El Bierzo Alto
Linocut print.
Hahnemühle paper of 300 g.
30 x 30 cm.
Limited edition of 50 prints.

My entire maternal family comes from El Bierzo Alto, a small region in northwestern Spain, bordered to the north by Asturias, to the west by Galicia, and to the east by León. El Bierzo covers an area of ​​2828 km², and almost 150000 inhabitants live there, about half of them in the capital, Ponferrada, well known for being an important transit point in the Way of Saint James. But, more specifically, my maternal family comes from Colinas, a beautiful village located in the heart of the Sierra de Gistredo.

With the passing of time and the new needs imposed by modern life, my grandparents came down from the mountains and built a house in the vicinity of Bembibre, a small town close to Ponferrada. Near their house, my grandparents bought a vineyard, La Viña, where they planted a mimosa tree, under which all of us who came along grew up playing. A few kilometres from our vineyard is Folgoso, the birthplace of my cousins’ grandparents. In fact, it was their grandfather, Ser Puente, who made the name of Folgoso famous in all the region thanks to the incredible handcrafted nativity scene he built.

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