(Francisca Zallo speaks at the International Sea Congress)
“If you do an online search for Zallo the rst thing you see is:Zallo Canned Goods, Sounds of the Sea. ‘Izena duenakizana du.’ Everything that has a name, exists, as an old saying from our landsays.”
(The Narrator speaks about Zallo’s history)
The voice of Francisca Zallo, one hand in her pocket and the other leaning on herinseparable cane, has sounded clear and deep from the panel of speakers at the International Sea Congress. Among the participants, Park Jun Lee, holder of the creative lineage of “The Wind Rose”, a tireless researcher of Atlantis; Samuel Cuadrado, who doesn’t want to say how he managed to survive ve months on a raft in the middle of the Paci c; the elderly Matthew MacDonald, an eminence in marine geology; KyepOmbangui, expert in marine rescues… The meeting is at the foot of the White Cliffs of Dover. Surrounded by the sea, at a large, pure white colored chalk grotto, sprinkled with veins of black int, they have come to talk about the sea, of the sea, in the sea, with the sea… but mostly they want to listen to the sea.
(Flashback:)
-Aitite! (Grandpa, in the Basque language) You’ve made a compass with one of our cans! – -“Laztana” (Sweetie), when you can’t see me, just look at the compass. It will tell you where
I am. (He had replaced the cardinal points with the letters of our last name.) -I’ll always take it with me. I promise you. No matter what happens. No matter where I am, we will always be together. — Just remember that the contents in our cans really are the sounds of the sea. –
(Francisca Zallo continues with this speech at the Congress:)
-”Aitite (Grandpa) named his boat ‘The Sounds of the Sea’. He always said that the future was right there, and that he wanted his boat to be named something that the whole world understood. When he said the whole world, we didn’t know exactly what he meant. Soon we would nd out. He really was referring to the whole world! Every day, when we see the boats dock in Bermeo, where we trade our fresh sh, the spirit of ‘The Sounds of the Sea’ is still present.” – The participants of the Congress want to nd the magic formula to master fully combine tradition and modernity, craftsmanship and innovation, and family spirit with new consumer trends. Francisca Zallo thinks about endless days of looking out to sea, watching that horizon that appeared and disappeared, swallowed by time. “I clearly remember each return to the port of our beloved Bermeo. What an intense thrill! Here comes ‘de souns of desee’!!! We didn’t even know how to pronounce it… .”-
(Flashback:)
The Sounds of the Sea turned into a legend. The epic of an era. Why did it always come in with the best catch of tuna? …with the best anchovies? …with the rst catch of each season? The most famous cooks began to frequent the Zallo home, looking for “the best product.” -We have something that no one else has. – – And what is it Aitite (Grandpa)? —Your mother, your uncles, cousins, the people of this town who help us, you. (And he lifted me onto his shoulders and told me that dwarfs, up on giant’s shoulders, always see further than giants can see.) Passion, love and honesty. There’s no other secret. (An he patted me on the head with that powerful, noble, weathered hand, with a salty smell, with life’s stains on it.).- Hands soiled from work, won’t get you dirty, Laztana (Sweetie).
The sound of the sea strikes the minds of the participants again and again who, mesmerized, listen to such a strange and wonderful symphony. Francisca Zallo’s eyes ll with tears. For just a moment, she seems to doubt. She’s about to fall. But then she removes her hand from her pocket. Sally Doufeaur, Aeronautical Engineer and a breakthrough, secret satellite program coordinator makes a gesture to Donald DeKirsk, studious philosopher of De Rerum Natura. He has also seen the strange circular mark on the elderly lady’s hand. Ingrid Gunarsson, an expert on Viking customs writes something down; Ilye Van der Velde, the greatest water collector in the world, sees without looking; Mohamed El Haddiddi, caresses the small sandbag hanging from his neck…
-”One day, The Sounds of the Sea did not return…” “Salty tears, tears of the sea. Where was the horizon when it was needed the most?! That day I squeezed my compass until I bled. Zallo Canned Goods is the testimony of the entire Zallo family history. Today I have come to tell you this: we are all immortal, as long as someone remembers us, as long as what happens is a testimony to our existence… “-
Francisca Zallo continues to speak but is no longer heard. Because then, by surprise, unexpectedly, in an unquestionable way, the sounds of the sea takes the stand: the Sounds of the Sea. Then all is quiet as she let the tears moisten her eyes that she closes while feeling, more strongly than ever, that rounded shape in her pocket, her compass, our compass.
