The Toledan Mountains are situated the lower portion of the Spanish Meseta Central, and are home to all of the flora and fauna of their Northern counterparts but in a diminutive scale due to harsher conditions and lower rainfall. This makes them extremely vulnerable to the adverse changes in climate experienced in recent decades.
The Dry River (El Arrollo Marchés) used to provide water to dozens of small allotments and water mills which were carved back from the mountainside by hand over centuries. This infrastructure sustained families for generations and through an intricate system of irrigation, with strict allocations of water, the plots were a vital part of rural existence.
Along with the land itself, all of this has been lain to ruin due to falling precipitation and changing economic models based on speculative capitalism. It is hard to imagine that they will ever return due to the irreparable damage that they have suffered in the last 50 years. Dry River documents the annual cycle of the river and it’s circle of vegetation, where death and decay compost the process of rebirth but now seem to be a harbinger for the end of a rural way life.
En cierta ocasión leí “mientras el hombre camine por la tierra, seguirá edificando
y destruyendo”, qué verdad es.
Lo más normal y bonito para nuestros ojos sea la vida natural.
En estas fotos si nos fijamos en los detalles, puede que nos dejen ver algo mas,
que no percibimos con los ojos.
La vida nace escondida y viaja en pequeños remansos de charcas y cascadas.
La luz de nuestras calles no se asemeja a la luz natural penetrando por nuestras
bosques y se ensancha igual que los calles diseñadas por nuestros arquitectos.
Solo que la naturaleza es savia y sigue su curso.
“Una imagen vale más que mil palabras” también leí.
Se va adentrando más y ensanchando, dando vida donde no lo había.
Sigue y sigue porque la vida es larga, y donde se aprovecha todo el que por aquí anda.
“El río” se apaga como todo. Dando lugar a tristeza, pero con las primeras lluvias,
todo volverá a empezar su ciclo, como es ley natural.
También oí: “Lo que hacemos en la vida tiene su eco en la eternidad”
Adrián, es una forma de expresar lo que un sencillo río, que puede ser uno mismo,
es su trayectoria por este mundo. Es una diminuto vena más de las muchas que hay.
I once read that “as long as man walks the Earth, he will never cease to build and destroy”,
and how true that is.
The most beautiful and natural thing our eyes can witness is the world of nature.
If you observe the details in these photographs they may reveal something more; something
deeper that we can’t perceive with our eyes.
Life is born in secret, then travels through the little backwaters of ponds and pools.
Street lights bear no resemblance to natural light as it filters into our forests and broadens
out, just like streets designed by architects.
But nature is wise and follows her own path.
“An image is worth more than a thousand words”, as I also read.
It goes ever deeper and spreads out, bringing life where there was none before.
It flows and flows, as life is long, taking advantage of everything it encounters along its way.
“The river” dies out, as all things do. This gives cause for sadness, but with the first rains
the cycle of all things will recommence, as nature’s law dictates.
“What we do in life reverberates in eternity”, as I also heard someone say.
Adrian, this is a way of showing how a simple river, could be oneself,
Juan Manuel Ortega Moreno
