And just in case anyone still doubts his word, it seems Viggo Mortensen is telling us that at any time and any place it's good to remember that his Alatriste's roots are in León. The unavoidable proof is this photo of the last day of shooting at Tarifa, along with the filming crew, on board the Flemish ship Niklaasbergen, after finishing the scenes planned in this place. With a flag of León spread on his sword and a Cádiz FC scarf at the tip of it, the Captain Alatriste doesn't miss any opportunity to "show patriotism", although at a distance of thousands of kilometers from this land. "I will come back as long as I can", he told us during his first visit, and on Good Friday he kept his promise, sailing up the Curueño to Valdeteja once more, in order to meet his friends, drink wine in their company and take pictures with them before heading for Asturias.

The trout of the Curueño

"I'm looking forward to fishing trout in such a clean river as the Curueño is, and when I finish the shooting I'll go to try my luck", the American actor said, who this time was killing jews (translator's note: I think this is the slang of León for having drinks of lemonade) in the Barrio Húmedo (Wet Quarter) in the company of a "niece" of his, according to him. The most curious thing about this charismatic actor's personality is that he not only shows his pride of "being" from León in León, something very usual among those who want to boast about this title over here but seem to be ashamed of it in other places, but also in Asturias, Madrid, Salamanca, El Álamo or Tarifa he was seen signing autographs and wearing a black t-shirt on which you could read the name of León in big letters. Not even Fitur (tr. note: important tourist industry exhibition) has done so much for this land.

When he filmed LOTR his mates commented that in order to get into the role of Aragorn he walked round New Zealand without leaving his sword, and during the Hidalgo shooting, without leaving the riding boots, making good the saying "you'll never know a person until you have walked in his shoes". For Alatriste, besides his impressive moustache, which he walks with inside and outside the set, he makes a show of his chosen origin of Valdelugueros.

Although no spot of the ancient realm is going to be the setting of a single shot in this millions of euros film, for Cádiz, Sevilla, Úbeda and other Andalusian towns have been the chosen ones, his presence over here has been a great help for the name of León to appear at every website in the five continents, thanks to pictures such as this one. Not even the UPL (tr. note: regionalist party of León) ever dreamt of a better ambassador!.