The following chronicle began in the hills of Cuera, council of Llanes, at the east of the Asturian country, north west of the Iberian Peninsula; comarques where Ana María García was born, in 1623, daughter of Xuan and Turibia, harvesters of their land, in their days.
The first years of her life were hard: shortly after her birth she was orphaned and her life became an ordeal, her siblings and other relatives considered she was a burden, and she was thus embarked on a journey through different clans.
Up to 3 years Ana stayed at the home of Catalina Xuarez and Xuan García, she then was sent to the home of Diego Soga, brother of the latter, with whom she lived until she was 7, later, Ana arrived at the home of Xuan Gutiérrez de Ardisana, where she lived until age 14.
Then she's got pregnant of Fran Soga, another relative, and escaped back to Llanes, specifically to the hamlet where lived Turibia Sánchez, possibly another relative.
Ana was 20 years old when she developed a close relationship with an old witch, known throughout the region, and more specifically, in the hamlet of Bricia, named Catalina González; that magic-woman played a special role in the circle of Asturian witches, an evil priestess who captured teenage followers to form part of their gatherings, (akelarre) of which there aren't known details.
This enigmatic woman with cadaverous face, she taught Ana the knowledge of nature, black arts, and their magical connection with animals and, more specifically, with the wolves...the terrifying power to summon demons in the form of beasts of seven colors, the invocation of beings from the underworld that simply obey an order, rituals which belonged to the European satanism she learned, like the invocation of wolves, or the akelarre, sexual feast of unknown characteristics, but the symbolism of the goat, and its subterranean connections with the ancient Saturnalia.
Thus began a transcendental relationship that would last until death, Catalina not only was her mentor in the communication with the beyond, but instructed her in the art of preparing all kinds of ointments and potions, consisting of botanically unclassified plants, and intestines of beasts, archaic remedies lost in the mists of time, that formed an introduction, which ended the day the old witch died.
The delivery 'in articulo mortis' of certain object, as scholars in medieval witchcraft consider, it does establish a link between the learner and the master, the transmission of the 'giftt' from witch to witch: Catalina, in the eve of her death, conveyed her 'power' to the novice magician.
The West.
The death of her chimerical companion made the direction of Ana María shift toward the high mountains of the south west, there, amid the rugged mountains and thick forests, she mixed with the people of the bran pilgrimage, and their livestock caravans in search of good pasture, the Vaqueirus, men and women of a degraded race of unknown origin, who didn't belong to any clan.
According to certain source, the Vaqueirus (Vaqueros in Spanish, from vaca: cow), they were a residual population, descendant of Moors, witches and Normans, and practiced the endogamy until today, there is a strange ritual among them: the mothers breastfeed their babies tied to a table.
Still in the present day they are banned from entering the church, in certain Asturian rural hamlets.
As reflected in the files that make up the summary of the Inquisition, she moved first to the meadows of X...and there she joined two Vaqueirus from A..., along with them she went to Covadonga (Cuadonga), also known as "The cavern of The Lady", a magic place and sanctuary of the Virgin Mary, the reason of this strange visit of the witch and her Vaqueirus it's unknown.
Day after day, the repudiated Vaqueirus were able to witness with horror the alleged magical powers of Ana María, and her relations with the wolves, animal that personified in those days most of the terrors for the man in the rural Europe...not surprisingly, the witches knew how to negotiate with the beasts of the countryside, since they were immune to the disturbing power of the wolf stare (If unexpected and suddenly they met in the forest, and the beast fixed its eyes into the eyes of a human, the consequences could be dire.)
According to the Marquis de Villena, this is explained partially in his "Treaties on Witches":
"It can serve as a demolishing example about how horrid and infernal the lupine stare is, that first, it makes the man lose his voice completely, and then, it makes the man unable to move, at all..."
As time went by, the Ana María's name did spread through the fields and hills of the Asturian country, she kept livestock safe from diseases and accidents, as well as took care of pastors, preparing concoctions made of stag horn, bear grease, wolf and wild boar teeth, and snakes, toads, worms, slugs or leeches, as she was a specialist in the manufacture of remedies with the pharmacopoeia that was found in the flora and fauna of the Astur mountains.
...During 3 years she was practicing her arts, and escaping from the Inquisition, among herdsmen and shepherds, in times when the Asturian country was the most isolated and barbaric province of the Peninsula, on the other hand, the Inquisition's Holy Office, always willing to chase Jews and witches, they used to turn a blind eye in the province, due to the poor education of its people, the insecurity of its paths, full of wild beasts and bandits, and the belief that the inhabitants of Asturias had a clean source of blood.
Notwithstanding, in 1648 she was arrested.
A trial
"Criminal charges on Ana María García, otherwise called the Llobera, natural place of birth Pousada, in the council of Llanes, Asturias, imprisoned in secret prisons.
And I say that while the above mentioned was named Christian, and estimate the common opinion and held and reputed as such, and enjoying immunities, privileges and exemptions as other Catholics and Christians tend to enjoy, she, forgetting her obligations, ungrateful, and despising so many unique benefits, committed offense against God our Lord and against his holy faith ..."
1. That (...) in place of the council of Llanes, certain person of extremely relaxed and heinous life, advised her if she wanted to walk with wolves, and charm, in order to it she had to give to the Devil her right arm (...) and so she gave the Devil her right arm, saying, 'I offer this right arm.'
2. That she went with the (forbidden) shepherds of the mountains for three years, and walked with three of them, and she was involved in dishonest carnal commerce with them (...) and then she entered into circles on the ground, and giving a whistle seven wolves came in different colors, which were devils, and they went after her wherever she went, and when she was inside (the circle) they went around without entering it, and sometimes they came without being called, and sometimes because she called them to be with her.
3. That the carnal familiarity she had with the demons in the form of wolves, it was so close, that she could not find peace without their company.
An uncertain outcome
Suddenly, three months after her imprisonment, she was released mysteriously with no charges, Ana returned to the northern Cantabrian mountain range, to refuge herself in its thick forests, and its unreal ecosystem, living in the caves of Cangas del Narcea.
Some said have seen her in the hamlets of the comarque, sometimes, Llarón, Xarceléi, Zreicéu, Uviéi, Bisuyu, Xedré, Llinares, Tabladiellu, Llumés, Villatexil, Xichón, Outardexú, Soucéu, remote villages lost in the stone paths of the profound Asturies, where the social structure still kept characteristics of the Stone Age.
According to the chronicle, after she walked on the waters of the holy river (Ríu Narcea) one afternoon of June of 1666, she ran like wild and furious, entering the near forest, her screams still were heard for miles, "her hairs were snakes, as snakes her screaming blasphemies were..."
It was the last terrestrial day Ana María was seen.
Despite the exposure of the elements, and the obscure corners where the story seemed to have go, where the madness gets blended with the enigmatic, the ethnic and the atavic, when we cross the steep mountain roads in the Principality, including its hidden or secluded forests and green meadows, its impassable roads, and its stone bridges, demolished by the passage of time, still there's something that wasn't said, about a spirit that today it seems, for a while, to be still alive.
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