{"id":66202,"date":"2026-07-15T06:52:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=66202"},"modified":"2026-07-18T00:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T22:01:41","slug":"for-spain-and-for-freedom-counting-stars-celebrates-its-22nd-anniversary-with-a-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/07\/15\/for-spain-and-for-freedom-counting-stars-celebrates-its-22nd-anniversary-with-a-song\/","title":{"rendered":"For Spain and for Freedom: Counting Stars celebrates its 22nd anniversary with a song"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At 1:09 CET on Thursday, July 15, 2004, 22 years ago today, I published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2004\/07\/15\/una-dos-tres-cuatro\/\">the first article of this blog<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/12\/31\/ten-purposes-for-spain-the-west-life-and-freedom-in-the-year-2026\/\">Ten purposes for Spain, the West, life and freedom in the year 2026<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/01\/02\/counting-stars-8-6-million-reasons-to-thank-its-readers-for-2025\/\">Counting Stars: 8.6 million reasons to thank its readers for 2025<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p><strong>It's not easy for a blog to reach 22 years.<\/strong> Of the blogs I remember from the time when Counting Stars began, very few remain today. It's gratifying for me that this little corner of the internet is still open and that it maintains <strong>the same freedom and independence as in its beginnings, without ever having received a single cent from the State<\/strong>, in any way. That's one of the reasons why on these pages you can read critical analyses of any government, regardless of its ideological leanings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Counting Stars is now entering a new era.<\/strong> Recently, after years hosted on another server, the blog moved to a new, more modern hosting service that allows it to run faster, as you may have already noticed. <strong>New design changes are coming soon<\/strong>, changes I've been preparing for some time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This blog wouldn't be possible without my family<\/strong>, who have supported me immensely throughout this time, especially during the most difficult moments. So, <strong>I dedicate this anniversary to them, especially to my mother<\/strong>, who reads me every day (and who actually collaborates on this blog as a proofreader, pointing out the frequent typos I make), <strong>and especially to my father<\/strong>. This is the first anniversary of this blog since his passing last year, and for that reason, without a doubt, this has been the most difficult year of all those I've experienced with this blog, but <strong>we have each other and we have God<\/strong>, who always lends us a hand in the most unexpected ways.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This blog is currently read in 185 countries.<\/strong> There could be more, but in some places, under dictatorships, access to this blog is blocked. <strong>The defense of Spain and of Freedom remain two of the reasons for this site's existence<\/strong>, and there is still no censorship that can silence that. And if they can't censor me in prose, even less so in musical format. I say this because <strong>Counting Stars is releasing their song on this 22nd anniversary<\/strong>, I hope you like it (the video is in English but has Spanish subtitles, you can activate them in the player):<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Contando Estrelas\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-PR1uNSOQFo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>The song was generated with artificial intelligence. I started working on it on May 19th<\/strong>, and since then I've been tweaking the lyrics and trying out different versions (8 versions of the lyrics and 56 versions of the music, no less; it seemed like a never-ending story), with very varied styles: pop, rock, heavy metal, and even classical music. I finally decided on a style I really like, <strong>a fusion of traditional Galician music (with bagpipe sounds) and rock<\/strong>. These are the original lyrics in Spanish:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Desde Vigo al viento<br \/>\nhay una voz en la red,<br \/>\nun grito de esperanza<br \/>\nentre los lamentos,<br \/>\nun canto por Espa\u00f1a<br \/>\ny por todo el Occidente,<br \/>\nuna voz que defiende<br \/>\nnuestra y vuestra Libertad.<\/p>\n<p>Con sosiego entre el ruido<br \/>\npara no desesperar,<br \/>\nuna opini\u00f3n serena<br \/>\npara no dejarse llevar.<\/p>\n<p>Contando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nuna vela en la oscuridad.<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\n\u00a1por Espa\u00f1a y por la Libertad!<\/p>\n<p>Defendiendo la vida<br \/>\ndesde la concepci\u00f3n,<br \/>\ny exigiendo respeto,<br \/>\npor la libre educaci\u00f3n.<br \/>\nApoyando una Europa<br \/>\nde naciones soberanas,<br \/>\ny avivando sus ra\u00edces,<br \/>\nque son judeocristianas.<\/p>\n<p>Frente a los totalitarios<br \/>\ny los que usan el terror,<br \/>\n\u00a1que nunca nos arrebaten<br \/>\nnuestra dignidad y el honor!<\/p>\n<p>Contando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nuna vela en la oscuridad.<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\n\u00a1por Espa\u00f1a y por la Libertad!<\/p>\n<p>En cada p\u00e1gina abierta<br \/>\nhablando con claridad,<br \/>\nsiempre con independencia<br \/>\ny sin miedo a protestar.<br \/>\nCon raz\u00f3n y motivos<br \/>\ny siempre sin olvidar<br \/>\nque quedarnos pasivos<br \/>\nes dejar que triunfe el mal.<\/p>\n<p>Contando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nuna vela en la oscuridad.<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\nContando Estrelas,<br \/>\n\u00a1por Espa\u00f1a y por la Libertad!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And this is <strong>the English translation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>From Vigo to the wind<br \/>\nthere's a voice on the internet,<br \/>\na cry of hope<br \/>\namidst the laments,<br \/>\na song for Spain<br \/>\nand for all the West,<br \/>\na voice that defends<br \/>\nour and your Freedom.<\/p>\n<p>With composure amidst the noise<br \/>\nso as not to despair,<br \/>\na serene opinion<br \/>\nso as not to be swayed.<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\na candle in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\nfor Spain and for Freedom!<\/p>\n<p>Defending life<br \/>\nfrom conception,<br \/>\nand demanding respect,<br \/>\nfor free education.<\/p>\n<p>Supporting a Europe<br \/>\nof sovereign nations,<br \/>\nand rekindling its roots,<br \/>\nwhich are Judeo-Christian.<\/p>\n<p>Faced with totalitarians<br \/>\nand those who use terror,<br \/>\nmay they never steal from us<br \/>\nour dignity and honor!<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\na candle in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\nfor Spain and for Freedom!<\/p>\n<p>On every open page,<br \/>\nspeaking clearly,<br \/>\nalways independently,<br \/>\nand without fear of protesting.<\/p>\n<p>With reason and motives,<br \/>\nand always remembering<br \/>\nthat remaining passive<br \/>\nis letting evil triumph.<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\na candle in the darkness.<\/p>\n<p>Counting Stars,<br \/>\nCounting Stars,<br \/>\nfor Spain and for Freedom!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The lyrics contain some references that will be familiar to you<\/strong>, and with which I wanted to summarize the values \u200b\u200bI defend with this blog. One of them is <strong>one of Poland's official mottos, \"Za nasz\u0105 i wasz\u0105 wolno\u015b\u0107\" (For our freedom and yours)<\/strong>, a phrase I particularly like and which led Polish soldiers to continue fighting with admirable courage and generosity after losing their homeland during World War II.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The mention of the roots of Europe is a reference to<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/john-paul-ii\/es\/speeches\/1982\/november\/documents\/hf_jp-ii_spe_19821109_atto-europeistico.html\" target=\"_blank\">a historic speech by Pope Saint John Paul II in Santiago de Compostela on November 9, 1982<\/a>: <em>\"From Santiago, <strong>I send you, old Europe, a cry full of love: Rediscover yourself. Be yourself. Discover your origins. Revive your roots.<\/strong> Revive those authentic values \u200b\u200bthat made your history glorious and your presence beneficial on other continents.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/13\/does-an-independent-blog-like-counting-stars-still-make-sense-today\/\">The reference to the candle is because of what I told you here last year<\/a>, when I said that <strong>I've always seen this blog as a small candle in the middle of an environment full of nautical flares<\/strong>. Flares offer a powerful light for a certain time, but then they go out. This blog has never aspired to have such luminous power, but here it is, still keeping its small flame alive.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, if I mention <strong>Vigo<\/strong>, it's because this blog is published from this Spanish city. Finally, there's also a reference to <strong>a famous quote usually attributed to the Irish politician Edmund Burke, one of the fathers of conservative liberalism:<\/strong> <em>\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.\"<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Having said that, and as I have been doing for years on each anniversary of this blog, <strong>I end here with the verses of another song that has always accompanied me in Counting Stars, verses written by J.R.R. Tolkien<\/strong>, my favorite writer, and which appear in Book 1, Chapter 1 of \"The Fellowship of the Ring\", the first volume of \"The Lord of the Rings\":<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The Road goes ever on and on<br \/>\nDown from the door where it began.<br \/>\nNow far ahead the Road has gone,<br \/>\nAnd I must follow, if I can,<br \/>\nPursuing it with eager feet,<br \/>\nUntil it joins some larger way<br \/>\nWhere many paths and errands meet.<br \/>\nAnd whither then? I cannot say.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/elentir\/8973308625\/\">Elentir<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At 1:09 CET on Thursday, July 15, 2004, 22 years ago today, I published the first article of this blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10689],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-logbook"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-01 18:05:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}