Julia, a 12-year-old girl, carefully places a flower at the foot of Robe Iniesta’s shrine. “It transmits things to me that I cannot express,” says the girl. His parents, by his side, nod and cry, of course. They have arrived from Cantabria. It is 11 in the morning and thousands of people spend Sunday waiting in a seven-hour queue to say goodbye to the musician at the Roberto Iniesta Conference Center in Plasencia. They want to say goodbye to the one who sang something that matches the desire of everyone present today: “And I leave the songs without ending, in case one day I want to return and nothing is true” (Interlude).
Robe left many songs unfinished early last Wednesday. He was 63 years old and probably in the best moment of his career, judging by the quality of his last album, The air takes us awayand his subsequent tour, which was left unfinished in November 2024 due to the singer’s pulmonary thrombosis. Today, Sunday, the doors opened at 10:00. the congress palace of his city, the one where he performed his first concert leading the ephemeral Dosis Letal on the Parque de la Isla soccer field, today one of the green lungs of a town of 45,000 inhabitants. From the ashes of Dosis Letal, Extremoduro was born, the group that so many people have tattooed in their hearts.
The bouquets of flowers were piled up next to what Robe’s widow, Bibi Vázquez, and her two children wanted to show: the artist’s ashes in a colored urn, his classic orange wooden guitar, the open case of this instrument and a painting, a painting of Robe, his partner and their children, naked, on an island looking at the horizon, at the sea, an image of the art of DeltoyaExtremoduro album, with the incorporation of the illustration of Maieuticshis penultimate solo album.
People, of all ages and from many parts of Spain and also from other countries, signed books and left their hearts in the form of a message. They were not brief condolences. The audience wanted to express the feelings of a lifetime listening to the musician. Too many things to tell: there is no book of condolences that can support it, no matter how thick it is.
Some messages were smudged by tears shed while they were being written. Robe’s music always played, softly, so as not to break the atmosphere. Perhaps this would not have pleased the protagonist, who used to encourage listening to his records at full volume. But on this occasion, his music being the one that caused everything, the atmosphere was more moving with the volume attenuated.
Bea Rodriguez, Betaorganized the queue. Above all, he took care of welcoming the children with a smile and giving them a pen. “Hello, what’s your name. Are you going to write something nice to Robe?” Raúl, that is the name of the 13-year-old boy, does not answer and takes refuge in his mother’s shoulder to cry. And what mother is not moved when she sees her child collapse.
“I’m not sure if you would have liked today’s display for your farewell, but I understand that it is your last concession to those of us who feel your songs are part of our lives.” Thus began the extensive outburst signed by Rocío Hahir, 34 years old, who traveled 700 kilometers from San Vicente del Raspeig (Alicante) to say goodbye to the musician. After many confessions, it ended like this: “What the hell, Robe, but what a big piece of shit. Ale, let’s fuck it.”
Nacho Terrón, 45 years old, arrived with his bulldog. He was wearing an Extremoduro t-shirt, like many people. “Robe taught me to love and also to burn everything,” he said before picking up a pen to have his private conversation with the musician. Because that’s what people did: tell vital stories to their idol, whisper in their ear the shock that his music produced in them, the anguish they feel when they listen to it, the many nights of playing that they had with that soundtrack and the lessons that that poetry gave them when they needed it most.
In the background, a screen showed a beautiful drawing by Extremaduran artist Josu Berriobeña, from El Dromedario. In it, Robe smiles and some of his poetry emerges from his hair. One text said: “See you always, see you always, always, see you always, always…”. He altered this image with videos of Robe in concert, in the dressing room, smiling backstage, happy.
Miles of people
The formality of the first hours was lost as the day went by. The volume of the music was raised and the organization kindly told people that they could not stay for long in front of the singer’s remains, that outside the venue the line was already several kilometers long. Everyone did their part.
In addition to his wife and two children, a good number of the artist’s relatives attended and stood in the stands with the musicians from Robe’s band. They hugged and listened to the music of the honoree, like Sweet introduction to chaos: “Holding on to the tail of the wind for a moment I feel better. / I forgot to put my feet on the ground and I feel better: fly, fly.” Some mothers presented their babies, new additions to the long Iniesta family. The atmosphere in the family part was relaxing.
At 1:30 p.m., the musicians from Robe’s band took the stage and began to play a soft melody. The poet Manolo Chinato, a friend of Robe, came out on stage and recited, with a hoarse and trembling voice, a poem that ended like this: “And I will leave and the birds will stay singing. Long live the rebellion.” A flash of emotion ran through everyone. The band regularly delivered songs from the musician’s repertoire. As Guerrero, what The audience chanted that at that moment it was their turn to pay their respects to the artist: “From the gorge, I am not going to let you pass. / We have not come to look at this slaughterhouse.”
One of the most exciting moments was when Chinato got up on stage again to recite his poem Love, love, love and expand the soul. “I would like my voice to be so loud that sometimes the mountains would rumble. / And you, the socially-numbed minds, would listen to the words of love from my throat.” To conclude, he shouted: “Goodbye, Robe.” See you always…