How have you raised this other possible truth that, according to your novel, could have occurred in the deed of the 16th century?
The novel takes place two years after Elcano’s arrival in Spain. Then, a young chronicler, who is the protagonist and whose name is Diego de Soto, knows him as a hero, and realizes that what Elcano tells is not true because he goes on saying that Magellan was a bastard, a traitor, etc. . And in this way, he begins to investigate and, through the testimonies of different people, he realizes that there is something that the great factual powers of the kingdom of Castile are covering about the trip around the world.
Does the Canary Islands have a special role in the novel?
Yes, it happens so much at the beginning, that it starts with the expedition in Tenerife, and with a series of flasbacks that reveal a very important part of the plot, which I cannot reveal, and that is when one of the five ships returns. Of the ships that left Spain, only Elcano returned, but before crossing the Strait of Magellan, another of the ships, the San Antonio, turned back and returned. And that ship, when it returns, the first place it touches is Tenerife. Then, in Tenerife, in front of the San Telmo beach, which was the enclave from which the five ships left, the captain gets off and an important event occurs that I cannot reveal. But you realize that in Tenerife, which at that time was the enclave from which all expeditions depart. For this reason, in the XV century, in the Canary Islands there was its political collusion and espionage.
Nothing that is not like what happens today.
Yes, but the important thing here is that today’s reader realizes that our history is truly burned. It is not an aesthetic or aseptic History. That in all our territory, 500 years ago, very important things were happening that changed history. The first trip around the world had a brutal impact. It was the first time the entire globe had been measured. It is important so that people do not see the Canary Islands as a place of tourism but in which the history of Spain also passed through there and was very important. We have passed through several towns in Valladolid where much of the plot takes place, and it is also to record that very spectacular things happened in our country.
The Islands were a fundamental place of passage for many European sailors.
They reached the Canary Islands, then passed through Cape Verde and diverted to America. It was the place where all the expeditions were supplied. In fact, I am documenting myself for a continuation of the novel where I focus on the conquest of Hernán Cortés in Mexico. And in one of the documents Hernán Cortés wrote to his father asking him to stop on the island of El Hierro so that they could stock up on sheep and a specific type of vegetation to bring to Mexico.
“My story is an alternative to the journey of Magellan and Elcano that is credible in all aspects”
The rivalry between Magellan and Elcano has spread like the rivalry between Portugal and Spain, but Magellan became Spanish.
When the idea of going to the Moluccas, the islands of species, was raised to the west, he went to the king of Portugal who ignored him. But it was Carlos I of Castile, who had just landed in Spain, who barely knew Spanish and was 19 years old, who he convinced to make him captain of an expedition to the Moluccas. But while he was putting together the expedition, there were tremendous suspicions between the Portuguese and the Spanish captains who had to accompany him. There was a second Portuguese, Rui Faleiro, who had to resign because the Casa de Contratación in Seville told him that he could only have a maximum number of Portuguese. At that time the rivalry between Castile and Portugal was tremendous. It must be taken into account that, after the European conquests of Castile, if they wanted to make their territories great, they could only do so overseas. Portugal has dominated everything that was the African coast until reaching the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. And the only way Spain has to get to spices is through the west. And Magellan says that there is a passage through the American continent. No one believes it because no one has ever seen a map that shows a passage to the east. In fact, to this day there is not a single historian who has been able to demonstrate the map on which Magellan found a type of passage. It is rumored that he saw him in the court of Portugal from which they tried to make him desist from making the trip. In 1524 when Elcano travels to Valladolid, after having gone around the world, he is the superhero, the first to have surrounded the world. But when he enters Valladolid he asks the king for permission to carry arms, being the Iroman of his time. And that already raises the suspicion that maybe there is another story that was not told. And of the few survivors who returned with Elcano, one of them is the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, he wrote a chronicle of the entire trip. Well, at no time does he name Elcano. Although it has arrived in Seville thanks to the expertise of Elcano. All this is what made me build a story that has been made as an alternative to the official one, but it is fully credible in all aspects.
There was, from what I see, a mixture of power and ambition.
The war of powers between the human suspicions of a Portuguese and a Spaniard, between the kingdom of Portugal and the kingdom of Castile, and how everything merges in a journey into the unknown that will change history.
And at a time when short life expectancy and disease had skyrocketed the number of deaths.
When the expedition was able to cross the strait, they thought it was a piece of cake, but they spent a hundred days in the boat without stepping on land. People died there with tremendous ease. The sailors had to roast the leather belts that they put in boiling water and served as a broth.
How would you define the novel?
Like a thriller about someone you have to fight against the clock to find the truth. It is as if he were the journalist moved to the 16th century who had to unravel a Watergate Case.
