Gaudí  From Barcelona to Brussels

Manolo, the gentle giant who lends his hands to Sotoo
He is a man of few words, but he knows how to make stone, iron, and cement speak. This is the story of a stonecutter who, twenty years ago, crossed Spain to work at the Sagrada Familia Cathedral, and who now escorted it to Brussels

His friends say that he is a sort of good giant, especially now that he cut his hair and has become shyer. Manolo is from northern Spain and everybody likes him: the Italian architects to whom he teaches picàr pedra (stone sculpting) on the edge of the sea; the mayors, and the tourists to whom he speaks in an unknown language (since he doesn’t speak English).
His big and strong hands are shaping the exuberant family of plants and animals destined to make Gaudí’s temple espiatori (“temple of atonement”) something alive. His hands are Etsuro Sotoo’s hands. The Japanese sculptor found him twenty years ago in a school where he was teaching intaglio (engraving). One of his colleagues told him: “I have a remarkable young man here: he doesn’t speak much; always wears black clothes; goes around with an ugly hat; he is even a little scary. But he knows how to work.”
Today, Manolo lives in San Génis, Spain, in a house surrounded by nature. Barcelona is almost 150 miles away, so every day he gets up at five and drives back (and later forth) to his cathedral. He says, “It is what I have to do. It’s still better than living in the city.” They tried to find an apartment for him, but he was too nervous. His father was a miner and taught him to respect matter. He is able to make the most difficult things, using anything: stone, iron, polyurethane, cement. Etsuro Sotoo relates: “Sometimes, when a certain work needs to be completed, rain or shine, I find him still here at 11 at night.” Last year, Manolo wanted to leave the Sagrada Familia. He said, “There is no path to follow; the one we are on doesn’t go anywhere.” They weren’t getting the material; inside jealousy and human envy created continuous problems: “There was always somebody trying to cause us trouble.” Manolo didn’t have any intention to keep fighting these kinds of things.
He was fed up. “I wanted to build something else.” One day, Jesus Carrascosa, one of the CL responsibles, went to Barcelona and confronted him: “A builder of cathedrals such as you cannot possibly leave. Where else will you find a mentor like this? Where else will you find a place like this?” He burst into tears, because deep down he wanted to remain with those people. He did just that, even in Brussels, where he was the one sculpting the pinnacle on the exhibit. He said, “I don’t care when this cathedral will be completed; I care about the people. Then, I do what I have to do.”          
(C. D.)