WHAT TO SEE
Ramiro Pinilla – Literary route around Getxo
Photograph on loan from Getxoko Liburutegiak – Getxo Municipal Libraries
The route takes you through the Verdes valles, colinas rojas ["Green Valleys, Red Hills"] trilogy and other novels by Ramiro Pinilla. Along the way you will see the reasons behind the name, with the green valleys washed by the sea and the landscape tinged with red.
You will visit the places where Pinilla set his literary world, such as Arrigunaga Beach and La Venta. And you will fall in love (or perhaps not) with the characters that inhabit his Getxo and give such life to his stories: the Baskardos of Sugarkea, Don Manuel, Roque, the Marquess of Oiaindia, Ella, etc. These are characters who crop up in more than one novel and shape the world created by Pinilla.
If you are familiar with his books you will be struck by flashes of recognition along the trail. If not, then let Deapie give you a full-on introduction to his literary world.
RAMIRO PINILLA (1923 - 2014)
Although described as being from Getxo, Ramiro Pinilla was actually born in Bilbao. Up to the age of 13 he spent his summers in a farmhouse above Getxo's Arrigunaga Beach. He was so captivated by the area that in Andanzas de Txiki Baskardo [“Adventures of Txiki Baskardo”] he invented a legend according to which “life on earth was born from these waves".
He moved to Getxo when he was 35. Shortly afterwards he obtained widespread recognition for the first time when his novel Las ciegas hormigas [“Blind Ants”] won the Premio Nadal award in 1960 and the Premio de la Crítica in 1961. It was not until 2004 that Tusquets published his renowned trilogy and literary testament Verdes valles, colinas rojas [“Green Valleys, Red Hills”]. Its three volumes were La tierra convulsa, Los cuerpos desnudos and Las cenizas del hierro [“The Turbulent Land”, “The Naked Bodies” and “The Ashes of Iron”]. This monumental work earned him further literary awards such as the Crítica, the Euskadi and the National Award for Literature. In 2014, speaking from the hospital bed where he spent his last days, he said how happy he was that he had worked out a good ending for a tough chapter in the novel that he was currently writing. Ramiro Pinilla lived out his passion for writing until the very end.
1. San Nicolás square
The San Nicolás Library contains all Ramiro Pinilla's books and a complete, bound collection of Galea, the local newspaper which he set up and promoted, on which many journalists and essayists cut their teeth.
2. Avenida de Algorta, 69
It was at this location, now occupied by a shop, that Pinilla set the Beltza bookshop, run by young book-lover Sancho Bordaberri in Solo un muerto más [“Just One More Dead Man”].
3. La Cadena
There used to be a level crossing on this spot, known as La Cadena (which translates as “the chain”), which Pinilla featured in Verdes valles, colinas rojas: "Back in the day there was a chain to which countrywomen would hitch their donkeys by the main road through Algorta..."
4. Cruce de Venancios
This crossroads is where Verdes valles, colinas rojas begins, at the stately home of the Marquess of Oiaindia.
5. Former Getxo station
It was in a house on this spot that footballer Souto Menaya, the central character of Aquella edad inolvidable [“That Unforgettable Age”], was born. Pinilla dedicated this book, which won the Premio Euskadi award in 2013, to football in general and to his beloved Athletic in particular.
6. La Venta
“The legend says that Ermo's eyes shone brighter than ever (…) and he set to digging a trench around the counter to build walls. An inn, then". The Verdes valles, colinas rojas trilogy.
7. Chapel of El Ángel de la Guarda
“(…) That box-like chapel, little more than a shed, built at the foot of the great oak in whose boughs Totacoxe said she saw an angel when she was a girl, so that it was known ever after as the Chapel of the Angel”. The Verdes valles, colinas rojas trilogy.“(…).
8. Church of Andra Mari
The territory of the Baskardos of Sugarkea in La tierra convulsa (part of theVerdes valles, colinas rojas trilogy) and other works by Pinilla.
9. Cemetery of Nuestra Señora del Carmen
“Did no-one ever tell you the tale of the coastal cemeteries that are emptied from below?” (See more in Curiosities), El cementerio vacío [“The Empty Cemetery”].
10. Arrigunaga fields
This area was the site of the Arrune farmstead, where Pinilla spent his summers as a child. All that remains of it now is a fig tree. This is the setting for the novel Las ciegas hormigas.
11. Arrigunaga beach
“Almost all the stories that I have written have been inspired by this beach, which is the centre of both my real world and the world of my imagination.” Arrigunaga Beach appears in all his novels.
12. Cuatro Caminos
It was at this junction that Pinilla "felt the wind on his face" when he got to Getxo every summer. He set the home of Don Manuel here, and just up the road the school where he and Miss Mercedes taught. The tale of their relationship is told in his short novel Quince Años [“Fifteen Years”].
13. The Old Port
Pinilla's books feature three characters who lived in the Old Port: Benito Muro and his wife Cipriana from La higuera [“The Fig Tree”] and Koldobike from Solo un muerto más.
14. The Punta Begoña galleries
It was on these galleries that Pinilla based the Palacio Galeón mansion, to which Ella moves when she leaves the old house by the junction at Laparkobaso. In Los cuerpos desnudos, Aurelio Altube reveals some of the secrets of life there.
Have any of the landmarks on the route conjured up a memory?
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¿Ganas de saber más?:
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