Valeria Castro: "It is possible to find a safe place after a loss"

Valeria Castro has experienced euphoric summer nights, with massive concerts and memorable successes. Even so, when she thinks of a special summer night, a daily one on the island where she was born, La Palma, comes to mind, accompanied by one of her childhood friends, contemplating the sunset on the beach where they have swum since they were little, Puerto Naos.

Her artistic facet means that moments when she can stop and return home are scarce, especially in the summer, which is why for some years now she has greatly valued the times she manages to meet up with her lifelong friends. “Almost all of us have built our lives away from the island and it’s a very special event that we can coincide,” she explains.

Of all these meetings, one August night in 2025 remained particularly etched in her memory, after a particularly difficult year, marked by the death of her grandmother. Until recently, the beach where they swam every summer had been closed due to the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in 2021. “Being on that beach at night had two very symbolic things: understanding that I could find a safe place again after a loss and returning to a place that for a time seemed like it would never be reopened,” she explains. Sitting by the sea, watching the sunset, she shared a very authentic moment of affection and connection with her friend. “We continued to be a refuge for each other even if we could only meet once a year,” she celebrates.

Valeria Castro assures that it was the first day amidst her grief when she felt that someday it would also pass, and that there would be moments in life when beauty and suffering would go hand in hand. “When you have lived your whole life in a place and lose someone important there, it’s as if parts of you are uprooted,” she explains. “These moments of beauty, however brief, make you understand that the pain will always be there, but suffering will not,” reflects the singer, who has always felt closely connected to the sea: “It’s the smell that makes me feel at home.” It also happens to her when she comes to Barcelona (in October she performs at the Palau Sant Jordi) and contemplates the Mediterranean: “The sea connects me with where I come from,” she says.

The summers of her childhood are also completely linked to Puerto Naos, and to the inseparable company of her twin sister. The days went by between the sea, games and eternal hours under the sun. “We were like little animals: playing, sleeping, bathing and eating,” she says. And she concludes: “They are precious memories. I confess: I have the official nostalgic’s card”.