Irene Cordón: the eternal return to Egypt, the country where you can hear the stones

BarcelonaIt is hard to find someone who conveys as much passion when they speak as Irene Cordón. When she explains everything she has experienced in Egypt, the interlocutor needs to go there. "When I am in a special place, I cry," she says, recalling a trip to Ethiopia to visit the sources of the Nile. She has also cried in Egyptian burial chambers and when visiting the room where Alexander the Great died in Babylon. She cries when she arrives at places where history has been written. Her life has been like this for years, although for a good period of time it seemed it would be quite different.

"I come from a very well-traveled family. Every summer we took trips. I remember a trip when I was a child to Tunisia that marked me. Everything seemed different and fascinating. When it was time to do COU (Bachillerato Unificado Polivalente), I asked to do it in the United States to learn English and I ended up in California. At 18, I didn't have enough personality to contradict my parents and I studied law, as it is the tradition at home. And I practiced as a lawyer until I was 31," she explains. "I kept traveling and reading many history books. I have always been interested in the past. I went to many countries to see archaeological sites. At 25, I went to Egypt alone. And I discovered that it would be very difficult for me to understand the ancient Egyptians. I understood the Greeks because they make the leap from myth to logos. They start asking themselves questions. This does not happen in ancient Egypt. I think we will never fully understand their world because they are societies of mythical discourse and we are societies of logical discourse," she reasons. That would be the first of many trips: Egypt would no longer leave her life.

“I did a postgraduate degree and a master's degree in Egyptology at the Autònoma. And since I wanted more, I applied for a scholarship at the American University in Cairo. In theory, I couldn't do it because it was for people under 30 and I was 31. I promised that if I got in, I would hang up my gown. No sooner said than done. I went to live there for a year and then I prepared my doctorate, where I combined my two careers: I did it on the rights of women in ancient Egypt,” she says. “Do you know what it's like to have the will of a woman from ancient Egypt in front of you? Few women had these rights, but some could leave inheritances. And I was studying it,” she adds with a laugh.

Getting to know people to get to know a country

On her travels, Cordón met the Sabadell photographer Toni Espadas in Ethiopia, a man in love with Africa. They got married and eventually had a small house in Uganda, in Victoria, living together through a thousand adventures. Espadas was murdered in 2024 in southern Ethiopia while helping a Chilean television crew that was shot at. “My scale of values changed. It has been very difficult, but I try to be positive,” she states.

Now she writes books, teaches adults, and works as a guide organizing trips for people interested in learning about past cultures. “I have my trusted team in Egypt, Lebanon, and Iraq. If you are a woman, it's hard to earn their trust, but I have done it. The psychological toll has been great,” she proudly states, a woman who, when she sets foot in Egypt, only works with local businesses. No big international chains. “If you want to get to know a country, you have to talk to the people. Many people complain that Egyptians are very pushy trying to sell things, but if you go with time and patience, you can end up talking to them calmly. And you discover a new country. Recently we went to Alexandria. We read Kavafis' poems at his birthplace and were moved,” she explains. “Alexandria was amazing! In Roman times it was the cultural capital of the empire. The library came to have 900,000 manuscripts,” she adds while defending Cleopatra’s figure. “Egypt is a trip that moves you. Seeing the Nile, the light, the archaeological sites. People ask me how the pyramids were built. Well, no idea. What fascinates me is asking myself why they were built. Why did the figure of the first pharaoh emerge? There is more Egyptomania than Egyptology, which is what I like,” she reasons.

Cordón has traveled halfway around the world. The letters she sent to her mother when she was in Sudan ended up becoming a beautiful book. In Iran, she followed in the footsteps of her beloved Alexander the Great. With her husband, they were able to see the mountain gorillas in Uganda. But no place like Egypt. And if she has to choose one, it would surely be the tomb of Queen Meresankh III, near Giza. “It is very difficult to find a tomb that belonged to a woman in a patriarchal society. This one is especially beautiful and reminds me of a very beautiful moment with Toni. He didn’t quite understand my passion for archaeological sites. He enjoyed anthropology more, we could say. I told him that we had to know how to listen to the stones,” she recalls. But while visiting that beautiful tomb, her husband was moved. “He told me he was starting to understand me. Now, when I return, I remember that moment. That sunset at the tomb, the two of us alone. Also, the tomb has a lower chamber without decorated walls where the sarcophagus was. I always go down there. And one day the light went out. I was left in the dark and turned on my headlamp. Since the wall has nacre particles, they shone. And they seemed like the tears of Toni, who had died a few months earlier. Now, whenever I return, I go down, turn off the light, turn on the headlamp, and see his tears,” she concludes. And she explains it emotionally, but with a sweet laugh.