In line with Aurelio Arteta and the Basque costumbrismo of the early twentieth century, Ana Arsuaga (Tolosa, 1994) has made a self-portrait for the front cover and back cover of her latest work. The project by Arsuaga, Verde Prato and that beautiful Legend (2021, Lago/Crater, PlanB Records), tells on his album an enigmatic story, building the story step by step, seen, from details.

It tells the story of the main character who was shot, built from the voices of her relatives: her mother, her abandoned friends, a girl she has met... It might seem that a city is going in the hope of a new life, but the flight is tragic. The melody also helps in the dark aura, as the melodies created by Arsuaga are liturgical, as if they were designed to remember this story from generation to generation.

The melody it uses leads us to join the Basque tradition, in Bertso-like melodies. Arsuaga is able to reinvent popularity by offering completely original subtle pieces. Adhesive and penetrating agents. And also elegant and beautiful.

The main enigma of history is the truth that the protagonist has left behind. Why do you run away? Because in her father's song she recognizes that she also escaped on the powerful piano base that Kanye West himself would like to sign. Is it the same reason to flee from the beginning of the twentieth century or from this 21st century rowing? Are we able to escape the truth? “Let’s see if men have the way the mother says.”

We heard a battle and death in the song of the Brothers and in the song of the Girl, closing the record. In the end, the rhythm reggaeton “papi, you have something that nobody has.” So, I've been tempted to put the record behind, in search of that truth, and it has occurred to me that it's able to tell different stories after listening to it. In one of them the character is dead, in the other the killer. One begins with the leak, the other ends with the leak.

And it doesn't have to, but I liked non-chronological history. It is one of the virtues of the popular, the ability and intention to hide other readings, beyond making a moralizing story.

In a society in which orality has completely lost its place, through rapid images all cultural artifacts are transiently disseminated through filters of digital platforms. Verde Prato gives us a deeper breath through another paused, highlighting the value of the popular story. Costumbrism is not indifference.