The Comillas, Transatlantic and Extremadura

As a child, on the journey from Navalmoral de la Mata to Plasencia and vice versa aboard my uncle Luis's Renault Ondine, I was particularly struck by the sight of a beautiful palace situated on top of a hill. The obligatory question to my uncle was always the same:

-Who lives there...?

The answer was repetitive and instantaneous:

- The witch Carriona….

From the moment I heard his answer, a certain morbid fear would make me remain silent and curled up in the back seat until we reached our destination. Years later, I learned that this marvel was the Palace of the Heads, commissioned at the end of the 19th century by Antonio López, the first Marquis of Comillas, as a hunting residence for himself, his friends, and guests. His summer residence was in his hometown, Comillas, in another sumptuous palace, and the usual one was in the Barcelonian Palace of Moja.

Antonio López chose to place his hunting residence in one of the most game-rich areas of the peninsula and in one of the most beautiful regions of Extremadura, in the heart of Campo Arañuelo, where partridges, hares, wild boars, roe deer, and deer roamed freely under the shelter and protection of cork oaks, holm oaks, and rockroses.

Time and circumstances would make the Palace of the Heads a silent witness to the return of the Bourbon monarchy to Spain, when on two occasions, December 28, 1954, and March 28, 1960, Franco and Don Juan de Borbón chose this place, halfway between Estoril and Madrid, to negotiate the return of the monarchy. It was the distant heirs of Antonio López who once again served the Bourbons on this occasion.

Today, in Navalmoral de la Mata, the capital of Campo Arañuelo, the Comillas continue to be the subject of very varied feelings and opinions, which is normal among influential people or families. The case of that mayor, of no dubious ideology, who changed the name of the Plaza del Marqués de Comillas to Plaza de Rafael Alberti was much commented upon at the time. On some occasions I have visited the place after the name change, I have been able to see that the common people, perhaps grateful, still call it Plaza del Marqués de Comillas.

The people of Extremadura have always had an adventurous spirit, sometimes to contribute new and large territories to the Crown of Castile and at other more painful times, to defend what had been conquered in previous centuries from separatist adventures. In this latter case, many were the soldiers of the Castilla 16 regiment, based in Badajoz, who traveled on Transatlantic ships to Cuba and the Philippines, and not a few lost their lives on the battlefields or on the decks of the ships during the return journey due to war wounds or beriberi.

It is very possible that to manage this flow of soldiers to and from Extremadura, the Company decided to open a consignment office in Badajoz. My father used to say that on the balcony of a distinguished house in this city, when he was a child, they used to hang a cage with a parrot that tirelessly repeated: “Long live Azaña”.

On August 14, 1936, the parrot fell silent forever; it is unknown whether it fell silent as a result of the atrocities committed by the renowned Yagüe or because some member of the Moorish contingent accompanying him ate it with rice. At the entrance of the parrot's house, my father said, there was a always shining brass plaque, on which could be read:

José García Ortega

Delegate of the Transatlantic Company

Much later, due to the coinciding twists of life, my father would be accompanied until his last years by a loquacious parrot that Captain José Catalá kindly gifted to me during a stopover of one of the Company's ships in the port of Cádiz, which the aforementioned captain commanded with such intelligence and skill.

Photo: panoramio.com