Spanish-Moroccan Writer Climbs North Africa’s Highest Peak to Honor Mother’s Heritage

"I made this trip to reconnect with my ancestors. I wanted to set foot on the land of my grandparents and leave a memory for my mother up there, at the top of Toubkal. She would have liked to come back here," Noelia Ordieres told COPE, who left a copy of one of her poems written in tribute to her mother as well as a holly branch planted by the latter 22 years ago on Mount Toubkal. Her mother, Salima Bouarfa, is the daughter of Moroccan Mohamed Bouarfa and Asturian Celia Hidalgo Muñoz. Noelia’s grandparents met in Paris.

The young woman has thus "kept her promise so that, from the highest peak of Morocco, she [her mother] can contemplate the immense beauty of her country wherever she is." Noelia Ordieres was unable to meet other members of her mother’s family during this trip to Morocco. But she plans to return for other hikes in the Atlas and visit Nador, the village of her grandparents. She made this first journey in the Atlas with her companion Javier, assisted by a 27-year-old local guide. "The temperature was -25 degrees, but the experience was wonderful," she says.

Noelia first spent a few days in Marrakech before climbing Mount Toubkal. She is now back in Spain, but remains nostalgic for the "spectacular nature" of the land of her ancestors, of which she has fallen in love. The young woman has political ambitions. She wants to be a councilor for Izquierda Unida (IU) on the municipal council of Gijón, the city where she lives.