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CUENTAHÍLOS
CUENTAHÍLOS colección de textos ilustrados Julio Llamazares
That day I got up early and going to get my hair done I discovered that I was bald, not a hair. Instead of getting depressed, as is often the case in these situations, I took all the combs, brushes and shampoos, put them in a bag and went to the flee market. I mounted my stand and waited for the customers. After a long time, when no one was passing, I changed my merchandise to the one on my right.
Julio is a traveling man. It is perhaps hopeless, for he traveled for the first time very young, when his village, Vegamián, was flooded by a reservoir.
But one day, the grandfather will share with Julio his secret and it willbe then when the child will understands the true value of things.
Illustrations Antonio Santos
The book was wonderful, the publisher paid, we signed a contract in which he gave me a two hundred percent. With the money I got I bought a Ferrari and I found a girlfriend named Olivia. Precisely I want to dedicate this book to her just before leaving, with the benefits, to embark on a cruise through the seas of Polynesia. Naturally I go with her. Bye
He lives with his family in the smallest room in the house and spends most of his time alone. Julio observes him and thinks about him and how he will be feeling. The grandfather takes care of him and tells him stories, most of the time, sad ones. Those stories are about his past, about his youth, about the land where he grew up. To Julio’s enfant eyes, all of them are stories that his grandfather imagines to entertain him.
He has crossed the Atlantic Ocean, but what he likes most is to go to places that are near, and he says that the true trips are always around oneself.
Julio Llamazares
So I became the owner of a box of pencils and a sketchbook. Since I had nothing better to do, I began to draw. At thirteen seconds past two, an editor passed by. He was amazed by my work and proposed that I illustrate The Odyssey for a luxury edition.
When Julio meets him, his grandfather is already old and widowed.
Julio Llamazares · ilustraciones de Antonio Santos · El valor del agua
Antonio Santos
He also travels through his writings, and in the words of his footsteps he is surprised by the stories that he finds himself in the way of writing. Other times he travels with his backpack on his back and he never forgets to carry his notebook and something to jot down what he learns from the landscape, the rivers, the trees and what the mountains whisper. Perhaps his grandfather taught him to look this way, no one knows. The journey is marking the story, in the fragments that he collects at the end of each day. On many occasions he writes about loneliness, his own or that of others, on the earth. When he does this, when he writes about his memories, it is overwhelming.
The value of water
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Through the lens of the linen testers, the operator observes the plot on the paper And if it is meticulous, he may also discover the plot, between lines, of history. Editor's note
Título original: EL VALOR DEL AGUA © Del texto: Julio Alonso Llamazares, 2011 © De las ilustraciones: Antonio Santos Lloro, 2011 © De esta edición: Los cuatro azules, S.L., 2011 www.loscuatroazules.com Primera edición: mayo 2011 ISBN: 978-84-937295-6-1 Depósito legal: M-20533-2011 Impreso por CIRSA. María Tubau 5, 28050 Madrid Impreso en España - Printed in Spain
Reservados todos los derechos. El contenido de esta obra está protegido por la ley, que establece penas de prisión y/o multas, además de las correspondientes indemnizaciones por daños y perjuicios, para quienes reprodujeren, plagiaren, distribuyeren o comunicaren públicamente, en todo o en parte, una obra literaria, artística o científica, o su transformación, interpretación o ejecución artística fijada en cualquier tipo de soporte o comunicada a través de cualquier medio, sin la preceptiva autorización.
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The value of water
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For the real Julio. And for those people twho lived this story. For Olivia.
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Julio Llamazares
Illustrations Antonio Santos
CUENTAHร LOS colecciรณn de textos ilustrados
The value of water
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—Turn off the tap, you are wasting water. Whenever Julio left an open tap, he would hear his grandfather repeating the same thing to him: "Turn off the tap, the water is used up"; Or: "Do not waste water, it costs a lot". It seemed as if he thought of nothing but the water.
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Although, truth be told, grandfather had to think a lot. He spent hours sitting in his lounge chair or on any park bench absorbed in his thoughts. He rarely spoke to other people, even less inside the house, where no one seemed interested in what he had to say. Only their grandchildren, until they got older.
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Grandpa was very old. He had clear eyes, lively and intelligent, but he was crouched and clumsy, as if carrying a sack on his back. It was years that weighed him; The long years of work that began, he said, when he was the age of Julio and was already helping his parents on the farms and climbing the mountain every day with food for the sheperd. "Not like nowadays..." said referring to Julio's brothers, who were already teenagers, "...that boys reach the age of eighteen without knowing what it is the real meaning of working.”
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Grandpa knew this all his life. First there, in the village, working with cattle or agriculture, and then, already in the city, working in different trades. Although the one that lasted the longest was as cleaning employee, that obtained thanks to the recommendation of a relative of his that worked in the City council and in which he retired after years of service. Since then, grandfather spent the days sitting or walking in the park, most of the time alone.
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When Julio got to know him, his grandfather was already a widower and lived with his family. He had a room, the smallest of them all, but it was plenty of space. He barely stepped into it except to sleep. The rest of the hours were spent in the living room watching television or absorbed in his thoughts.
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Sometimes he would help Julio's mother run errands or take care of Julio when she left the house, but he usually did nothing but read the newspaper and watch TV. "What boredom!" Thought Julio, looking at him.
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But worst of all, no one paid any attention to him. Neither Julio’s parents, who were always busy, nor his brothers, who spent hours, when they returned from high school, watching television or playing on the computer without even talking to each other.
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Only Julio used to tell him, when his grandfather was going to get him to school, what he had done during the day and he also heard his stories, which were all referring to the time in which he still lived in the village. He rarely mentioned anything of the years in the city.
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