New Santiago equestrian statue and nature of Santiago

[Elizabeth Boylston-Morris]

I completed my pilgrimage last Saturday and have remained in Santiago
enjoying the still ongoing St. James' day festivities.
Two other bicycle pilgrims from Scotland and I,  led by the priceless
information contained in Linda Davidson's indispensable book "The Pilgrimage Road to
Santiago", made it a point to visit the Santa Maria del Manzano church in
Castrogeriz.  Indeed, as Linda writes, a rock outside one of he doors shows
hoofprints believed to have been made by Santiago's horse as it, and its rider,
landed from a prodigious jump to point out the place where the image of the Virgin
was hidden.  The Virgen del Manzano is believed to be impressively miraculous
and "romerias" to the church are made frequently.
In Santiago, we attended the ceremonies to celebrate the installation of the
new  equestrian statue, "Santiago a Caballo" which, Juno-like, has two fronts
facing opposite directions.
We asked a few people what the name of Santiago's horse was and although some
seemed to remember that it was Estrella ("star"), which would make it a
female horse, no one knew for sure.
We did learn that there is a riding club in Spain called  Santiago's Horse,
and we were regaled with stories of the gallantry and heroism of El Cid's
horse, Babieca, and how the horse survived the death of its rider by two years "in
profound sadness" and did so only, at El Cid's behest, to offer comfort and
solace to Dona Ximena.  We were also told that several towns and hills were
named after the horse who died on its thirtieth birthday.
As usual, there are people from all over the globe in Santiago, but many more
so now because of the celebrations, which have an international flavor.  Van
Morrison's free concert was canceled because of rain, but one by an Algerian
star was a tremendous success.  Representing the United States (?) was a group
called "Los Tigres del Norte"; in their Black Bart costumes they sang in
Spanish  and had a huge positive response with attendees dancing in the street and
asking for reprise after reprise.  Today a group called "Van Gogh's Ear" is
featured.  But there are also a great many cultural and art exhibitions,
several classical music concerts and wondering troubadours  singing medieval Camino
songs all over. The festivities will end on Thursday evening with a last burst
of fireworks.
I'll be going home next Saturday.... exhausted, and very happy.
Liz
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