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A Corme percebero wants to re-discover the real meaning of our past.
(Information provided by 'Cadena Ser Bergantiņos')
Suso Lista, a percebero from Corme has his heart set on turning local history around. His job allows him plenty of free time - in 1998 he was only able to go to collect barnacles 72 days out of the whole year - which means that he spends his days pursuing his favourite pastime, which is to scour the local hills in search of archaeological evidence or remains with which he can explain the true historical past of the area to his neighbours. At the beginning of February Suso found, on one of his regular trips, a stone covered in engraved inscriptions of varying shapes (which scientists call 'petroglyphs'). " I've had the greatest surprise of my life as I'd always been looking for something like this," Suso explained on Radio Bergantiņos-Cadena Ser. On the day of the great discovery, Suso let his instinct take over and he changed his usual route, which took him in the direction of Gondomil, to go towards another area, in which two rivers have their source. After covering a long stretch full of obstacles and very tired of walking, he lay down to rest on some rocks. He was half-way through a cigarette when he thought he could make something out which was half-hidden among the furze and thicket. Suso jumped up, his heart had already given a leap, and made his way towards the mystery object which turned out to be a huge stone which had engraved symbols on its outer face. Although he didn't know what they meant, it was proof that the surrounding area must have been inhabited thousands of years ago by humans which the people of Corme more than likely still had traces of in their blood. "Here in Corme there must be many more specimens like this or of similar characteristics," predicts Suso Lista, "but I suppose it must be a question of having more patience." The percebero doesn't understand how nowadays, with the available means, the experts don't intensify their efforts to try to clarify our past. He can't understand how legends still form a mayor part of the explanations for the historical remains which appear in these areas, as is the case with the pedra da serpe ('the serpent stone') in Gondomil, for which no better explanation has been found than it being a symbol to commemorate Saint Adrian's deed of ridding the area of serpents. Suso believes that legends can be useful as a starting point for a serious investigation, and he gives as an example some hide-outs which some sailors speak about. "In one of them, according to the old folks of the area, there exists a door behind which there's a hidden staircase and there's even a beach inside," Suso explained on the radio programme. He says that, for the time being, he has to make do with the same old few books which contain some of the research carried out by archaeologists and historians. "I wish I had the Simancas archive ; I'd be stuck in it all day long" he says. The Corme neighbourhood association used to have Internet access but one fine day the local council disconnected it, and now Suso is completely out of touch with the world that exists beyond those books he does have access to. Suso Lista still has the hope of being able to find more remains hidden among the furze of the hills he walks, and after his find he's even more convinced that he'll be proved right. All that's needed now is for the researchers to stop playing at legend-narrating and begin some serious work to try to clarify the obscurity of our primeval past. This is the urgent call made by this young percebero who awaits the moment in which there are new discoveries with which to turn Corme's history around. ( The interview with Suso Lista was broadcast on the 7th of February 2000 on the programme Vivir en Bergantiņos ( 'Living in Bergantiņos' ) on Radio Bergantiņos-Cadena Ser ).
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