Have you already seen any?
The Ribeira Sacra , on the banks of the Sil and Miño rivers, has unquestionable natural beauty. However, there is something striking about some of their villages, sometimes even competing with the blue-green landscapes that surround us when we walk for this area of Galicia .
We talk about some colorful murals that tell us stories and legends of the area by brush and paint.
These murals are the work of a collective project made up of three people gathered under the name of Cestola na Cachola , which are already part of that new wave of muralists that are coloring the Galician community.
Mural made by Miguel Peralta in Escarigo (Três Povos), Portugal
Michael Peralta it's natural from Almeria Y Xoana Alma r of Santiago de Compostela . They first met studying illustration in Grenade , and 7 years ago they settled in the Galician capital with the intention of creating in this area of the Iberian Peninsula.
There they joined Rachel Doallo , worker and activist in the field of social and solidarity economy, with which they finished outlining their project ** Cestola na Cachola **, which combines the aspects of art and conscious consumption in the best of ways.
"We came to work in Galicia in 2012" Xoana says. "And when we settled here there was very little in the field of muralism, but we had to experience a wave," she says.
“It was a moment in which the previous work of many people began to take shape. We arrived at a very good time , which helped us”, adds Miguel.
“It all started when we put together the part of Raquel's social economy with painting”, explains Xoana, in relation to the name of the project. “When we arrived in Galicia I really wanted to teach Miguel the painters from here, like Seoane, Díaz Pardo, the figures of Sargadelos… and we loved them”, explains Xoana.
“Then we began to paint with these authors in mind, and somehow we began to draw women with baskets on their heads, since they can be drawn with very simple shapes".
Mural by Miguel Peralta and Xoana Almar in Monforte (Lugo)
"Speaking with Raquel, it occurred to her that the basket on the head could be a metaphor about conscious consumption : put the basket on the head before buying something. Or what is the same, Before you buy, think.
"And that's how we combined the two areas and also started with the theme of ethical fashion , which we also do in Cestola na Cachola ”, continues the artist.
Be that as it may, they soon became part of that group of professionals who are turning Galicia into one of the points of muralism of our geography. One of its trademarks, which has to do with its name **(Cestola na Cachola -or basket on the head in Castilian-)**, are the drawings of women carrying things inside the aforementioned baskets.
We find murals with this theme in her work in Carballo with the Rexenera Fest, in Monforte de Lemos or in the pioneering festival of muralism ** Desordes Creativas in Ordes ( A Coruña )**, among others.
However, they not only paint in cities, but also create many jobs in rural areas , as occurs with his murals in the Ribeira Sacra .
“It is very different to paint in a city than in a town. When you paint in a city there is a lot of noise, there are a lot of visual stimuli everywhere, so your mural is not going to be seen so much or it will not break so much with everything else, ”they comment.
"But when you paint in a town (and more if it is in a village), you know that this mural it will impact a lot , so it is a different responsibility. We feel this above all in the Ribeira Sacra, where we sometimes worked in villages of 200 inhabitants ”, explains Xoana.
“In places like this it was the first time a mural was painted. Everyone knew you were going to paint, they came up to talk to you... It was a very intimate thing ”.
About this other closer way of painting they have several anecdotes, one of them in Os Peares.
“Miguel was going to paint a train and Os Peares is a railway town , so the people there had all eyes on how he did it. What machine he painted, how he painted it... Everyone knew all the pieces and therefore it was a great responsibility to get it right ".
"But at the same time it was also great to see the population so involved. In fact, Miguel ended up going to the Monforte Railway Museum so that they would show him all the parts and explain everything to him, ”she adds.
And that's how they ended up making a mural with characteristics of their own style, but with a very realistic train.
"In a town you can be an intruder," says Miguel. “You can do something and suddenly some gentlemen, who have spent forty years spending their afternoons in the same square, notice a big change when they see a mural that wasn't there before. That's why we always seek that people feel identified with what we do s and we try to connect with the place to create something that suits where we are ”, I point out.
Painting in this way is like traveling for them. There are people who travel without really knowing where they are and there are travelers who mingle with the local people, truly learning from the place where they have landed.
“Since you are in a place and you are going to paint there, I think that the minimum is that you are interested in what people live from, their traditions, stories…”, says Xoana.
But the artists of Cestola na Cachola They clarify that everything depends on the time they are given to finish a project. In turn, when they create something, they need the subject reaches them.
We can find several of his murals in the Ribeira Sacra
“I am a little concerned that classify us as artists who pay homage to peoples. I love it mix my personal style with the stories that I meet, but sometimes they give me an assignment that has already been closed and that way it is difficult to bring out one's own creativity”, explains Miguel.
“Thus, it can happen to me that I make a mural and not feel it, and that is negative for the result. In the case of the train, it was a personal challenge make it realistic, but then we put themes of our own our abstract style ”, he adds.
“We like to look for stories of the places if we have the freedom to capture them in the mural following our instinct and our own style ”, says Xoana.
“It has to excite us. I like to talk about people, about old stories, of professions that are lost … Sometimes murals come out after talking to people we meet in the area, like once in Três Povos (Portugal) that we left with a suggestion that turned out not to fit in very well with the town.
"So we started chatting with the locals and the theme of the almocreves came up , which, in general, were very young boys who clandestinely transported food to the cities from rural areas during Salazar's dictatorship ”, says Miguel.
Paintings that help to understand a little more the places where they are found
“A boy introduced us to his grandfather, who had been almocreve, and we ended up representing that man (as a young man) in the mural ”, he continues. “It was a privilege that we had because we were able to spend several days in the town, engaging with the local community before I start painting”, he finishes.
What is certain is that Cestola na Cachola has left its mark in various areas of the Galician community. His paintings not only fill cities and towns with color , but they help to understand a little more the places where they paint. If you visit Galicia, we encourage you to look for them all!
'Amigas': mural by Xoana Almar in Ordes (A Coruña)