The history of America and Spanish naval history are its specialty and its passion. The Naval Museum, of which she was technical director, her house. The first submarine woman of the Navy opened the way to underwater archeology in Spain, she has dedicated her life to research, teaching, protection of submerged heritage and dissemination. Retirement has only changed, a little, the intensity of his dedication. And he added one more: activism to the defense of the oceans. It brings the strength of its historical and maritime knowledge to all the forums that summon it, such as the III Wild Oceansfest Festival, of Gijón and many others. The “historian and submarine archaeologist” is to summarize a lot, very much, his life.
How was it the first diver in the Navy?
I know I was a pioneer person, but, honestly, I was not aware of being the first. The issue was that the Naval Museum was the first institution of the Navy that constituted a center of underwater naval studies and start working in underwater archeology. That was what I wanted to do. Naturally, at that time, 60s, it was a world absolutely men. Everything marine, oil platforms, coral fishing and sponges, everything. A rude, dangerous and men world.
And then, a woman arrives.
Well yes. The appearance of a woman in that context was a very unique thing, of course. I must also say that, although I am very aware of women’s difficulties in many professional fields, in that world I always received respect and collaboration.
Has any immersion left a special mark?
Yes. I lived it in Italian liguria. And it was not with a sunken ship, but in a submerged cave that had been the study of an important Roman sculptor. It was intact and being faced with the big moles of stone without working, half -do sculptures and the tools was an extraordinary emotion. One of the greatest I’ve felt under the sea. At the bottom of the sea there is an explosion of life, of truly incredible colors. Of extraordinary force. Almost spiritual.
And, upon discovering a wreck at the bottom of the sea, what does it feel?
Above all, the satisfaction, practically intimate, of locating something, of knowing that it is there. Although, the first thing you see are great fields of Posidonia. But, one thing is to locate it and another is to see it. Seeing it is the end of a long and slow previous work. A wreck is not discovered by chance, before you have to do a lot of research, a lot of diving in files, in documents and files.
How is the work of underwater archeology?
It is rigorous and complex. Scientifically it is very similar to the one exercised on the ground: you start working and you have to organize the grids, to photograph, etc. And we are not only the archaeologist, because also multidisciplinary and other specialists intervene, such as marine biologists. It’s very nice. Instead, conservation is especially complex. Depending on what materials, they can even be destroyed when removed to the surface.
How many Spanish ships of past centuries can be at the bottom of the sea?
Around 2,000 and in all seas on the planet. But not everyone can be located exactly, because then the measurement systems calculated the latitude but not the length. What has saved many of the plunder. But, as the bureaucracy of the Austrias and the Bourbons was extraordinary, all the subsidence are perfectly documented and we have spectacular information about each one that occurred. In fact, I believe that we have the richest naval archives in the world from 16th to the eighteenth centuries, when Spain was world maritime power.
Retirement has not departed from the sea.
Of course not. I always say that I have lived a professional life in front of the sea, on the sea and under the sea. And I remain absolutely active in my profession. At this time I am very involved in the conservation of the oceans. I am very concerned about your health, which is very precarious, because of pollution and climate change. They are the great lung of the planet, due to the amount of CO2 they absorb, and guarantors of climatic stability and, also, of the life of the human being on the planet. But they are in serious danger. And I have been working seriously for several months on what the brutal pollution of the oceans is and the loss of marine ecosystems. So, at this time, national and international forums go very interest.
It also continues to investigate and publish, spread the story.
Also, yes. The themes of Naval Historian and those who are related to my profession continue to occupy my time. Precisely, a few months ago I published a book, “Awakening of oblivion.” It is a very informative and very documented book, which deals with the massive presence of Spanish women in the 16th century in America. This fact is little known, it is a little known reality. It was fundamentally driven by the crowns, first of Castile and after the Spanish. There was a creation of Spanish in the field of this new American society, which were considered and had status of overseas provinces, not colonies. which was how those territories were considered.
Returning to underwater archeology, what is more difficult to dive between documents or dive in the waters to verify that, indeed, there are the remains that are sought?
The two are vocational things and require a previous scientific solid preparation. I am an Americanist and I have studied and worked very hard to access the files. That it has been a great privilege to be able to consult the hundreds of original pages in which they are based on everything that I have published throughout my professional life. And, logically, acting underwater also requires a very solid preparation.
At what point is underwater archeology in Spain?
He is very well equipped with a specialist, with very good technicians and work centers. But the problem, I believe, more important is not that we really have means and scientists capable of addressing archeology or aquatic. The main problem is that long campaigns are very expensive. A sea day is a lot of money. Then neither Spain nor almost any country has the ability to act in, say, long campaigns. So, in my opinion, it will work a lot for international agreements. As one that we have now with Mexico, the excavation of the Juncal that is an important wreck of the Caribbean; or in the Mediterranean, where very important campaigns are being made in archeology, Roman or Phenicia or Greek classic, which are international projects sponsored by UNESCO or international organizations of all the riverside countries of the Mediterranean. Always speaking, of course, pests that are in dimensions, in affordable depths. Another thing are those that are at great depth, which require robotic means. And, although, there is a great development of prototypes of action its underwater, the truth is that with robotic means it is very difficult to act with a wreck. A conventional scientific excavation to those depths, we are not able to face. And, on the other hand, right now what we call silent museums are very wedding. That is, underwater museums. For example, in Alexandria that is very shallow, it is being considered to make a large underwater museum that can be seen from the surface based large transparent platforms.