My son Santiago, has just published in the magazine «Pensamiento» of the Comillas Pontifical University, an article entitled: «Of Good Gods and Imperfect Worlds». He sharply separates the existence and goodness of God from the reality of evil, starting from the Theodicy coined by Leibniz, with the idea of a God interested in the world, omnipotent and good with the reality of evil and Free Will. I divert the subject towards water, which has recently been the cause of great evils, derived from a cause (water) and two effects: drought (lack) to flooding (Excess). In the Dictionary of the Spanish Language, flooding is defined from the Latin inundare: “To cover the land and towns with water.” The excess enters religious domains. Tears over Egypt, causing the annual flood of the Nile, which blesses the fields but destroys the boundaries of the rustic properties. The longi (Zanzibar) who consider such calamities to be the manifestation of God’s power. The Nuer (Sudan) think that nothing can be done against this punishment.
Just as prayers and requests are made for the rain to fall, they are also made so that it does not fall. The patronage of Virgins and Saints is admitted. In Orihuela (Murcia) they had San Gregorio as a lawyer against floods, the Virgen de los Desamparados in Valencia, the Virgen del Pino in Gran Canariathe Candlemas in TenerifeThe snows in The Palm, in Veguellina de Fondo (León) to Santa Eulalia….In Spain, in 181 BC Tito Livio reported floods in central Spain. Strabo that the Ebro had floods from the upper part of the river. In 849 and 1168 there were great floods due to the Tagus. In the 5th century, Santo Toribio (Bishop of Astorga) arrives in Palencia to combat the doctrine of Prisciliano and is received with stones. Shortly after the waters of the Carrión flooded Palencia. In the city of Valencia, the Turia flooded until the diversion works of the riverbed began in 1964, which ended in 1973. The flood of San Policarpo (1620) del Tormes, in Salamanca, left 142 dead and covered all eyes of the Roman Bridge. In Murcia the flood of Santa Teresa (1879) left 179 dead, in Lorca the Guadalentín river destroyed the Puente reservoir, The rupture of the Tous Dam (Valencia, Alicante and Murcia) in 1982 raised doubts about the safety of the Dam , in 1996 the Arás torrent devastated the Biescas campsite (Huesca) with 86 deaths.
The most extensive and famous flood story is undoubtedly Noah’s Flood. It is the first biblical punishment with which God whips man, through water. There are more than 200 versions, some of them highly original, such as the Gilgames poem (Mesopotamia), the story of the Greek Deucalion, who took refuge with Pyrrha on Mount Parnassus, the Chinese story of Gun and his son Yu. The Canaries also had theirs. Sabas Martin in “Guanche Rites and Legends” says that when the seas overflowed and the world sank under the waters, only the canaries that took shelter in the highest mountains were saved. Through the buried, under the asphalt, Guiniguada ravine the waters of the center of Gran Canaria descended, accompanied by dead animals and felled trees, as a visiting card of their sporadic performances. In 1713, one of these alluviums washed away a bridge in Las Palmas and the residents were forced to settle in the Cathedral and other churches. Many families were left living in the open. Towns and neighborhoods (Telde, Garita, Pardilla, Alcaravaneras, Ciudad Alta, Guanarteme, Isleta, Mogán, and Las Tirajanas know about the damage caused by excess water. The Gran Canaria Island Water Council, with the collaboration of CEDEX, prepared a map of danger and risk, which includes the ravines of La Gotera, Balo, Polvo and the flood-prone areas of Buenavista, Maspalomas and Puerto Rico.In 1826 the flood dragged the Virgin of Candelaria (Tenerife) into the sea, where she was lost. It was replaced by an image carved by Fernando Estévez.In 1713 a flood flooded the Franciscan convent in La Laguna de Tenerife.In 1826, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the entire island, ravines (including Santos) caused damage. The sea invaded the Plaza del Charco and the neighborhood of La Ranilla. Another storm in 1996 lashed the island, depositing 232 liters per square meter. In Garachico, a large mass of water threw more than 100 houses into the sea. I end by assuring that the issue has been object of literary attention. Dostoyevsky in the “Honest Thief”: In the hours of sadness, he compared himself to that disciple of the sorcerer, who, having stolen the magic word from his teacher, ordered a broom to bring water and drowned in it for having forgotten the word “enough” . Cervantes points to the world of sorcerers and clowns putting into the mouth of Don Quixote: «..and if Jupiter, as the barber said, did not rain, here I am, I will rain when I feel like it», «You have to know, son , that the most famous sorceress in the world lived in this town, whom they called La Camacha de Montilla. She was so unique in her trade that the Eritos, the Circes, the Medeas, did not equal her. She froze the clouds when she wanted, covering the face of the sun with them, and when she felt like it, she returned serene to the most troubled sky ».
