 --> 00:30:59.083
It seems it is calling you.

00:30:59.083 --> 00:31:00.875
It is not just something mythical,

00:31:00.875 --> 00:31:02.125
it is also physical.

00:31:02.125 --> 00:31:04.625
All that iron in its interior

00:31:04.625 --> 00:31:09.000
gives it a power of
magnetic attraction.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:11.708
At some specific points,

00:31:11.708 --> 00:31:14.750
compasses even start going crazy,

00:31:14.750 --> 00:31:16.375
and they confuse you.

00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:19.500
These features of the mountain

00:31:19.500 --> 00:31:23.625
alter sensitive people,
so they can have

00:31:23.625 --> 00:31:26.500
mystic experiences
and an altered consciousness.

00:31:26.500 --> 00:31:30.000
That is what they
could have experienced.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:32.791
Magic and sorcery have always existed.

00:31:32.791 --> 00:31:36.708
Throughout the Middle Ages,
and even before, in classical antiquity,

00:31:36.708 --> 00:31:39.250
there were sorcerers.

00:31:39.250 --> 00:31:45.041
But it was only at the end of the 15th-century
that witchcraft started to be persecuted.

00:31:45.041 --> 00:31:47.166
That came with the change
in the judicial procedure.

00:31:47.166 --> 00:31:52.500
Until then, in order to accuse a person,
usually a woman, of witchcraft,

00:31:52.500 --> 00:31:56.166
which represent evil
in a patriarchal society,

00:31:56.166 --> 00:31:59.625
you had to prove it.

00:31:59.625 --> 00:32:02.958
A person who accused his neighbor
of killing his son,

00:32:02.958 --> 00:32:05.958
if it were proved false would receive
the same punishment

00:32:05.958 --> 00:32:07.666
that the other person
would have received.

00:32:07.666 --> 00:32:11.916
Therefore, who would dare accuse somebody
of witchcraft without proof?

00:32:11.916 --> 00:32:16.916
But with the change in procedure,
the so-called inquisitorial procedure,

00:32:16.916 --> 00:32:20.750
it is the judicial authority
that has the responsibility to find the proof.

00:32:20.750 --> 00:32:24.666
The accuser only accuses,
and then does not need to do more.

00:32:24.666 --> 00:32:28.375
Consequently, persecution
started to grow and grow.

00:32:28.375 --> 00:32:30.625
And that happened starting
at the end of 15th-century,

00:32:30.625 --> 00:32:35.125
and then mainly during the 16th
and 17th-centuries all over Europe.

00:32:43.368 --> 00:32:46.768
Bearing in mind
their diabolic origin,

00:32:46.771 --> 00:32:49.275
it should be easy for you
to understand why witches,

00:32:49.275 --> 00:32:53.034
whose story I am always commited
to tell you about,

00:32:53.034 --> 00:32:55.471
have a clear predilection

00:32:55.471 --> 00:32:58.124
for the ruins of this castle.

00:32:58.124 --> 00:33:01.556
And why inside it
they find themselves at home.

00:33:07.694 --> 00:33:12.708
Despite what people may think,
witch-hunts in Spain

00:33:12.708 --> 00:33:15.250
were tougher
when the civil justice acted

00:33:15.250 --> 00:33:17.958
than when it was
the Inquisition justice.

00:33:17.958 --> 00:33:20.291
There is a black legend
about the Inquisition,

00:33:20.291 --> 00:33:21.916
and especially about
the Spanish Inquisition,

00:33:21.916 --> 00:33:24.250
created by the enemies at that time:

00:33:24.250 --> 00:33:27.416
the Dutch, the English, etc.

00:33:27.416 --> 00:33:30.041
It may seem as if the Inquisition was
the worst of the worst.

00:33:30.041 --> 00:33:31.875
I won´t speak in favor of the Inquisition,

00:33:31.875 --> 00:33:34.250
but in reality
it was not the worst tribunal.

00:33:34.250 --> 00:33:38.416
The Inquisition certainly was not as harsh

00:33:38.416 --> 00:33:40.250
as it is thought in the case of witchcraft

00:33:40.250 --> 00:33:42.666
because most Inquisition tribunals

00:33:42.666 --> 00:33:44.750
would give a punishment,
but would not sentence them to death.

00:33:44.750 --> 00:33:48.625
Regarding the converts,
persecution was rather frequent.

00:33:48.625 --> 00:33:51.708
But I believe the black legend
mainly arose

00:33:51.708 --> 00:33:53.916
because the territory got extended,

00:33:53.916 --> 00:33:57.375
and the Inquistion spread
to the new continent.

00:33:57.375 --> 00:34:00.750
Another contributing factor to the black legend
of the Spanish Inquisition

00:34:00.750 --> 00:34:02.750
is that it lasted very long,

00:34:02.750 --> 00:34:03.875
until the 19th-century.

00:34:12.583 --> 00:34:14.708
Even though the Inquisition
had disappeared

00:34:14.708 --> 00:34:17.291
two years before
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer was born,
Javier Bona Sánchez
Historian and Archeologist

00:34:17.291 --> 00:34:20.541
Not in the urban world,
where he lived

00:34:20.541 --> 00:34:22.750
but in the Spanish rural world

00:34:22.750 --> 00:34:24.250
where the echo of the Middle Ages
was very present.

00:34:24.250 --> 00:34:26.125
The historic moment
in which Bécquer lived

00:34:26.125 --> 00:34:28.833
was politically very tumultuous.

00:34:28.833 --> 00:34:31.458
The 19th-century
was a revolutionary period.

00:34:31.458 --> 00:34:33.708
It was when the great
social movements appeared.

00:34:33.708 --> 00:34:35.708
We know through his friends

00:34:35.708 --> 00:34:38.916
that Bécquer was a very
quiet, dreamy person,

00:34:38.916 --> 00:34:43.000
initially very far from the world
and commotion of politics.

00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:45.208
It was a period of many
political changes,

00:34:45.208 --> 00:34:47.666
with the government of Isabel II,

00:34:47.666 --> 00:34:49.416
and the Revolution of 68.

00:34:49.416 --> 00:34:52.208
We do know that the Minister
González Bravo

00:34:52.208 --> 00:34:54.541
was very interested in his work,
mainly the Rhymes,

00:34:54.541 --> 00:34:58.125
and that he asked Bécquer
to give them to him for publication.

00:34:58.125 --> 00:35:00.250
This is why his Rhymes disappeared,

00:35:00.250 --> 00:35:02.000
since they were at the house
of the Minister González Bravo

00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:03.000
who was going to publish them.

00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:04.583
The house of the Minister González Bravo

00:35:04.583 --> 00:35:06.000
was attacked,

00:35:06.000 --> 00:35:07.916
and the Rhymes were lost forever.

00:35:07.916 --> 00:35:10.500
And until his friends published them

00:35:10.500 --> 00:35:13.458
Bécquer was almost unknown as a poet.

00:35:13.458 --> 00:35:15.541
Bécquer, later in Toledo,

00:35:15.541 --> 00:35:17.833
started to re-write them from memory.

00:35:17.833 --> 00:35:19.750
We usually identify

00:35:19.750 --> 00:35:23.666
Romanticism with the expression of
great passions,

00:35:23.666 --> 00:35:26.958
in an exalted, melodramatic tone.

00:35:26.958 --> 00:35:29.291
But there is another form of Romanticism,

00:35:29.291 --> 00:35:31.916
which is the expression
of private matters

00:35:31.916 --> 00:35:34.958
in a much more contained,
sorrow mood.

00:35:34.958 --> 00:35:40.541
He experiences lyricism in a deeper,
more personal way.

00:35:40.541 --> 00:35:44.083
That was missing from
Spanish Romantic literature.

00:35:44.083 --> 00:35:47.208
Romanticism is a spirit of life,

00:35:47.208 --> 00:35:48.583
a way of living,

00:35:48.583 --> 00:35:50.875
and that was Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

00:35:50.875 --> 00:35:53.000
a person who was always
trying to fight.

00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:55.375
He undertook some things
that he knew to be impossible.

00:35:55.375 --> 00:35:58.250
With “Temples of Spain”
he intended to make

00:35:58.250 --> 00:36:00.666
a compilation of all the temples in Spain.

00:36:00.666 --> 00:36:04.791
He could not, and was only able to publish
the volume of Toledo.

00:36:04.791 --> 00:36:06.583
But there he is proving
his Romanticism, don\'t you think?

00:36:06.583 --> 00:36:08.750
The third letter has a special significance

00:36:08.750 --> 00:36:13.375
because it is the result of a transcendental
experience in Bécquer´s life.

00:36:13.375 --> 00:36:17.000
And also because it is a testament,
the testament of Bécquer.

00:36:17.000 --> 00:36:18.708
At the cemetery of Trasmoz,

00:36:18.708 --> 00:36:20.833
feeling ill and tired,

00:36:20.833 --> 00:36:24.125
he reflected on what his life had been,

00:36:24.125 --> 00:36:28.625
and had a strong feeling of
to disappearing forever.

00:36:28.625 --> 00:36:30.541
That affected him so much
that he said

00:36:30.541 --> 00:36:34.833
“I don\' t want to be placed
in a wooden case like those...\"

00:36:34.833 --> 00:36:37.250
\"...used for sugar
and then stuck into a wall”

00:36:37.250 --> 00:36:39.583
And that makes me very sad,
because in the end

00:36:39.583 --> 00:36:41.166
Gustavo is buried in a wall.

00:36:46.166 --> 00:36:48.166
In these hidden corners,

00:36:48.166 --> 00:36:51.500
the last shelter of
ignored peasants,

00:36:51.500 --> 00:36:53.208
there is a deep calm.

00:36:53.750 --> 00:36:56.083
Nobody disturbs its sacred seclusion,

00:36:56.708 --> 00:36:59.875
and after wrapping themselves
in their light layer of soil,

00:37:00.250 --> 00:37:03.125
without even having
the weight of a stone above,

00:37:03.708 --> 00:37:05.416
they must sleep better

00:37:05.708 --> 00:37:07.166
and more peacefully.

00:37:09.500 --> 00:37:12.041
When a woman would be
accused of being a witch

00:37:12.041 --> 00:37:15.250
before the Inquisition justice,
we can almost say that she was lucky

00:37:15.250 --> 00:37:20.375
because she would be judged in a much more
rational and favorable way

00:37:20.375 --> 00:37:22.541
than if she were in the hands
of her neighbors

00:37:22.541 --> 00:37:23.916
or a secular tribunal.

00:37:26.625 --> 00:37:30.250
In some cases they could be tortured

00:37:30.250 --> 00:37:34.458
or they could even die,
because they were sent to prisons

00:37:34.458 --> 00:37:38.208
and would remain a long time
in very bad conditions.

00:37:38.208 --> 00:37:42.541
The torture methods used by the Inquisitors
to extract a confession

00:37:42.541 --> 00:37:43.791
were variable.

00:37:43.791 --> 00:37:45.916
The most frequent
was the “estrapada,”

00:37:45.916 --> 00:37:47.750
the so-called “Garrucha” (pulley)

00:37:47.750 --> 00:37:49.541
A pulley was placed in the roof.

00:37:49.541 --> 00:37:51.958
Then the prisoner had his hands
tied behind his back,

00:37:51.958 --> 00:37:56.708
not in front ,
as it appears in some prints.

00:37:56.750 --> 00:37:59.166
They would tie one wrist to the other

00:37:59.166 --> 00:38:01.583
and from there a rope
would pass through a pulley.

00:38:01.583 --> 00:38:05.125
And you would be lifted.
Then you would be going up this way.

00:38:05.125 --> 00:38:08.250
And the shoulders could dislocate
because of your own weight.

00:38:08.250 --> 00:38:11.916
Then they would loosen the rope
and stop it halfway.

00:38:11.916 --> 00:38:13.583
The blow was hard

00:38:13.583 --> 00:38:18.500
and if you were still not dislocated,
both shoulders would then come out of place.

00:38:18.500 --> 00:38:22.416
The veil involved a fine cloth,
which was placed in the mouth and acted as a funnel.

00:38:22.416 --> 00:38:27.083
Then they poured water.
Liters and liters of water,

00:38:27.083 --> 00:38:29.958
making them swallow and giving them
the sensation of drowning.

00:38:29.958 --> 00:38:33.208
And after suffering
several types of tortures

00:38:33.208 --> 00:38:36.375
came the “escalfarle als peus”

00:38:36.375 --> 00:38:39.333
when fat was spread on their feet

00:38:39.333 --> 00:38:41.625
until they would be oily,

00:38:41.625 --> 00:38:43.916
and then they would be put in the fire.

00:38:43.916 --> 00:38:46.125
And they would sing.

00:38:46.125 --> 00:38:49.375
There you would say “I confess”.
maybe I don\' t know what I am confessing to

00:38:49.375 --> 00:38:50.500
but I confess.

00:38:50.500 --> 00:38:52.916
The rack was like a bench

00:38:52.916 --> 00:38:55.500
where they would be tied-up with ropes.

00:38:55.500 --> 00:39:00.291
And then they would start tightening the ropes,
so they would cut into the skin

00:39:00.291 --> 00:39:02.416
More and more,
as they wanted them to confess.

00:39:02.416 --> 00:39:05.875
Another torture that appears
in some manuscripts

00:39:05.875 --> 00:39:07.375
is the “bastonets”,

00:39:07.375 --> 00:39:10.041
when they would jam
very thin sticks

00:39:10.041 --> 00:39:11.041
into the nails.

00:39:11.041 --> 00:39:13.208
They would be asked,
for example:

00:39:13.208 --> 00:39:14.791
“Are you a witch?”
They would answer “no.”

00:39:14.791 --> 00:39:18.375
Then they would be tortured and in the end,
of course, they would say “yes.”

00:39:18.375 --> 00:39:22.083
“Do you have a pact with the devil?”
“No.”

00:39:22.083 --> 00:39:25.000
And after a few turns of the rope,

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:26.250
they would say “yes”

00:39:26.250 --> 00:39:27.583
to be released.

00:39:27.583 --> 00:39:30.041
This way they would achieve a confession

00:39:30.041 --> 00:39:34.291
of anything that the inquisitor
or other judges

00:39:34.291 --> 00:39:35.291
would ask them.

00:39:35.291 --> 00:39:38.000
And they would write it down
as if they had said it.

00:39:45.041 --> 00:39:46.041
Dear friends,

00:39:46.041 --> 00:39:48.250
around two or three days ago,

00:39:48.250 --> 00:39:50.916
walking randomly
around these mountains,

00:39:50.916 --> 00:39:54.458
and having reached further
than my usual morning strolls,

00:39:54.458 --> 00:39:58.291
I was able to discover, almost hidden
in the ruptures of the land

00:39:58.291 --> 00:40:00.041
and out of any trail,

00:40:00.041 --> 00:40:03.666
a little town, whose setting,
extremely picturesque,

00:40:03.666 --> 00:40:06.875
pleased me so much,
that I could not help but approach

00:40:06.875 --> 00:40:08.958
and examine it at will.

00:40:08.958 --> 00:40:11.666
I did not even ask its name.

00:40:11.666 --> 00:40:14.000
Trasmoz is a little town
in the province of Zaragoza

00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:15.416
that lies by Moncayo.

00:40:15.416 --> 00:40:16.750
It is a special town.

00:40:16.750 --> 00:40:20.125
It is a place where magical,
mysterious events have happened

00:40:20.125 --> 00:40:21.708
for a long time.

00:40:21.708 --> 00:40:23.083
It is a magic place.

00:40:23.500 --> 00:40:25.750
It is a mysterious place.

00:40:25.750 --> 00:40:30.083
We have bishops that say they beat the devil
with his own weapons

00:40:30.083 --> 00:40:32.708
or the lord of Trasmoz,
who was cursed

00:40:32.708 --> 00:40:34.208
by the monks of Veruela.

00:40:34.208 --> 00:40:37.166
Trasmoz was excommunicated
and damned.

00:40:37.166 --> 00:40:40.250
Coins were counterfeited at the castle.

00:40:40.250 --> 00:40:42.875
Julio Iglesias´s father was kidnapped

00:40:42.875 --> 00:40:44.791
even witches were murdered.

00:41:15.875 --> 00:41:19.291
I\'m a poor old woman
who has harmed nobody.

00:41:23.500 --> 00:41:25.708
I don´t have sons or relatives
who can protect me.

00:41:27.500 --> 00:41:29.666
Forgive me,
have mercy on me.

00:41:43.958 --> 00:41:45.541
Ah, witch of Lucifer

00:41:45.541 --> 00:41:47.291
it is too late for lamentations.

00:41:47.291 --> 00:41:49.000
Everybody knows
you´re a witch!

00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:52.458
No, no, no, blessed Saint Brigid,
Saint Roch and Saint Atilano

00:41:52.458 --> 00:41:54.333
Our brother has fallen
under your spell!

00:41:54.375 --> 00:41:55.666
You brought evil to my mule,

00:41:55.666 --> 00:41:58.125
and after that he didn\'t want to eat
a single bite and died of starvation

00:41:58.125 --> 00:41:59.583
leaving me in misery.

00:41:59.583 --> 00:42:00.583
... let the wounds not be mortal...

00:42:00.583 --> 00:42:01.750
You have cursed my girlfriend!

00:42:01.750 --> 00:42:03.083
... let the clubs turn
into soft cotton...

00:42:03.083 --> 00:42:04.541
You have poisoned the grass!

00:42:04.541 --> 00:42:06.750
You have bewitched the whole town.
You are going to pay for that.

00:42:06.750 --> 00:42:08.208
You bewitched my son.

00:42:08.208 --> 00:42:09.833
You took him from the cradle

00:42:09.833 --> 00:42:11.958
and lashed him at night…

00:42:18.083 --> 00:42:19.541
…until he couldn\'t any more.

00:42:21.208 --> 00:42:22.666
And today we have come
from burying him.

00:42:24.083 --> 00:42:27.000
Spare me this evil,
let the wounds not be mortal,

00:42:27.000 --> 00:42:28.083
Let the witch die!

00:42:28.958 --> 00:42:30.666
Let the witch die!

00:42:30.666 --> 00:42:31.666
Let the witch die!

00:42:31.666 --> 00:42:32.666
Let the witch die!

00:42:32.666 --> 00:42:33.666
Let the witch die!

00:42:40.041 --> 00:42:42.541
Let destruction and merciless death
escape from me.

00:42:44.166 --> 00:42:47.125
Before I die let me beg
forgiveness for my sins!

00:43:07.125 --> 00:43:11.500
The definition of witchcraft
from an anthropological point of view

00:43:11.500 --> 00:43:16.875
is the person that had
intrinsic powers to make evil.

00:43:16.875 --> 00:43:21.291
And the sorcerer is the one
who learns the craft.

00:43:21.291 --> 00:43:24.625
The sorcerer uses spells, charms,

00:43:24.625 --> 00:43:26.416
and draws circles on the floor.

00:43:26.416 --> 00:43:29.166
The witch, in addition to all that,

00:43:29.166 --> 00:43:31.708
and above all,
has made a pact with the devil.

00:43:31.708 --> 00:43:35.583
There are other mythological figures
in other cultures

00:43:35.583 --> 00:43:38.916
but the witch is the one
who makes a deal with the devil

00:43:38.916 --> 00:43:40.666
and copulates with the devil.

00:43:40.666 --> 00:43:43.875
All these mythological ideas
are Christian ideas.

00:43:43.875 --> 00:43:46.625
The Church wanted to have control

00:43:46.625 --> 00:43:48.458
over everything that is sacred.

00:43:48.458 --> 00:43:51.708
If anybody wanted
to control the sacred,

00:43:51.708 --> 00:43:53.291
he or she was accused of
being a heretic

00:43:53.291 --> 00:43:55.875
of being superstitious, or of having a pact
with the devil.

00:43:58.916 --> 00:44:01.583
The witch comes to be
the reverse of religion.

00:44:01.583 --> 00:44:03.500
All the liturgy described
in the witches\' Sabbath

00:44:03.500 --> 00:44:07.958
is the reverse, the opposite
of the Christian religion.

00:44:07.958 --> 00:44:10.291
For example, it was said
that witches

00:44:10.291 --> 00:44:12.500
smeared themselves with grease to fly
to the witches´ Sabbath.

00:44:12.500 --> 00:44:16.875
The ointments would be analogous
the holy oil of the sacrament.

00:44:16.875 --> 00:44:20.708
What also appears at the witches\' Sabbath,
at least in the documents that have survived,

00:44:20.708 --> 00:44:23.291
what they would do there....
tremendous.

00:44:23.291 --> 00:44:25.750
It says they would urinate
in the floor

00:44:25.750 --> 00:44:29.916
Then well... it even seems they had
carnal knowledge with the he-goat.

00:44:29.916 --> 00:44:32.750
They make a pact with the devil
and have contact with the devil.

00:44:32.750 --> 00:44:36.500
Physically. He is described
as a very big man

00:44:36.500 --> 00:44:38.041
with big horns.

00:44:38.041 --> 00:44:41.750
Did the he-goat really appear
in those Sabbaths?

00:44:41.750 --> 00:44:42.916
I am convinced he didn\'t,

00:44:42.916 --> 00:44:44.916
the devil didn\'t appear at all.

00:44:44.916 --> 00:44:51.375
The first reference
in the sacred books

00:44:51.375 --> 00:44:54.875
to the persecution of witches,
is in Exodus 22,

00:44:54.875 --> 00:44:58.625
where it is said that you shall not let
the witch live.

00:44:58.625 --> 00:45:00.833
They made-up that witches
were heretic,

00:45:00.833 --> 00:45:04.916
because they apostatized,
they rejected God,

00:45:04.916 --> 00:45:06.916
and they made pact with the devil,

00:45:06.916 --> 00:45:08.916
which were the greatest of heresies.

00:45:14.958 --> 00:45:16.583
Since time immemorial

00:45:16.583 --> 00:45:19.625
it has been an article of faith
among the people of the Somontano

00:45:19.625 --> 00:45:25.000
that Trasmoz is the court and meeting point
of the most important witches of the region.

00:45:26.333 --> 00:45:29.250
Its castle,
like the traditional fields of Barahona

00:45:29.250 --> 00:45:31.541
and the famous valley of Zugarramurdi

00:45:31.541 --> 00:45:34.750
belongs to the category
of first-rate covens

00:45:34.750 --> 00:45:37.541
and classical places for the
nocturnal celebrations

00:45:37.541 --> 00:45:39.541
of Satan\'s amazons,

00:45:39.541 --> 00:45:41.416
toads with chokers,

00:45:41.416 --> 00:45:44.416
and all the jumbled servants of Satan,

00:45:44.416 --> 00:45:46.125
his idol and chief.

00:45:53.666 --> 00:45:54.916
The castle of Trasmoz

00:45:54.916 --> 00:45:57.625
was constructed approximately in 1220

00:45:57.625 --> 00:45:59.708
at the time of the Reconquest.

00:45:59.708 --> 00:46:01.541
Taking advantage of a Muslim watchtower,

00:46:01.541 --> 00:46:05.125
they first constructed a tower
and a small enclosure,

00:46:05.125 --> 00:46:08.708
and then less than a century afterwards,
it was as we know it now.

00:46:08.708 --> 00:46:13.541
This castle was constructed
by the Kingdoms of Navarra and Aragón

00:46:13.541 --> 00:46:15.750
mainly to defend their borders.

00:46:15.750 --> 00:46:18.000
The connection between Trasmoz and poetry

00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:20.750
has developed through the centuries,

00:46:20.750 --> 00:46:23.041
because at the end of the 15th-century
Pedro Manuel Ximénez de Urrea

00:46:23.041 --> 00:46:29.625
the Lord of Trasmoz was the first Aragonese
to be published.

00:46:29.625 --> 00:46:31.750
He has a very long collection of verses,

00:46:31.750 --> 00:46:34.583
and even plays.

00:46:34.583 --> 00:46:38.416
And then the connection
is fortified by Becquer,

00:46:38.416 --> 00:46:41.916
who spent long hours here
writing in its castle.

00:46:42.625 --> 00:46:45.000
Trasmoz is excommunicated
and it is damned.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:47.083
It was excommunicated
by the bishop of Tarazona

00:46:47.083 --> 00:46:49.875
in the 13th-century,
because he had many arguments

00:46:49.875 --> 00:46:51.541
with the Lord of Trasmoz.

00:46:51.541 --> 00:46:55.208
Pedro Manuel Ximénez de Urrea
was really a man-at-arms.

00:46:55.208 --> 00:46:56.625
He was a bit quixotic.

00:46:56.625 --> 00:46:59.916
Pedro Manuel always had clear in his mind
that he wanted to defend Trasmoz

00:46:59.916 --> 00:47:04.083
mainly from the biggest enemy of Trasmoz,
which was the Monastery of Veruela.

00:47:04.083 --> 00:47:07.291
Trasmoz was a secular island
in the middle of many towns

00:47:07.291 --> 00:47:10.083
under Cistercian rule.

00:47:10.083 --> 00:47:13.541
There were always conflicts
about firewood,

00:47:13.541 --> 00:47:15.500
land boundaries, and water.

00:47:15.500 --> 00:47:18.500
The bishop of Tarazona,
at the request of the abbot of Veruela,

00:47:18.500 --> 00:47:22.875
pronounced the ritual of damnation which is
the most terrible ritual of the Catholic Church,

00:47:22.875 --> 00:47:25.333
implying they would be damned forever:

00:47:25.333 --> 00:47:27.125
Trasmoz, all its inhabitants,

00:47:27.125 --> 00:47:29.875
all the beasts
and domestic animals,

00:47:29.875 --> 00:47:32.041
and all the fields and harvests.

00:47:32.041 --> 00:47:34.166
And to this day,
it is the only damned town

00:47:34.166 --> 00:47:36.416
in all of Spain.

00:47:36.416 --> 00:47:38.791
Because the only one
that can reverse it is the Pope.

00:48:12.416 --> 00:48:14.583
Every time that I cross
this enclosure,

00:48:14.583 --> 00:48:18.750
when the night gets closer
and it starts affecting imagination

00:48:18.750 --> 00:48:22.583
with its high silence
and its strange hallucinations,

00:48:22.583 --> 00:48:25.750
I go stepping gently,
little by little,

00:48:25.750 --> 00:48:29.958
the paths opened through
brambles and weeds

00:48:29.958 --> 00:48:35.291
fearful that the sound of my steps awakes
in their pits, raising his head,

00:48:35.291 --> 00:48:38.125
some of the monks that sleep there

00:48:38.125 --> 00:48:40.416
the dream of eternity.

00:48:43.000 --> 00:48:45.041
Finally, I enter the cloister,

00:48:45.041 --> 00:48:48.208
ruled already
by deep obscurity.

00:48:48.208 --> 00:48:50.916
The flame of the match that I light
to cross it wavers,

00:48:50.916 --> 00:48:55.083
agitated in the air,
and the circles of light that it release

00:48:55.083 --> 00:48:58.125
arduously fight
with the darkness.

00:49:00.583 --> 00:49:02.416
When we talk about terror literature,

00:49:02.416 --> 00:49:05.916
we talk about a specific concept,
which is very contemporary

00:49:05.916 --> 00:49:07.583
and that we have consolidated.

00:49:07.583 --> 00:49:11.916
But in the 19th-century,
the ways were very diverse.

00:49:11.916 --> 00:49:16.708
Bécquer considered that
the reality of wakefulness

00:49:16.708 --> 00:49:18.541
and the reality of the dream,

00:49:18.541 --> 00:49:22.541
the tangible reality
and the dreamed reality,

00:49:22.541 --> 00:49:25.958
both had the same degree
of corporeality.

00:49:25.958 --> 00:49:29.833
One of the things that
Romanticism sets forth

00:49:29.833 --> 00:49:32.500
is the insufficiency of the rational,

00:49:32.500 --> 00:49:36.208
which had prevailed
after the Enlightenment.

00:49:36.208 --> 00:49:39.375
Mystery is a world that Romantics

00:49:39.375 --> 00:49:44.791
discover or try to discover,
even if they never went over all its possibilities.

00:49:44.791 --> 00:49:48.083
All that is the base for what
we have come to call the Fantastic.

00:49:48.083 --> 00:49:50.458
Reality became porous,

00:49:50.458 --> 00:49:53.125
and the world of Mystery
opened to Bécquer.

00:50:01.291 --> 00:50:08.375
“Kyrie eleison, Christie eleison, Kyrie eleison,
Pater noster, liberame a malo...”

00:50:08.375 --> 00:50:14.791
“salvame ex ore leonis et cornibus
unicornium humilitatem meam”

00:50:14.791 --> 00:50:19.500
Conjure up, dark, gloomy Beelzebub,
master of abyss

00:50:19.500 --> 00:50:23.458
for the sorrows and
sadness you suffered,

00:50:23.458 --> 00:50:27.083
Astarot and Belial, all three together,
I want you without delay.

00:50:27.083 --> 00:50:31.208
Being who you are,
get me free from this snare!

00:50:31.208 --> 00:50:34.458
I call upon you,
winds of Moncayo

00:50:34.458 --> 00:50:38.958
do not obstruct the passage
of my helper relatives.

00:50:38.958 --> 00:50:41.916
Oh you, infernal furies,

00:50:41.916 --> 00:50:46.583
Alecto, Tesifone, Megera,
assist me in this corner!

00:50:46.583 --> 00:50:50.708
Judges of the late century,
Minos, Radamante and Eaco,

00:50:50.708 --> 00:50:52.583
do me justice in what I ask you,

00:50:52.583 --> 00:50:53.666
She is praying to her demons!

00:50:53.666 --> 00:50:57.083
do not be late infernal dwellers!!!

00:50:57.083 --> 00:51:00.458
Have you already arrived?

00:51:06.291 --> 00:51:08.625
You are wrong,
I didn\'t do anything!

00:51:08.625 --> 00:51:10.125
I didn\'t do anything!

00:51:12.041 --> 00:51:13.041
Witch!

00:51:13.041 --> 00:51:14.041
I don\'t want to die

00:51:53.541 --> 00:51:57.375
In reality, their reputed magical powers
were not real,

00:51:57.375 --> 00:52:00.666
except the personal strength
that any person can have.

00:52:00.666 --> 00:52:03.791
But at a certain moment,
at the end of the 15th-century,

00:52:03.791 --> 00:52:07.166
they were chased
all over Europe.

00:52:07.166 --> 00:52:10.916
and they were accused of a lot of crimes
that of course they could not have committed.

00:52:10.916 --> 00:52:12.708
Imaginary crimes.

00:52:12.708 --> 00:52:16.625
In fact, it has been said that witchcraft
is an imaginary crime,

00:52:16.625 --> 00:52:18.875
and therefore impossible to prove.

00:52:19.125 --> 00:52:20.333
Now of course,

00:52:20.333 --> 00:52:22.666
even without proof
they were chased,

00:52:22.666 --> 00:52:25.125
and in many cases
they were even sentenced to death.

00:52:25.625 --> 00:52:28.250
Help!

00:52:36.041 --> 00:52:37.416
Help me!

00:52:39.791 --> 00:52:41.208
Help me!

00:52:42.041 --> 00:52:43.833
Die, you damned witch!

00:52:43.833 --> 00:52:45.833
- Die, you witch!
- Die!

00:52:51.083 --> 00:52:54.958
Where are you, great prince Beelzebub?
Why are you not coming Satan?

00:52:54.958 --> 00:52:57.541
Charon, show your virtue.

00:53:25.708 --> 00:53:28.000
Yes, yes,
“Aunt Casca” really existed.

00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:30.625
The town blamed her
for all the misfortunes

00:53:30.625 --> 00:53:33.041
that were taking place:
drought, a plague, etc.

00:53:33.041 --> 00:53:35.083
I believe the most logical
thing is that

00:53:35.083 --> 00:53:39.875
there was a real base
for “Aunt Casca.”

00:53:39.875 --> 00:53:44.208
The proof lies in how deeply instilled the legend
is in the townspeople of Trasmoz.

00:53:44.208 --> 00:53:46.583
Nothing about it is told
in the newspapers

00:53:46.583 --> 00:53:49.291
of those days, but something like that
must have happened

00:53:49.291 --> 00:53:53.583
because it was still alive in the memories
of the town people.

00:53:54.291 --> 00:53:56.333
It is very strange that a crime
might have occurred

00:53:56.333 --> 00:53:58.666
because killing a person is a crime,

00:53:58.666 --> 00:54:00.791
and the authorities would
have taken action.

00:54:00.791 --> 00:54:03.000
If a crime had taken place, no matter how much
a person was accused of being a witch

00:54:03.000 --> 00:54:04.791
the authorities would have taken action.
Even more so in the 19th-century.

00:54:04.791 --> 00:54:06.791
I believe that Casca
is a real person,

00:54:06.791 --> 00:54:08.250
because there are relatives of her.

00:54:08.250 --> 00:54:11.916
Possibly, she was one of the last women
who was killed

00:54:11.916 --> 00:54:15.375
executed by justice,
if we can call that justice.

00:54:15.375 --> 00:54:16.958
We did some research

00:54:16.958 --> 00:54:19.166
to try to find relatives
that descended from her.

00:54:19.166 --> 00:54:22.041
We found the husband,
named Tomás

00:54:22.041 --> 00:54:24.375
and she was
Joaquina Bona Sánchez.

00:54:24.666 --> 00:54:27.750
Then, we looked for her in
the bishop\'s archive,

00:54:27.750 --> 00:54:29.041
within the books of deceases,

00:54:29.041 --> 00:54:30.291
in the “quinque libri”

00:54:30.291 --> 00:54:32.708
and in the year 1860,
on page 14,

00:54:32.708 --> 00:54:35.500
when we turn the page
there is an inscription where it says

00:54:35.500 --> 00:54:37.916
that this woman,
named Joaquina Bona Sánchez,

00:54:37.916 --> 00:54:40.166
who we believe
might have been Casca...

00:54:40.166 --> 00:54:43.750
On the 31st of July, 1860

00:54:43.750 --> 00:54:47.208
I buried the body of Joaquina Bona.

00:54:47.208 --> 00:54:49.750
She did not receive the holy sacraments

00:54:49.750 --> 00:54:51.875
due to her sudden death.

00:54:51.875 --> 00:54:54.958
She died at the age of 46.
It was certified by the doctor

00:54:54.958 --> 00:54:58.958
and also by the priest of that area,
Agustín García.

00:54:59.375 --> 00:55:01.125
This process is nowhere to be found.

00:55:01.125 --> 00:55:03.541
It is said that her sister
lived in the town too.

00:55:03.541 --> 00:55:05.166
There were people
that even got to know her

00:55:05.166 --> 00:55:06.833
because her relatives died
not many years ago.

00:55:06.833 --> 00:55:11.000
The tale of aunt Casca
might have been a fiction

00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:13.833
based on something that
was really still happening

00:55:13.833 --> 00:55:15.500
at the end of the 19th-century

00:55:15.500 --> 00:55:17.833
in some rural places in Spain.

00:55:19.375 --> 00:55:22.625
“Aunt Casca” was very famous
in these surroundings,

00:55:23.166 --> 00:55:25.458
and I just needed to distinguish
her whitish, tangled hair,

00:55:25.458 --> 00:55:28.666
twisted around her
forehead like serpents,

00:55:29.375 --> 00:55:31.583
her extravagant forms,

00:55:31.583 --> 00:55:33.208
her hunched body

00:55:33.208 --> 00:55:36.916
and her hideous arms
that stood obscure,

00:55:36.916 --> 00:55:39.208
angular against the background
of the horizon\'s fire,

00:55:39.208 --> 00:55:42.875
to recognize in her
the witch of Trasmoz.

00:55:47.416 --> 00:55:51.625
On July 18, 1860,
a solar eclipse took place.

00:55:51.625 --> 00:55:53.833
It happened at the same time
as some very violent storms

00:55:53.833 --> 00:55:54.833
in the area of Moncayo.

00:55:54.833 --> 00:55:57.166
All this produced
a tense atmosphere,

00:55:57.166 --> 00:56:00.791
that in a climate of superstition, irrationality,
and mainly of ignorance,

00:56:00.791 --> 00:56:04.208
was felt as announcing a supposed
end of the world.

00:56:04.208 --> 00:56:08.166
Such a peak of fear is reached
that July 31st

00:56:08.166 --> 00:56:09.416
was the perfect time
and place

00:56:09.416 --> 00:56:13.333
for Joaquina Bona Sánchez
or Aunt Casca to be killed

00:56:13.333 --> 00:56:16.125
and accused of a series of things
that were impossible.

00:56:16.125 --> 00:56:17.500
At the time when Bécquer came

00:56:17.500 --> 00:56:22.291
the influence of witchcraft in the area
was still very present.

00:56:22.291 --> 00:56:26.333
It is probable that he met
descendants of Aunt Casca,

00:56:26.333 --> 00:56:30.750
and it is also probable that other such women
existed in the town of Trasmoz,

00:56:30.750 --> 00:56:32.875
although Gustavo Adolfo
only tells about Casca´s family.

00:56:32.875 --> 00:56:34.791
It is also known,
and there are documents about it,

00:56:34.791 --> 00:56:38.000
that there existed numerous witches
living in Tarazona.

00:56:38.000 --> 00:56:40.916
There are a great number
of non-legendary,

00:56:40.916 --> 00:56:43.458
documented stories,
related to witches and wizards.

00:56:43.458 --> 00:56:45.333
Even the Inquisition tribunal

00:56:45.333 --> 00:56:48.000
decided to establish an office in Tarazona,

00:56:48.000 --> 00:56:53.666
because there were numerous
witchcraft cases to be judged.

00:56:53.666 --> 00:56:55.041
There were tremendous trials.

00:56:55.041 --> 00:56:58.541
In Laspaúles, I believe
there were 24 women.

00:56:58.541 --> 00:57:00.666
Wow, we are talking
about 24 women

00:57:00.666 --> 00:57:01.666
who were hanged.

00:57:01.666 --> 00:57:03.500
In Tamarite we are talking
about seven women.

00:57:03.500 --> 00:57:05.583
In the case of the
witches of Zugarramurdi

00:57:05.583 --> 00:57:07.250
well, these women
were taken to Logroño

00:57:07.250 --> 00:57:09.291
and more than twenty died there.

00:57:09.291 --> 00:57:12.708
That is to say...
tremendous trials.

00:57:18.041 --> 00:57:21.833
In my case I can assure you that
I could not see the present witch

00:57:21.833 --> 00:57:24.500
without feeling an
involuntary shiver.

00:57:24.500 --> 00:57:27.416
She was huddling,
curled up by the fireplace

00:57:27.416 --> 00:57:29.750
among countless old pieces of junk,

00:57:29.750 --> 00:57:33.583
little pots, jugs, marmites
and copper pans.

00:57:33.583 --> 00:57:40.166
By the warmth of the fire, boiled
I don´t know what in a caldron,

00:57:40.166 --> 00:57:45.833
that the old woman
stirred from time to time.

00:57:47.375 --> 00:57:50.541
Maybe it was a potato stew for dinner.

00:57:50.541 --> 00:57:53.541
but impressed at its sight

00:57:53.541 --> 00:57:56.250
and still in my mind the
account of her ancestors,

00:57:56.250 --> 00:58:00.750
I could no less than remember,
hearing the continuous boiling of the blend,

00:58:00.750 --> 00:58:05.375
that infernal mix,
that horrible thing without name,

00:58:05.375 --> 00:58:08.375
the witches of Shakespeare\'s Macbeth.

00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:14.250
Within those that were accused
you could find a bit of everything.

00:58:14.250 --> 00:58:19.416
There were people that had really practiced,
and knew about plants

00:58:19.416 --> 00:58:23.250
and healing activities.

00:58:23.250 --> 00:58:26.375
We must also bear in mind that
in such Sabbaths many women

00:58:26.375 --> 00:58:29.166
some widows,
others with their husbands at war.

00:58:29.166 --> 00:58:31.375
They travelled very far away
from their towns,

00:58:31.375 --> 00:58:34.500
and normally they would smear
certain hallucinogenic plants

00:58:34.500 --> 00:58:36.708
on different parts of their bodies

00:58:36.708 --> 00:58:39.291
armpits, ears, and other
parts of their bodies.

00:58:39.291 --> 00:58:40.750
What happened?

00:58:40.750 --> 00:58:44.500
They did really have feelings of events
that had not taken place.

00:58:44.500 --> 00:58:47.458
The butofenin is extracted
from toad skin

00:58:47.458 --> 00:58:50.000
It can even be poisonous

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:53.291
but used in certain amounts
and in certain ways

00:58:53.291 --> 00:58:55.041
it is a hallucinogen.

00:58:55.041 --> 00:58:56.750
Jimsonweed, or daturas,

00:58:56.750 --> 00:58:59.375
is a plant that grows wild

00:58:59.375 --> 00:59:02.041
all over the mountainside of Moncayo.

00:59:02.041 --> 00:59:03.916
Since prehistoric times

00:59:03.916 --> 00:59:07.083
it´s been known to be used
in infusions,

00:59:07.083 --> 00:59:10.125
or chewed,
in order to come into trance.

00:59:10.125 --> 00:59:13.250
The drug had three main effects:

00:59:13.250 --> 00:59:15.500
detachment from the body,

00:59:15.500 --> 00:59:16.750
metamorphosis

00:59:16.750 --> 00:59:21.416
and change in size,
and the power to move to different places.

00:59:21.416 --> 00:59:24.416
Henbane has some properties
when used in small doses.

00:59:24.458 --> 00:59:27.625
A feeling of lightness,

00:59:27.625 --> 00:59:29.791
and a feeling of floating
or flying.

00:59:29.791 --> 00:59:34.500
And the most curious is that the people
who would awake from this situation or trance

00:59:34.500 --> 00:59:38.000
would believe
it had happened for real.

00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:41.708
We have to realize that Moncayo is the biggest
herbalist\'s shop in Spain.

00:59:41.708 --> 00:59:47.458
It has the highest number of different
medicinal plants in the Mediterranean watershed.

00:59:47.458 --> 00:59:52.083
There were wizards, but female witchcraft
probably was more prosecuted,

00:59:52.083 --> 00:59:54.000
because women were the healers.

00:59:54.000 --> 00:59:56.083
If you were a man, you were a pharmacist,
and that was acceptable,

00:59:56.083 --> 00:59:57.666
but if you were a woman,
you were a witch.

00:59:57.666 --> 01:00:00.291
There were few male healers.
Men were mainly alchemists.

01:00:00.291 --> 01:00:04.875
The issue of witchcraft may be an issue
that has become fashionable

01:00:04.875 --> 01:00:08.916
and it might seem attractive when studied
from a literary point of view, from fairy tales,

01:00:08.916 --> 01:00:13.250
but it is a tremendous issue..
Tremendous, serious, and obscure.

01:00:13.250 --> 01:00:16.958
Others that practiced
crafts related to sorcery

01:00:16.958 --> 01:00:20.416
could be classified in a group that today
we would consider as swindlers.

01:00:20.416 --> 01:00:23.500
Even knowing that what they practiced
was not effective,

01:00:23.500 --> 01:00:26.083
they would practice
to fool people.

01:00:26.083 --> 01:00:30.750
Just like what happens today with many people
who practice such crafts in big cities.

01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:45.666
In the bottom of my soul

01:00:45.666 --> 01:00:47.875
I consecrate,
as a sort of worship,

01:00:47.875 --> 01:00:51.958
a deep veneration for all
that belongs to the past,

01:00:51.958 --> 01:00:54.000
and the poetic traditions,

01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:55.833
the fortresses in ruins,

01:00:55.833 --> 01:00:58.791
the old customs
of our old Spain,

01:00:58.791 --> 01:01:02.041
have for me
all that indefinite charm,

01:01:02.041 --> 01:01:06.083
that mysterious vagueness
of the sunset on a splendid day,

01:01:06.083 --> 01:01:08.791
whose hours,
full of emotions,

01:01:08.791 --> 01:01:12.666
come back to memory
dressed in colors and light,

01:01:12.666 --> 01:01:15.333
before getting buried
in the darkness

01:01:15.333 --> 01:01:17.791
where they shall be forever lost.

01:01:20.250 --> 01:01:23.208
Bécquer was extremely interested
in keeping tradition,

01:01:23.208 --> 01:01:25.375
because he was
in love with tradition,

01:01:25.375 --> 01:01:27.375
in all senses.
Artistic, and all sorts of traditions.

01:01:27.375 --> 01:01:29.875
He wanted nothing to be lost.

01:01:29.875 --> 01:01:33.583
He started with the
approach of Romantics,

01:01:33.583 --> 01:01:36.208
who believed that the
world of progress,

01:01:36.208 --> 01:01:37.750
the modern world,

01:01:37.750 --> 01:01:40.625
was getting further and further
from ways of life

01:01:40.625 --> 01:01:43.375
where beliefs and legends

01:01:43.375 --> 01:01:46.000
played an essential cultural role.

01:01:46.000 --> 01:01:49.041
He formed a sort of team with Valeriano.

01:01:49.041 --> 01:01:51.291
They were brothers,
but they were also much more than brothers.

01:01:51.291 --> 01:01:53.250
Among them there was
a first-rate emotional

01:01:53.250 --> 01:01:55.291
and cultural understanding.

01:01:55.291 --> 01:01:59.625
Both of them endeavored
to rescue and defend

01:01:59.625 --> 01:02:03.375
the traditional heritage,
frequently immaterial,

01:02:03.375 --> 01:02:04.583
that they didn´t want to lose.

01:02:04.583 --> 01:02:08.500
There is a great sentence
in the fourth letter of “From my Cell”,

01:02:08.500 --> 01:02:11.708
where Bécquer says that it is not necessary
to wait for the traces to be erased,

01:02:11.708 --> 01:02:13.791
to start looking for them.

01:02:17.125 --> 01:02:22.083
Writers and artists
should often do something similar.

01:02:22.083 --> 01:02:25.708
Only that way can we gather
the last word of an age

01:02:25.708 --> 01:02:28.750
hat goes away,
of which only a few traces remain

01:02:28.750 --> 01:02:32.041
in the most remote
corners of our provinces,

01:02:32.041 --> 01:02:36.708
and of which tomorrow barely
a hazy memory will stay behind.

01:02:39.250 --> 01:02:41.708
Bécquer was a conservative

01:02:41.708 --> 01:02:43.875
in the best of senses,

01:02:43.875 --> 01:02:46.166
but he was also a progressive person.

01:02:46.166 --> 01:02:49.000
For example,
he used a lot photography.

01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:53.208
He was the first one to use photography
to illustrate books,

01:02:53.208 --> 01:02:55.041
such as in
“The History of Temples of Spain.”

01:02:55.041 --> 01:02:58.166
Everyone fond of Bécquer
knows the “Rhymes and Legends,”

01:02:58.166 --> 01:03:01.416
but they don\'t know that Bécquer
also wrote excellent prose

01:03:01.416 --> 01:03:04.250
and was one of the greatest
journalists of his time.

01:03:04.458 --> 01:03:08.583
But he is also, almost the inventor,
along with others,

01:03:08.583 --> 01:03:11.458
of what is called
“the illustrated magazines.”

01:03:11.458 --> 01:03:13.583
He is an innovator
in so many things,

01:03:13.583 --> 01:03:16.791
but he is a conservative person

01:03:16.791 --> 01:03:19.708
in what he deemed
worthy of preserving.

01:03:19.708 --> 01:03:22.291
I believe he was able to do
what nobody had been able to before.

01:03:22.291 --> 01:03:26.750
And in his legends he assimilates
all the European traditions,

01:03:26.750 --> 01:03:29.458
but he also introduces
the Spanish element,

01:03:29.458 --> 01:03:31.958
the element of the place where he is.

01:03:31.958 --> 01:03:35.583
The fourth letter is a really
ethnological program,

01:03:35.583 --> 01:03:39.458
and the following letters
are the implementation of that program.

01:03:39.458 --> 01:03:44.000
What do we find in them? Well,
from the account of the origin of a castle,

01:03:44.000 --> 01:03:45.750
such as the castle of Trasmoz,

01:03:45.750 --> 01:03:48.541
to a history of witches
and superstition,

01:03:48.541 --> 01:03:50.500
such as the story of Aunt Casca,

01:03:50.500 --> 01:03:56.375
or the legendary tale of the origin
of the Monastery of Veruela,

01:03:56.375 --> 01:03:59.583
which we find in the ninth letter.

01:04:06.333 --> 01:04:08.625
Now that I am in my cell, calm,

01:04:08.625 --> 01:04:12.708
writing for you the account
of these strange impressions,

01:04:12.708 --> 01:04:17.250
I cannot less than marvel
and regret that the old superstitions

01:04:17.250 --> 01:04:21.083
still have such deep roots within
the people of the small villages,

01:04:21.083 --> 01:04:23.375
giving rise to such events.

01:04:23.375 --> 01:04:25.750
But, why should I not confess it?

01:04:25.750 --> 01:04:29.916
Hearing still the last words
of that fearful account

01:04:29.916 --> 01:04:34.666
with that man beside me, who in such good faith
implored for the divine protection

01:04:34.666 --> 01:04:37.041
to accomplish outrageous crimes.

01:04:37.041 --> 01:04:40.750
seeing under my feet
the obscure, deep abyss

01:04:40.750 --> 01:04:43.208
where water revolved within darkness,

01:04:43.208 --> 01:04:45.625
imitating moans and laments,

01:04:45.625 --> 01:04:47.916
and faraway the traditional castle,

01:04:47.916 --> 01:04:49.958
crowned with black battlements,

01:04:49.958 --> 01:04:53.250
that seemed phantoms
leaning from the walls,

01:04:53.250 --> 01:04:55.708
I felt an anguished impression,

01:04:55.708 --> 01:04:58.083
my hair involuntarily bristled,

01:04:58.083 --> 01:05:01.750
and reason,
dominated by phantasy,

01:05:01.750 --> 01:05:03.333
supported by everything,

01:05:03.333 --> 01:05:07.833
the place, the hour
and the silence of the night,

01:05:07.833 --> 01:05:10.958
vacilated for a moment
and I almost believed

01:05:10.958 --> 01:05:13.583
that the absurd rumors of witchcraft

01:05:13.583 --> 01:05:15.083
and curses

01:05:15.083 --> 01:05:17.333
could have real existence.

01:05:18.541 --> 01:05:19.791
It´s always very complicated
with Bécquer

01:05:19.791 --> 01:05:24.583
to know what´s personal
and what´s literary.

01:05:24.583 --> 01:05:28.458
Because he´s a master at creating
ambiguous situations,

01:05:28.458 --> 01:05:31.500
which is a key element in his literature.

01:05:31.500 --> 01:05:34.250
Something that has not been
noticed enough

01:05:34.250 --> 01:05:39.666
is that he must have done a very serious
research to be so right

01:05:39.666 --> 01:05:42.958
on the three types of spells
of the three letters.

01:05:42.958 --> 01:05:45.500
The first one would be
a spell of protection.

01:05:45.500 --> 01:05:48.541
the second would be a spell of
enrichment or power

01:05:48.541 --> 01:05:52.541
calling upon the spirits of
earth, of air, of water...

01:05:52.541 --> 01:05:53.541
the four elements.

01:05:53.541 --> 01:05:57.125
and the third spell would be a spell
of amorous magic,

01:05:57.125 --> 01:05:59.583
or maybe not as much of love
as of attachment.

01:05:59.583 --> 01:06:01.875
These spells were there and
they were done by many people,

01:06:01.875 --> 01:06:04.291
even priests, and probably
that world of spells

01:06:04.291 --> 01:06:07.125
seemed absolutely medieval to Bécquer.

01:06:07.125 --> 01:06:09.125
He liked it.
He loved that world, of course.

01:06:09.125 --> 01:06:12.750
And it is what he shows
in all his works,

01:06:12.750 --> 01:06:15.333
his legends, even in some
of his poems.

01:06:24.458 --> 01:06:27.708
The importance of love for Bécquer
is essential.

01:06:27.708 --> 01:06:29.416
He is branded as the poet of love,

01:06:29.416 --> 01:06:31.250
but that bothers me a lot,

01:06:31.250 --> 01:06:33.083
because of course he deals
with the theme of love,

01:06:33.083 --> 01:06:35.750
but what poet doesn\'t deal with it?
Love is a universal theme.

01:06:35.750 --> 01:06:38.416
He distinguished other
peoples´ poetry

01:06:38.416 --> 01:06:40.041
from the poetry of poets,

01:06:40.041 --> 01:06:42.458
and reserved for the poetry of poets

01:06:42.458 --> 01:06:44.458
these issues and these themes:

01:06:44.458 --> 01:06:47.291
the expression of intimacy in pain,

01:06:47.291 --> 01:06:49.291
frequently devastating.

01:06:49.291 --> 01:06:51.791
It is said that he was
very unhappy in love.

01:06:51.791 --> 01:06:54.791
His great love, Julia Espín,
everybody knows about her.

01:06:54.791 --> 01:06:56.666
But that woman despised him!

01:06:56.666 --> 01:06:59.250
And Casta Esteban, well,
that was an unsuccessful marriage,

01:06:59.250 --> 01:07:01.583
because it was not based on love,

01:07:01.583 --> 01:07:02.583
not at all.

01:07:02.583 --> 01:07:04.166
And it was a very weird marriage,

01:07:04.166 --> 01:07:08.333
because she was the daughter of the doctor
that had treated Bécquer\'s syphilis.

01:07:08.333 --> 01:07:11.750
They were very obscure
and sad times

01:07:11.750 --> 01:07:16.666
considering that the marriage with Casta Esteban
was a very unhappy marriage.

01:07:16.666 --> 01:07:20.416
Maybe Bécquer was not successful
with the idea of romantic love

01:07:20.416 --> 01:07:21.416
that we all have,

01:07:21.416 --> 01:07:24.958
but he was indeed successful with love
in regards to his family,

01:07:24.958 --> 01:07:27.083
the people that were close to him,
and his friends.

01:07:27.083 --> 01:07:29.625
They were very,
very intimately connected.

01:07:35.634 --> 01:07:38.861
As time passes
I am more and more convinced

01:07:38.861 --> 01:07:40.247
that not a single atom
of what is worth,

01:07:40.247 --> 01:07:44.499
of what is meaningful,
shall remain.

01:07:51.333 --> 01:07:55.958
The stereotypical witch
was an aged woman

01:07:55.958 --> 01:07:58.541
with no man at home.

01:07:58.541 --> 01:08:00.375
Women at that time
belonged to a man.

01:08:00.375 --> 01:08:05.916
In trials it was “whatever her first name was”,
“daughter of” ”... a man

01:08:05.958 --> 01:08:07.500
“married to”... a man

01:08:07.500 --> 01:08:08.875
or “mother of”... a man.

01:08:08.875 --> 01:08:13.166
The fact that almost all
witches were female

01:08:13.166 --> 01:08:15.666
obviously has to do
with a patriarchal society,

01:08:15.666 --> 01:08:20.375
with the fact that woman was considered
the origin of all evil.

01:08:20.375 --> 01:08:23.083
The witch, most of all, was a figure
normally rejected by society,

01:08:23.083 --> 01:08:24.958
but rejected inconsistently,

01:08:24.958 --> 01:08:30.291
because many people turned to witches
to cure illnesses.

01:08:30.291 --> 01:08:34.875
They were the healers,
the local midwives, the therapists.

01:08:34.875 --> 01:08:37.000
All witches were healers.

01:08:37.000 --> 01:08:40.208
In reality, witches were healers.

01:08:40.208 --> 01:08:43.500
What happened was that they were
an uneasy issue

01:08:43.500 --> 01:08:45.375
for part of society,
mainly for the Church.

01:08:45.375 --> 01:08:48.041
Women were considered
by the Church evil beings.

01:08:48.041 --> 01:08:50.458
Saint Augustine in the 4th-century,

01:08:50.458 --> 01:08:52.291
and Saint Thomas Aquinas
in the 5th-century

01:08:52.291 --> 01:08:55.458
considered women diabolical beings.

01:08:55.500 --> 01:08:57.541
A creature that is predisposed
to make evil.

01:08:57.541 --> 01:09:00.500
Witches and priests
were the doctors of the souls.

01:09:00.500 --> 01:09:03.333
You go to the confessor to
tell him about your problems,

01:09:03.333 --> 01:09:05.500
maybe about your worries,
and he advises you.

01:09:05.500 --> 01:09:08.333
What happens?
Sorcerers, witches do that too.

01:09:08.333 --> 01:09:08.375
What happens?
Sorcerers, witches do that too.
“Oh, I\'m with love with that one,
make a spell so that he comes to me”

01:09:08.375 --> 01:09:12.583
“Oh, I\'m with love with that one,
make a spell so that he comes to me”

01:09:12.583 --> 01:09:13.875
or “returns to me”.

01:09:13.875 --> 01:09:15.458
They were in direct competition.

01:09:15.458 --> 01:09:17.416
If you paid the healer

01:09:17.416 --> 01:09:20.291
to come to your home
and cure your family,

01:09:20.291 --> 01:09:22.125
you did not pay
the alms for the mass

01:09:22.125 --> 01:09:25.500
so that the priest
would pray for your relative.

01:09:25.500 --> 01:09:29.958
Women in that society
had a reproductive function

01:09:29.958 --> 01:09:31.666
as a mother or wife.

01:09:31.666 --> 01:09:35.083
When they became
useless for that task,

01:09:35.083 --> 01:09:36.833
after menopause,

01:09:36.833 --> 01:09:41.666
old women were thought
to be totally useless.

01:09:41.666 --> 01:09:44.166
They turned into disposable,

01:09:44.166 --> 01:09:47.208
dependent old women,
so it was easy to call them witches,

01:09:47.208 --> 01:09:50.125
since they were already rejected
and were scapegoats.

01:09:50.125 --> 01:09:55.250
Women have been neglected
in many moments throughout history.

01:09:55.250 --> 01:09:56.791
The person who makes
decisions is the man,

01:09:56.791 --> 01:10:00.666
and it is only after the French Revolution,
in 1789,

01:10:00.666 --> 01:10:03.708
when women started to acquire
some kind of equality.

01:10:03.708 --> 01:10:07.333
At that time, any kind of culture

01:10:07.333 --> 01:10:09.083
was denied to women.

01:10:09.083 --> 01:10:12.500
Culture is opposed to submission.

01:10:12.500 --> 01:10:14.375
Any woman that crossed the line

01:10:14.375 --> 01:10:16.458
might easily be accused of witchcraft.

01:10:16.458 --> 01:10:20.833
Why? Because if that knowledge
had not been given by God,

01:10:20.833 --> 01:10:22.500
it had been given by the devil.

01:10:22.500 --> 01:10:25.500
At the end of 15th-century,
two German inquisitors

01:10:25.500 --> 01:10:29.083
wrote a book that became
very well-known all over Europe...

01:10:29.083 --> 01:10:31.750
\"The Maleficus Maleficarum\",
(\"The Hammer of Witches\"),

01:10:31.750 --> 01:10:35.541
is a 15th-century book, written by
the Dominican inquisitors.

01:10:35.541 --> 01:10:37.791
It is said it was the most sold book
for two centuries,

01:10:37.791 --> 01:10:38.791
after the Bible...

01:10:38.791 --> 01:10:41.250
...and in that book,
which is very misogynistic,

01:10:41.250 --> 01:10:43.250
we can see what was
thought about women.

01:10:43.250 --> 01:10:46.666
According to this book,
women were inferior,

01:10:46.666 --> 01:10:49.666
weak beings, susceptible
to corruption by the devil.

01:10:49.666 --> 01:10:52.916
And that is the reason why
there were so many witches at the time.

01:10:52.916 --> 01:10:57.208
For example, there are a lot of
fake etymologies.

01:10:57.208 --> 01:10:59.208
One of them is “femina” (woman)

01:10:59.208 --> 01:11:03.125
According to the authors of this book,
its origin is “fe minus”

01:11:03.125 --> 01:11:05.291
since women had less faith.

01:11:05.291 --> 01:11:08.000
If we, women of today,
were transported to that time,

01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:10.708
we wouldn´t last
one second.

01:11:10.708 --> 01:11:13.250
We would be burned before
turning the first corner…

01:11:13.250 --> 01:11:16.416
and for several reasons.

01:11:22.958 --> 01:11:26.375
\"Beauty will save the world\"

01:11:29.958 --> 01:11:31.875
Wanderer is a great journalist
from Madrid,

01:11:31.875 --> 01:11:33.416
named Manuel Alhama Montes,

01:11:33.416 --> 01:11:35.958
who edited a travel magazine,
“Around the World,”

01:11:35.958 --> 01:11:37.166
that was very successful at the time.

01:11:37.166 --> 01:11:39.750
Among those trips,
he travelled around Aragón,

01:11:39.750 --> 01:11:41.708
following Bécquer\'s footsteps.

01:11:41.708 --> 01:11:45.416
Wanderer was in Trasmoz,
and he relates in priceless article

01:11:45.416 --> 01:11:48.250
that he met one of Casca´s relatives.

01:11:48.250 --> 01:11:50.500
Wanderer asked
Aunt Casca´s relative´s permission

01:11:50.500 --> 01:11:51.875
to take her picture,

01:11:51.875 --> 01:11:54.416
and even though she was very antisocial,
he convinced her.

01:11:54.416 --> 01:11:57.166
Curiously, her picture turned out totally black.

01:11:58.625 --> 01:12:02.958
He had success with the picture he took
of the other side of the family

01:12:02.958 --> 01:12:03.958
the Galgas.

01:12:03.958 --> 01:12:06.625
They were known as the Galgas,
a mother and a daughter,

01:12:06.625 --> 01:12:08.458
a lineage of healers

01:12:08.458 --> 01:12:10.000
that could be said to be witches.

01:12:10.000 --> 01:12:12.416
The Galga was supposed to be
Aunt Casca´s niece.

01:12:12.416 --> 01:12:15.583
But they were very friendly,
they got along with the rest of the town,

01:12:15.583 --> 01:12:19.916
and they also had a different attitude
to that known of Aunt Casca.

01:12:19.916 --> 01:12:23.041
Many people could not write,
and the only way to have access to knowledge

01:12:23.041 --> 01:12:24.666
was through oral transmission.

01:12:24.666 --> 01:12:26.583
In Litago, there was a woman

01:12:26.583 --> 01:12:33.916
who was very similar to what Gustavo Adolfo
narrated in “Letters from my cell.”

01:12:33.958 --> 01:12:37.916
It is said that in order to heal colds,

01:12:37.916 --> 01:12:45.375
she would cover the person with dung,
with animals\' excrements.

01:12:47.250 --> 01:12:50.458
It has been lost. Let\'s say that
that transmission of knowledge has been lost

01:12:50.458 --> 01:12:53.500
And that is a really
extraordinary cultural loss,

01:12:53.500 --> 01:12:58.041
because much of that knowledge
will never be recovered again.

01:13:01.333 --> 01:13:04.583
As words fly
through telegraphic wires,

01:13:04.583 --> 01:13:07.958
railroad extends, industry grows,

01:13:07.958 --> 01:13:11.708
and the cosmopolitan spirit of civilization
invades our country,

01:13:11.708 --> 01:13:15.333
its unique features

01:13:15.333 --> 01:13:17.750
its immemorial customs,

01:13:17.750 --> 01:13:20.000
its picturesque garment

01:13:20.041 --> 01:13:22.375
and stale ideas start to disappear

01:13:22.375 --> 01:13:26.083
For many years, it has been said
that the Bécquer´s brothers

01:13:26.083 --> 01:13:28.625
listened to a town woman
in Veruela

01:13:28.625 --> 01:13:32.375
telling them that there had been a treasure
hidden since the time of the Moors.

01:13:32.375 --> 01:13:35.166
It is said that he saved money
all his life

01:13:35.166 --> 01:13:37.958
in order to buy a piece of land
by the Monastery of Veruela,

01:13:37.958 --> 01:13:40.458
where they say he found a treasure.

01:13:41.333 --> 01:13:43.291
For many years treasures
could be found.

01:13:43.291 --> 01:13:46.583
During times of social conflicts
or war,

01:13:46.583 --> 01:13:48.000
people used to hide
their belongings.

01:13:48.000 --> 01:13:51.916
When the Moriscos (Moors converted to Christianity)
were expelled in 1610,

01:13:51.916 --> 01:13:53.291
everyone was a Morisco.

01:13:53.291 --> 01:13:57.333
They were people who had always
been associated with gold,

01:13:57.333 --> 01:13:59.875
and when they left,
because they were expelled,

01:13:59.875 --> 01:14:02.833
they couldn´t take all their money,

01:14:02.833 --> 01:14:05.291
so they hid it in certain places.

01:14:05.291 --> 01:14:10.000
What the story tells us is that he found
a treasure of great historic-artistic value,

01:14:10.041 --> 01:14:11.875
full of works of art.

01:14:11.875 --> 01:14:14.125
It is unknown
if they really found it.

01:14:14.125 --> 01:14:16.500
It is said that the second time,
Bécquer wanted to come back

01:14:16.500 --> 01:14:18.833
because he knew exactly its position.

01:14:19.041 --> 01:14:22.625
What is certain is that the Monastery of Veruela
got disentailed and confiscated,

01:14:22.625 --> 01:14:25.208
and a patrimony accumulated
through 700 years

01:14:25.208 --> 01:14:27.083
isappeared, leaving no traces.

01:14:40.041 --> 01:14:41.833
Here is, at the present time,

01:14:41.833 --> 01:14:43.208
all that I ambition

01:14:43.666 --> 01:14:47.250
to be a bit player in the
immense comedy of Humanity

01:14:47.250 --> 01:14:49.625
and, once my role of raising attendance
is completed,

01:14:49.625 --> 01:14:53.416
to go behind the scenes without
being whistled or applauded,

01:14:53.416 --> 01:14:55.875
without anyone even perceiving

01:14:55.875 --> 01:14:57.541
my dismissal.

01:14:57.750 --> 01:14:59.250
On the death of Bécquer,

01:14:59.250 --> 01:15:01.291
there are very different opinions.

01:15:01.291 --> 01:15:06.750
It was not a family
of long lives.

01:15:06.750 --> 01:15:08.541
The death of Valeriano,

01:15:08.541 --> 01:15:11.333
I understand, must have affected him
to a great degree.

01:15:11.333 --> 01:15:16.875
He truly bore an existence of rather
precarious health, in general.

01:15:17.083 --> 01:15:19.916
Bécquer died at the Claudio Coello Street
in Madrid.

01:15:19.916 --> 01:15:21.500
He lived there only a short time
before he died,

01:15:21.500 --> 01:15:23.250
because previously he had lived
at the Quinta del Espiritu Santo,

01:15:23.250 --> 01:15:26.291
but after the death of
Valeriano, he moved.

01:15:26.291 --> 01:15:28.208
In reality it was his friend González Correa
who took him there,

01:15:28.208 --> 01:15:32.041
because he did not want him to go on living
at the house where he had lived with his brother.

01:15:32.041 --> 01:15:35.291
Bécquer died on December 22, 1870.

01:15:35.291 --> 01:15:38.500
A couple of weeks before dying,

01:15:38.500 --> 01:15:41.166
he made a rash trip
from Puerta del Sol

01:15:41.166 --> 01:15:44.000
to his house in Claudio Coello.

01:15:44.000 --> 01:15:49.166
It was an extremely cold winter,

01:15:49.166 --> 01:15:51.666
and he traveled in one
of the horse trolleys,

01:15:51.666 --> 01:15:57.083
not inside, but on a sort of
terrace on the outside.

01:15:57.083 --> 01:15:58.541
He got seriously ill,

01:15:58.541 --> 01:16:01.916
and the death of Bécquer
was probably a consequence

01:16:01.916 --> 01:16:06.291
of that unfortunate trip in Madrid,

01:16:06.291 --> 01:16:07.750
from which he did not recover.

01:16:07.750 --> 01:16:10.875
It saddens me to imagine Bécquer in bed,
about to die,

01:16:10.875 --> 01:16:13.291
and beside him Augusto Ferrán,
his best friend.

01:16:13.291 --> 01:16:15.125
And Gustavo told him:

01:16:15.125 --> 01:16:17.541
“Take those letters on the nightstand ...\"

01:16:17.708 --> 01:16:21.125
\"... and burn them because I don\'t want them
to dishonor me.”

01:16:21.125 --> 01:16:23.958
The mystery of the burnt letters.

01:16:23.958 --> 01:16:26.458
Well, obviously it is not known

01:16:26.458 --> 01:16:28.166
what those letters told,

01:16:28.166 --> 01:16:31.333
or if they were love letters
to other women.

01:16:31.333 --> 01:16:33.583
It is a crucial moment.

01:16:33.583 --> 01:16:36.666
And many of us would give a lot
to read those letters!

01:16:37.041 --> 01:16:39.333
He also asked them
to publish his works.

01:16:39.333 --> 01:16:42.958
He thought he would be better known
dead than alive.

01:16:44.500 --> 01:16:47.125
One has to imagine Gustavo
losing his life...

01:16:47.125 --> 01:16:50.833
... and he exhaled
with some last words saying:

01:16:50.875 --> 01:16:52.291
“all mortal.”

01:16:52.291 --> 01:16:57.166
It is also a statement
truly full of suggestions

01:16:57.166 --> 01:16:59.416
and not totally complete.

01:16:59.416 --> 01:17:02.541
There can be seen
the greatness of Gustavo.

01:17:02.541 --> 01:17:03.708
He knew himself to be mortal.

01:17:03.708 --> 01:17:06.708
All mortal what?
All mortal what happens?

01:17:06.708 --> 01:17:10.041
All mortal succumbs.
All mortal ends.

01:17:10.166 --> 01:17:11.625
All mortal.

01:17:13.500 --> 01:17:14.833
All mortal.

01:17:15.708 --> 01:17:19.791
I dreamt then
of an independent, happy life,

01:17:19.791 --> 01:17:21.583
similar to that of birds

01:17:21.583 --> 01:17:23.166
that are born to sing

01:17:23.166 --> 01:17:25.500
and God gives them food to eat.

01:17:25.500 --> 01:17:27.875
I dreamt of that quiet life
of the poet

01:17:27.875 --> 01:17:31.500
that irradiates a soft light
from one generation to another

01:17:31.500 --> 01:17:33.833
I dreamt that the city
that saw my birth

01:17:33.833 --> 01:17:35.791
would be proud of my name,

01:17:35.791 --> 01:17:38.333
adding it to the brilliant catalog

01:17:38.333 --> 01:17:40.416
of its distinguished sons.

01:17:41.041 --> 01:17:43.166
Coming back from the burial,

01:17:43.166 --> 01:17:47.458
attended by many people
of the cultural society in Madrid,

01:17:47.458 --> 01:17:50.458
not only writers,
but also sculptors and painters...

01:17:50.458 --> 01:17:53.291
One of these painters,
Casado del Alisal,

01:17:53.291 --> 01:17:56.166
and also Augusto Ferrán
and some other friends

01:17:56.166 --> 01:18:00.125
say: “How can we leave
the works of Bécquer unpublished!?”

01:18:00.125 --> 01:18:02.333
And well,
it was something incredible.

01:18:02.333 --> 01:18:06.250
In a short time several editions
of the complete works of Bécquer were published.

01:18:06.250 --> 01:18:08.916
His fame spread everywhere.

01:18:10.750 --> 01:18:14.208
In Seville, we have Gustavo Adolfo
and Valeriano buried there.

01:18:14.208 --> 01:18:17.125
And still today, there are many people
going on pilgrimage,

01:18:17.125 --> 01:18:19.375
leaving their love messages
at his tomb.

01:18:19.375 --> 01:18:25.875
Little notes, writings, etc.
as a desire to communicate with the poet,

01:18:25.875 --> 01:18:29.333
who in some way,
for these people, has meant

01:18:29.333 --> 01:18:31.166
or means much.

01:18:37.958 --> 01:18:39.333
The day Bécquer died

01:18:39.333 --> 01:18:42.458
there was a total solar eclipse
in his native Seville.

01:18:42.833 --> 01:18:44.250
It is a very beautiful coincidence,

01:18:44.250 --> 01:18:47.083
and I love what Rafael Montesinos
says about it.

01:18:47.083 --> 01:18:50.958
He says that it was the first tribute
given to Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer.

01:18:51.208 --> 01:18:53.958
I like to think that sometimes
coincidences happen, don\'t you?

01:18:53.958 --> 01:18:57.375
And to realize that Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
found his arrival to Moncayo

01:18:57.375 --> 01:19:01.625
marked by the murder of a witch who was killed
at the moment a solar eclipse took place,

01:19:01.625 --> 01:19:04.250
on July 18, 1860.

01:19:04.250 --> 01:19:07.166
And it is lovely, or maybe sad,
to think that Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer

01:19:07.166 --> 01:19:08.791
died around another solar eclipse,

01:19:08.791 --> 01:19:11.583
on December 22, 1870.

01:19:11.583 --> 01:19:13.666
Coincidences are curious.

01:19:16.875 --> 01:19:18.958
The relation between Bécquer
and mystery

01:19:18.958 --> 01:19:20.958
is a multifaceted issue.

01:19:20.958 --> 01:19:22.708
Bécquer was a Romantic poet

01:19:22.708 --> 01:19:24.833
who was obsessed with mystery.

01:19:24.833 --> 01:19:28.166
Bécquer himself made a mystery
out of his life.

01:19:28.166 --> 01:19:30.583
Bécquer is pure love for mystery.

01:19:30.583 --> 01:19:33.041
Bécquer is a mystery because his work
is full of mystery,

01:19:33.041 --> 01:19:36.708
and because also in his own life
there were many unrevealed mysteries,

01:19:36.708 --> 01:19:38.333
and many mysteries
we will not discover.

01:19:38.333 --> 01:19:40.333
His own personality

01:19:40.333 --> 01:19:43.666
was a mysterious personality
to a great extent.

01:19:43.875 --> 01:19:46.375
Bécquer is able to transmit mystery,

01:19:46.375 --> 01:19:48.541
but he himself
is the great mystery.

01:19:54.333 --> 01:19:55.666
Now all is over.

01:19:55.666 --> 01:19:58.875
Madrid, politics, ardent fights,

01:19:58.875 --> 01:20:00.291
human miseries,

01:20:00.291 --> 01:20:03.041
passions, setbacks,

01:20:03.041 --> 01:20:04.291
desires

01:20:04.833 --> 01:20:07.583
All has drowned
in that divine music

01:20:07.916 --> 01:20:09.791
My soul is already so serene

01:20:09.791 --> 01:20:12.666
as still, deep water.

01:20:21.541 --> 01:20:24.416
As long as there is
mystery for man,

01:20:24.416 --> 01:20:29.980
there will be poetry!