Nobody is a prophet in his land, but in the case of public figures on the size of Carlos Fuentes, the desperate flapping of ninguneo and are canceled diatribe against the strength of a monumental work. It is true that some in Mexico do not want their greatest living writer, and try to disqualify him for his political views, but the names of those opponents will not stand the time, but instead his work is already history.
I had to participate, as an envoy of the DPA at a press conference and book signing session in the flagship Librería Gandhi Mexico. As journalists we met with Fuentes, more than 500 people waited their turn to enter the auditorium, mostly young readers who did not live like us during the "boom" of Latin American literature, but recognize the greatest writer in Mexico, the eternal candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, but no journalist raised the issue.
"There are more journalists than readers," commented Carlos Fuentes slyly not knowing that their readers were waiting outside in a long line around the store and disappeared into the darkness of the cobblestone streets of Chimalistac.
television cameras and flashes Photography cornered the author of "The Air Is Clear", but during the press conference most reporters' questions addressed political issues: drug trafficking, the PAN government, corruption, violence. Shortly literature, it is believed that any public figure is required to position itself politically.
"I can ask a question about literature? - I tried to get their attention. "There are writers who write books and publishers, and other writers who write with a plan to develop a complete work. You're one of these past. When concludes that plan? " did not hesitate a second:" In death. I hope to write to the end, I have nothing else to do. A work never completes. Balzac not completed yours, why I'm going to complete. Always get things in the pipeline. "
The hackneyed question of a reporter is not left waiting, when he says that "books are like children" and asks you to name your favorite work. "I can not because all are equal for me. Some are one-eyed, some are tall, some are short ... does not matter because they are all my children, I love them all. "
Fuentes lives and writes in London, and spends only a portion of his time in Mexico. "Are you a modern man?" A English journalist asked, to which responds: "I feel very old, I am of the Roman Empire."
it survive the book? How does it feel to young Mexicans? What about the presidential race? What is your diagnosis of Mexican politics? Will there be a third world war? The questions flow one after another, some of them have heard thousands of times. What is your next book, what are you writing now? "That does not speak, otherwise I do not."
When questions begin to repeat Fuentes becomes impatient and asks readers to let go, but first, the journalists also have books to sign. I held a copy of "All happy families", that strange book of stories about characters that includes "choirs" written as poems. "Who? She asks. "For Bolivia," I reply. In hand, a representative of the Editorial Santillana said: "For the whole country ..." while sources drawing a map of South America and Bolivia exactly situated in the heart of the continent. "Do you like my map?" He tells me to return my book.
minutes before I asked if his love for film, shared with García Márquez had influenced his narrative: "Has not felt the absence of the image to write? Is it enough poetic metaphor of writing? "
exhaustively answered: "I love movies, I know the time of the 1930 to 1950, but I think that literature is an end in itself, the literary image is more powerful than the film, because it allows the reader to imagine, while in the film the viewer is bound to see what is on screen. " He adds: "Unless a director like Bunuel that puts players looking out of the screen. That is, there is a world outside the screen. "
When they entered his readers signed for three hours at least a thousand books, each one carrying two or three copies. A woman came with a dozen first editions, of those that still have in my libraries scattered or boxed.
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