Alejandro López has his roots in that rural Asturias increasingly punished by depopulation. He talks about his origins, in Collanzo (Aller) with infinite pride, even though he does it from Milan, too many kilometers from the caleyes that they saw him play so many times. At thirty-two years old, he has been living in the Italian city for more than three years and, luckily, he is happy there, despite the shortcomings and absences. “Milan is not the most beautiful city in Italy, but I feel very comfortable on a day-to-day basis,” he says.
This is because “we are very similar” Spanish and Italian. Also to the fact that it is a city with the perfect size “to be able to make any plan” and, all that, in a multicultural environment. “It is a very cosmopolitan city,” he points out. The downside is the lack of sea that, for those who have it – they had – within a few minutes, it becomes almost infernal. “Here it takes me two hours to get to the nearest beach, so if you want to make a weekend plan, you have to go quite far,” he says.
The defect is not serious, you can bear it, but still, think about returning, even if that idea is not going to make it a reality in the short term. “I’m not in a hurry because I’m fine, but sooner or later I will,” he promises. He says it with enthusiasm and he also feels it almost like a duty to the land. “I would like to return to our region with everything I am learning and try to put it into practice,” he explains. “I want to be useful for Asturias that, today, needs it more than ever because, unfortunately, we are in decadence,” he adds.
Alejandro speaks of “commitment”, perhaps, because he thinks that there must be a possible future in Collanzo, in that emptied Spain that, until not so long ago, was the home and sustenance of many, as it was of his own.
Meanwhile, in Milan, this Allerano works as a biochemist and does research on breast cancer. “What we do is try to discover or search for possible regulators that interfere in certain proteins that favor the development of breast cancer,” he explains. In this way, they would be able, through molecular biology, “to find possible targets that allow the development of treatments,” he continues.
He came to this job after completing his doctorate at the Otorhinolaryngology department at the University of Oviedo. “I wanted to have an international experience,” he remembers. And he got it. It is phenomenal, yes, but you have to take more than one plane to get to the Gijonesa slope of Cholo and that, you want it not, it weighs. “I miss drinking a bottle of cider in the street, the food and taking a walk on the beach.”
For now, Alejandro is weathering the shortcomings and, when he no longer wants to do it, he will return. The Cholo slope is not going to move. You can return whenever you want and Asturias will be waiting for you with a culín by the sea.
– .
