Luis Moro Fernández

From a very early age, the life of Luis Moro Fernández (Comillas, 1932) was marked by a smell: the scent of salt rising from the port and permeating the streets of the town. His story began in a humble house in Campíos, where the economy depended on what the tides provided. He grew up in Velecio, surrounded by nuns and attending masses at San Cristóbal, in a town that breathed to the rhythm of the port. The war caught him by surprise at the age of four, sheltering in the Comillas tunnel as planes flew overhead; then came the post-war period, rationing, and those days when bread didn't always arrive home whole. There, after leaving the El Espolón National Schools, he would run, meet up with Titi, his inseparable friend, and learn by watching: the veterans returning from fishing, the net menders mending their nets, the bustle of a port with more than 160 men working and canneries like Collado & Otero providing employment for many families. He also witnessed moments that marked the town, such as the grounding of the Saint Korentine in 1966, an event that no one in Comillas forgot. The sea ended up giving him a profession and direction until he was 68. He sailed on ships like the Reina de los Ángeles and the Tolino, and commanded six vessels and crews of up to fourteen men who trusted him. In 1960, he married Guadalupe Ariste Robles, his life partner of 55 years. They lived for almost forty years in Trasierra (Ruiloba), combining fishing with a small family farm, in which, over time, his daughter Guadalupe also participated. After a few years with the Transatlantic Company—with voyages to New York, Puerto Rico, and Veracruz aboard the Covadonga and the Almudena—he returned home permanently to fish alongside his son Luis, first on the Playa de Luaña and later on the Nuevo Playa de Luaña. Today he lives in the center of Comillas, with his family nearby and the port just steps away. “The sea is everything,” he says. In his family, the sea has been passed down from generation to generation: from his father to him, from him to his son, and now to his grandson. And you only need to listen to him for a moment to understand: “I love life, I love the sea, and I love my family.” Legado Cantabria is a production of Fundación PEM.