EL PERIÓDICO GLOBAL EN ESPAÑOL
www.elpais.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2009
ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
Zapatero hits back at Bank Basque Nationalists of Spain over labor policy lose ground in poll Country must not fall prey to “neocon” ideas, PM insists A. E., Madrid Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on Thursday accused the governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez, of championing “neoconservative” ideas and wanting to “shrink the welfare state” after the central banker suggested the government make it cheaper for companies to hire and fire. “We shouldn’t go down the road” of repealing workers’ rights, Zapatero, a Socialist, said. “A society whose workers have more rights is more competitive; the other option falls into the catalogue of neoconservative theories […] that have not given satisfactory results.” Spain, where the unemployment rate rose to almost 14 percent at the end of last year, the highest in the EU, has some of the most rigid labor rules in Europe. It costs companies the equivalent of between 20 and 45 days’ salary to fire a worker for every year they have worked, a factor that Ordóñez, many economists, and institutions such as the IMF, see as contributing to Spain’s employment and economic crises.
“It does not favor the creation of employment nor the growth of the most competitive companies, […] it is a disincentive to new hiring, […] and it distorts the market,” Ordóñez, who was appointed by Zapatero two years ago, said Wednesday. He pointed to the example of countries such as Denmark and Austria, where it costs companies little to hire and fire workers
and where unemployment rates are currently around 4 percent. Zapatero, in response, used a different example. “The United States has the most flexible labor market in the world and it is destroying employment like never before,” he said. The unemployment rate in the US was 7.6 percent in January, almost half that of Spain. See RECESSION Page 7
A. E. Madrid The Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and its allies could lose control of the Basque parliament for the first time in almost three decades in a regional election on March 1, but the outcome may not guarantee a new leader for the troubled northern region, a new opinion poll shows. The PNV, EA and EB, the three nationalist and leftist parties that make up the current
Basque administration of premier Juan José Ibarretxe, are expected to win between 33 and 35 seats in the regional parliament, putting them at least three seats short of an absolute majority in the chamber, Spain’s Center for Sociological Studies (CIS) said Thursday. The opposition Basque Socialist Party (PSE), the regional wing of Spain’s governing Socialist Party, is expected to win 26 seats, while the conservative Popular Party looks likely to pick up 12. Continued on Page 3
NGO points to 50,000 victims of “modern slavery” EL PAÍS, Madrid At least 50,000 people are victims of trafficking in Spain, of whom between 80 and 90 percent are women, according to estimates published Thursday by campaigners dedicated to fighting “modern slavery.” “They are by our side, in the street, locked in apartments; it’s a reality that exists, we cannot close our eyes,” declared Eva Sancha, one of the founders of the Spanish Network Against People Trafficking, a newly formed group of 22 associations. Sancha described Spain as one of the principal destinations for trafficking victims, many of them women and children forced into the sex trade. The network has published a guide to help police, social workers and doctors identify victims.
How Portugal can be a muse for the blues Arts & Travel
Pages 4 & 5
uly martín
India takes center stage at opening of ARCO 2009 The prince and princess of Asturias officially opened the 28th edition of Arco yesterday, one of the world’s biggest contemporary art fairs. From today, the public will be able to
peruse works from 32 different countries, such as Vivek Vilasini’s Last supper — Gaza, pictured above. As usual, one country is invited as a special guest — this year the choice is
PP labels abortion reform plans “barbarous” EL PAÍS, Madrid The governing Socialist Party is committing a “barbarous act” by “opening the door to free-choice abortion” under proposed legislation presented Thursday in Congress, a spokesperson for the main opposition Popular Party declared Thursday. Sandra Moneo, the PP’s representative in a congressional subcommittee that has studied abortion-law reform, said the Socialists
had reduced the debate to an “auction” over the period of time women will be permitted to terminate their pregnancies without citing any reason. The government is expected to propose changing the law to allow free-choice abortion during the first 14 weeks of pregnancy and in certain cases up to 22 weeks. Currently, Spain only permits abortions in cases of rape, if there is a risk to the mother’s health or if the fetus is malformed.
India. In fact, a work by Indian artist Jitish Kallat was drawing most attention among advance visitors on Thursday: Aquasaurus 2008, a truck constructed out of dinosaur bones.
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EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
OPINION AND EDITORIAL
Mariano Rajoy loses his cool
EL ROTO
The PP leader cannot blame others for the scandals that arise inside his own party THE POPULAR PARTY (PP) has been unable to withstand the impact of the two serious scandals that are affecting its organization, principally in Madrid, which are casting doubt on the authority and mettle of its president and parliamentary opposition leader, Mariano Rajoy. His reaction to a spate of dismissals and resignations related to recent interlocking scandals involving the PP has been an intemperate outpouring of adjectives. Armed with these, Rajoy appeared on Wednesday after the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, and fired a broadside. “Obscene” and “unacceptable” were the adjectives he found suitable for the fact that Judge Baltasar Garzón and the justice minister, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, were both present in the same hunting party last Sunday — which, in his opinion, ought to oblige the judge to withdraw from the case. He also announced that from this moment on he was going to break relations with the Justice Ministry as long as it was headed by Bermejo, and that he would call for a parliamentary appearance by the state prosecutor to demand explanations on the unequal treatment given to different political parties involved in corruption cases. “There is no conspiracy within the PP; there is a conspiracy against the PP,” he said. This is not entirely false: it is people of the PP against the PP. On the one hand, it was members of the party who recorded compromising conversations and reported the activities now being investigated by Garzón; and on the other hand, in the words of the Basque PP leader Antonio Basagoiti, while some people risk
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their lives just by being in the PP, others exploit their membership to carry on illicit business. Rajoy must look inside his party, and not to those outside it who are investigating or calling for explanations. While at first, in keeping with his style, Rajoy reacted sparingly to the news about the extent of the illicit dealings, on Wednesday he lost his cool and decided to step out personally and speak — in terms that may express the release of pent-up personal feelings, but unfortunately go much further and cannot fail to have consequences, bad ones, especially for the PP itself. The facts leave no room for jokes or lame excuses; we are looking at corrupt practices in PP municipal governments, which cannot be excused on the grounds that they also exist in other parties. We are looking, too, at the feeling of impunity with which these practices have spread in the territories where the PP has an absolute majority. To speak of leaks, or conspiracies between the State Prosecutor’s Office and a High Court judge, sounds like the excuses of someone who is loath to pay his debts. As the leader of the party with the biggest membership in Spain, Rajoy is not going to gain more credibility by means of his indignant adjectives. Nor will his party, which is in great need of a drastic cleanup. An inquiry is not enough to exonerate the leaders. There needs to be a clean break with the confusion between public and private interests that has chronically infected the party. Public opinion is offended not so much by corruption, as by the passivity of party leaders when it comes to dealing with it.
PRESIDENT
EDITOR
Ignacio Polanco
Javier Moreno
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DEPUTY EDITORS
Juan Luis Cebrián
Vicente Jiménez & Lluís Bassets
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS
EDITOR ENGLISH EDITION
Jesús Ceberio & Pedro García Guillén
Guy Hedgecoe
The politics of terror More terrorism. Just a few hours after the Supreme Court prevented ETA from running candidates in the Basque elections, through Askatasuna and Democracia 3 Milliones, the terrorist group decided to remind Spain that despite the ban on its parties, it still has an ace up its sleeve: threats and terror. Through its attack, ETA sent out a clear message of rejection regarding the court’s decision, with which it dispelled any doubt about the link between the parties and the
armed group. But with this attack it also wanted to make clear that its threats transcend words and that the choice of Ferrovial was not a coincidence, given that the company is working on the Basque highspeed rail link. The court’s decision was attributed by some to the interests of the PSOE and the PP, but ETA’s actions only served to confirm the suspicions about the candidates. Once more, they proved that violence is the weapon of those who are in the wrong.— Vanessa Massimini.
“The painter doesn’t paint anything, my friend, it’s the one who manages the markets that paints.”
Hugging the panda JOSÉ IGNACIO TORREBLANCA Some see China as a harmless panda bear; others see it as threatening dragon. For the first, the rise of China is logical and inevitable; they propose to make the best of the time we have to involve Beijing in the network of interdependencies called multilateralism. For the second, China is stealthily building a huge economic and military power, in order to surpass the United States as a world power and dominate Asia and the Pacific. Some propose to be friendly; others firm and watchful. Though the first are maligned as “panda huggers,” there is nothing wrong in a policy that consists of bringing China into the society of nations. After all, this supposed insult draws its inspiration from the expression “tree hugger,” first used to describe the Chipko Undula movement in India — people who literally hugged trees to keep them from being cut down. China, naturally enough, defends its own interests, not ours. And the anti-Chinese hysteria has been fomented by neocons who felt that Islamism had little mileage left as an enemy. Fortunately the Vulcans, as those are called who think that world order is forged of blood and iron, are in retreat. With the United States in a phase of multilateral humility, the prospects for global alliance between it and China are better than ever. Such an alliance, which some are already calling the G2, would have a huge impact on crucial questions. Without China we can do nothing meaningful about climate change; and without Chinese support and UN-led sanctions, the Tehran regime will persist in a mad nuclear race that can only end in armed conflict or nuclear proliferation. The European Union, which has direct interests in both areas, cannot stay aloof from this process. But to influence China it needs to act in a united way. So far this has not been possible, the Europeans never having managed to speak in unison on the thornier aspects of their relations with Beijing, while the Chinese
have profited from these divisions and maneuvered to widen them. The European tour of the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, is a good example: he has graced Spain with his presence — describing it as “China’s best friend in the EU” — but has ignored Nicolas Sarkozy’s France, a more vocal critic. Madrid has obtained a good agreement, since our trade and business presence in China still has great room for improvement. It is harder to find the right political tone for dealings with Beijing, a regime that has a major human rights problem. Strangely enough for a country that has seen a long dictatorship, and knows what it means to be deprived of human rights, Spain tends to keep its mouth shut in these matters. This has recently come to the fore once more in the case of the charges laid in a Spanish court against Israel. The Spanish government’s silence on human rights is sorely apparent, in a country that can boast exceptionally progressive legislation in the area of world justice. It would seem as if Spain had two foreign policies: the government’s, and that of the High Court as it applies laws enacted by Congress. Thus the government soothes Beijing and calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, while High Court judges indict the Chinese government for what it is doing in Tibet. The judges have no choice but to apply the law; but the government does have a choice and can take a stronger line, especially in coordination with the European Union. Prime Minister Zapatero, who in connection with Tel Aviv and Washington has always said that friends must be criticized when they are in the wrong, might take his own advice in relations with Beijing; and with Moscow too and, of course, Rabat. Otherwise the leaders of these countries may interpret our silence as a lack of trust, and even suspect that we are not really their friends. José Ignacio Torreblanca is head of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
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EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
NEWS Socialists set for second term in Galicia
PP prepares for court fight over corruption cases EL PAÍS, Madrid Spain’s main opposition Popular Party on Thursday prepared to go to court to fight accusations of corruption against several of its members, requesting that the party be represented in the case so it can file a complaint over the perceived bias of the judge leading the investigation. In papers presented to the High Court yesterday by PP Congress spokeswoman Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría and PP justice spokesman Federico Trillo, the party requests representation in the case, which has so far led to two of its members being indicted on charges of money laundering, bribery and tax fraud. As an entity involved in the lawsuit, the PP would then be able to demand that the High Court put Judge Baltasar Garzón under review for alleged bias against the PP. Garzón has shown “manifest enmity” and “constant animosity” toward the PP, the party’s request states. “From the moment the arrests were made public […] the case has been presented as a lawsuit against the PP in general.” The request is accompanied by newspaper cuttings reporting Garzón’s hunting trips, dinners and lunches with Socialist Justice Minister Mariano Fernández Bermejo. “This leads us to question the independence of Judge Garzón,” Sáenz de Santamaría said. Garzón has so far indicted 37 people in the corruption investigation, including two former PP mayors and several businessmen with links to the party.
Greenpeace activists protesting yesterday in the Cabo de Gata natural park in Carboneras, Almería. / reuters
Greenpeace draws veil over illegally built beachside hotel Group says government backpedaling on expropriation plan EL PAÍS Madrid Greenpeace activists on Thursday draped 18,000 square meters of green material over an illegally built hotel in Almería province as a protest at what they say is the government backpedaling on plans to expropriate the seafront construction site. The protest, which began with members of the environmentalist group scaling the half-finished building at 7am, comes more than three years after a court ordered the suspension of building work on the El Algarrobico Hotel near the town of Carboneras. Since
then, successive court orders have revoked the building licenses for the 20-storey hotel, which sits inside a national park less than 30 meters from the seashore. Under Spanish law, no building can be constructed closer than 100 meters to the sea.
An end to legal action? However, Greenpeace activists say they have had access to a confidential report drafted by state prosecutors for the Environment Ministry that recommends ending the expropriation process. “Despite all the sentences declaring the El Algarrobico Ho-
tel illegal, the ministry that is supposed to be defending the environment has decided to paralyze the recovery of the first 100 meters of beach,” Pilar Marcos, the head of coastal affairs for Greenpeace Spain, told reporters. She said there are no valid legal arguments against continuing with the expropriation of the land from its current owner, the Azar e Sol company. Since doubts about the legality of the project were first raised, El Algarrobico has become a symbol of the excessive construction that has blighted Spain’s coastal areas in recent years, as well as the damage it has caused to terrestrial and marine ecosystems.
Expired visa? A 54-day detention Spaniard held in Texan jail after letting documentation lapse ANTÍA CASTEDO, Madrid Robert Fortea, a former arts student and theater technician, was arrested by the US authorities after his visa ran out and held for 54 days in a privately run detention center in the Texas border city of El Paso before being deported two weeks ago. “I paid a high price for being there illegally,” says the 32-yearold Spaniard ruefully from his home in the Catalan mountain town of Valldoreix. He had been working in the Art Students League in New York for three years, and also as a technician on a Broadway show for almost three years, but had let his visa lapse about a year ago. “I didn’t renew it because I couldn’t afford it. I was going to leave the country in three months,” he says. Fortea was picked up along with an Israeli friend by police
while traveling by bus through New Mexico on a final trip before returning home. The pair was then taken to a privately run detention center in El Paso. “We arrived at the prison at 3am, were given a cold shower, and the two of us were put in a windowless holding cell,” says Robert, adding, “I knew it was going to be hellish.” Fortea says that he was treat-
“I was being treated like a hardened criminal, I couldn’t believe it” ed “harshly, but not violently.” He was given three meals a day, and describes the food as “disgusting.” He was allowed out into the courtyard for an hour on
most days — “It depended on the guard.” Most of the time the holding cell, with bunks and lavatories open to public view, was filled with up to 65 other prisoners from as many as 35 other countries. Most of them were Mexicans, also waiting to be deported. “I knew I had broken the law, but I was being treated like a hardened criminal. I couldn’t believe what was happening.” Fortea was told that he would be deported in two or three weeks. As the assigned date for his deportation approached, he called the Spanish consulate in Texas, and was told his plane would leave the next week. But the officer due to accompany him fell ill, which meant the whole process had to start all over again. “I broke out in a cold sweat when they told me,” he says. His deportation was cancelled a second time two
Robert Fortea, who is now back in
weeks later. “I thought I was going to be stuck there forever. It was clear that nobody was in a hurry to get us out.” Around half-a-million people are deported by the United States each year. The New York
From Page 1 Until recently, such a scenario had led to talk of a possible Socialist-PP coalition in the Basque Country to oust the PNV from power for the first time since 1980. However, with PP politicians embroiled in corruption scandals and accusing the Socialists of conniving with the judiciary at the national level, such an alliance now seems unlikely. In addition, the CIS poll shows that Ibarretxe remains the most highly valued Basque politician, with far stronger approval ratings than those of PSE leader Patxi López or, especially, the PP leader in the region, Antonio Basagoiti. In Galicia, where regional elections will also take place on March 1, the incumbent Socialist-nationalist coalition looks set to assure itself a second term in power. The Galician Socialist Party (PSdG) is predicted to win 27 seats while its partners in the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG) look set to win 12 or 13, enough to form an absolute majority of at least 38 seats in the parliament. As in the last election, the PP is likely to be the most-voted party, winning 35 or 36 seats, but would be unable to govern. Campaigns for both regions’ elections begin today. On a national level, the CIS also asked voters about their opinion of the governing Socialists and the main opposition Popular Party, finding that if a general election were held today it would end in a tie, with both parties winning 39 percent of the vote. The poll was conducted in January before news broke of the corruption scandals affecting the PP.
Times says that private companies run almost half of the detention centers for deportees. The federal government pays them just over $100 per detainee per day. Congress has doubled spending on anti-immigration measures, approving a $5.9-billion package in the process. Fortea chose not to inform his family of his ordeal. They thought he was still working in New York. Finally, two weeks ago, and on the third attempt, he was escorted by an armed guard to AtlanSpain. ta, Georgia, where he was put on board a plane bound for Spain. He will not be allowed to return to the United States for five years. “At times, I felt like I was in Kafka’s The Trial,” he says. “What was going on made no sense whatsoever.”
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EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
Arts & Travel Guide SPAIN EXHIBITIONS
Guarda’s Mojo is working Honeyboy Hickling among performers at blues festival
»THE SHADOW This intriguing exhibition examines the use of shadows as a theme throughout Western art, with each period having assigned the shadow with a different connotation. Spanning a period from the Renaissance to the present day, the work on show is by artists as diverse as Pablo Picasso and Jan van Eyck. La sombra. Until May 17 at Museo Thyssen Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado 8, Madrid and Fundación Caja Madrid, Plaza San Martín 1, Madrid. See www. museothyssen.org and www.fundacioncajamadrid.es for more information.
»FRANCIS BACON A hundred years after the Dublin-born painter’s birth, this retrospective arrives in Madrid — the city where he died and was cremated. The Prado will be showing 78 works, including 16 of the most important triptychs he ever painted. There is also a section featuring paint-spattered photos and sketches, providing a fascinating insight into the way that he worked. Francis Bacon. Until April 19 at Museo Nacional del Prado, Paseo del Prado, Madrid. See www.museodelprado.es for more information.
»SPANISH STREETS This exhibition brings together 100 photos by the well-known Spanish photographer Alfonso, who died in 1953 having spent his life capturing street scenes and the dayto-day business of Spaniards. Fascinating images abound, such as washerwomen on the banks of Madrid’s River Manzanares, or a zeppelin flying over Gran Vía. Alfonso, 50 años de historia de España. Until February 22 at Casa de la Provincia, Plaza del Triunfo 1, Seville. See www.casadelaprovincia.es for more information.
»SOROLLA The exhibition of 14 murals by the Spanish artist that has been traveling the country comes to call in Barcelona. The works were commissioned for the Hispanic Society in New York, and see Sorolla depict typical local scenes, from fishing on the Valencian coast to the fiesta del pan in Castile. Sorolla. Visiones de España. From February 20 to May 3 at Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña, Parque de Montjuïc, Barcelona. See www.mnac.es or call 93 622 03 76 for more information.
»ROMAN CLASSICS Andalusian history is peppered with Roman influence, and this new exhibition brings together more than 100 objects from the period of Roman dominance in the Iberian peninsula. On show are exhibits such as La Venus de Itálica and El Efebo de Antequera, donated from Spanish museums, as well as a cache of treasures gathered from international foundations including the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the
S. U. Madrid Fado has been occasionally described as “Portuguese blues,” and it may well be that the people of Portugal feel a special affinity for the melancholy associated with the popular US musical form. For three years now, the northeastern Portuguese town of Guarda has been hosting InBlues, a festival that is already managing to attract international performers who had never played in Portugal before. All of the acts performing in Guarda are white and none of them are American, even though their music pays homage to the black musicians of the Mississippi Delta, where the genre has its roots. But as such, the festival reflects how the blues has become an idiom for musicians of every age and background. The three-week event began on February 5 with a concert by the Frenchman Benjamin Tehoval. The Strasbourg native is one of the most original voices in contemporary blues and is known as “the one-man band” because he plays four instruments, most of them at the same time. His concerts usually combine time-tested classics with his own songs, and a demonstration of his musical skills is available on Youtube, where Tehoval himself posted a black-and-white video of his performance of 44 Blues, a “proto blues” originally written by the pianist Roosevelt Sykes. In it, Tehoval sings and plays the harmonica, a guitar, drums and a foot pedal. On February 20, Sons of the Delta will present their latest album, Made in Mississippi. Mark Cole and Rick Edwards are not from the American South at all, but rather Britain, and began playing together in 2002. Their second album, an electro-acoustic recording
Musée Saint-Germain in Paris. El Rescate de la Antigüedad Clásica en Andalucía. Until February 28 at Hospital de las Venerables, Seville. www.foc us.abengoa.es
»IF I CAN’T DANCE... This intriguing exhibition, entitled If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of your Revolution, investigates the evolution of performance art. The project began in 2005 in the Netherlands, and is now in its third edition. Psychoanalysis, feminism and contemporary art are all examined here. If I Can’t Dance I Don’t Want to be Part of your Revolution. Until April 19 at Rekalde, C/ Alameda de Recalde 30, Bilbao. See www.salarekalde.bizkaia. net or call 94 406 87 55 for more information.
chill-out albums that became so popular in the 1990s — most of which had “Ibiza” in the title — will no doubt be familiar with Chambao, who have carved out a niche for themselves specializing in “flamenco chill.” The Málaga outfit will be playing songs from their latest release, Con otro aire, as well as tracks from their extensive back catalogue. Chambao. March 6 at Polideportivo Hermanos, Induráin. March 13 at Industrial Copera, Granada. See www.ticketmaster.es for more information.
»BUZZCOCKS This English punk band formed way back in 1976, but have been headed up by singer, songwriter and guitarist Pete Shelley for nearly that entire period. For this European and UK tour, the band are playing songs from their first two albums, Another Music in a Different Kitchen and Love Bites, including, of course, perhaps their greatest song, Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve). Buzzcocks and Cute Lepers. March 4 at Sala El Sol, C/Jardines 3, Madrid. See www.ticketmaster.es for more information.
»SÓNAR One of Europe’s finest electronic music festivals returns to Barcelona once more this June, as Sónar begins preparing its usual day and night program full of bleeps, squeaks and techno. Kings of electronica Orbital are the first big names to have been announced, with more to come. Muddy Waters, inspiration for many of the Guarda festival’s acts.
made in Clarksdale, Mississippi, includes a guest appearance by the great Pinetop Perkins, a legendary pianist who played for over a decade in the Muddy Waters Band. Portuguese blues is represented by Nobody’s Bizness, a six-piece outfit from Lisbon that mines the early 20th century roots of the genre, although they stray into postwar Chicago territory as well. Their acoustic output pays tribute to the likes of Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Skip James, Tampa Red and of course Muddy Waters. The
ing male style icons from all areas of society, the magazine GQ has built up a stellar collection of portraits. This exhibition puts some of the magazine’s archive on display, with many of the subjects — including Mickey Rourke, Javier Bardem and Steve McQueen — posing amid a plume of tobacco smoke. Smoking is Bad. Until February 28 at Fnac San Agustín, C/ Guillén de Castro 9, Valencia. Call 96 353 90 00 or see www.fnac.es for more information.
»GOYA’S MODERN WORLD This exhibition seeks to analyze the relationship between the works of the Spanish master, and the subject matter that he chose, as well as charting the emergence of contemporary artists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
Portuguese group, led by female vocalist Petra, plays on February 26. Another Englishman closes the festival on February 27. Honeyboy Hickling is the biggest act in Guarda, and this will be his first performance in Portugal. A singer and songwriter, Hickling is nevertheless best known for his virtuoso harmonica blowing and has played in the past with the great Willie Dixon. InBlues. Until February 27 at Teatro Municipal de Guarda, Guarda. www. tmg.com.pt/
de los Sitios 6, Zaragoza. See www. goyayelmundomoderno.es for more information.
»ROMAN BUSTS Before the Germans and the British made Majorca their own as a packageholiday destination, it was also popular with the Romans. Fittingly, then, this new exhibition brings together a collection of Roman portraits, discovered both in Spain and elsewhere. As well as a variety of busts, there are also items used in funeral ceremonies, including sarcophaguses. Retratos Romanos del Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Until February 22 at Ses Voltes, Parc de la Mar s/n, Palma de Mallorca.
MUSIC
Sónar 2009. June 18-20 at various venues throughout Barcelona. See www. sonar.es or www.ticktcakticket.com for more information.
THEATER AND DANCE »JAZZING FLAMENCO This show is the third from the Compañía Antonio Najarro, with the eponymous choreographer setting himself the unenviable task of fusing classical Spanish dance with the modern musical avant-garde of jazz. A total of 11 dancers make up the cast, while a host of musicians — led by Fernando Egozcue, who composed the music for the company’s first outing, Tango Flamenco — provide the soundtrack. Jazzing Flamenco. From February 20 to 22 at Teatro de Madrid, Avenida de la Ilustración, s/n, La Vaguada, Madrid. See www.teatromadrid.com or call 91 740 52 74 for more information.
»SING-ALONG The Grupo Encanto have hit on a winning formula, with their theatrical mixture of life-size animal puppets, popular songs from the past and present, and plenty of audience participation. If you want to give your kids a treat, take them along to this new show, where they can sing along with the rest of the crowd. Cantajuego: El Payaso Tallarín. Until June 13 at Teatro Circo Price, Ronda de Atocha 35, Madrid. Call 91 528 81 22 for more information.
»CONTEMPORARY FESTIVAL »SMOKING IS BAD After having spent 50 years photograph-
Goya y el Mundo Moderno. Until March 8 at Museo de Zaragoza, Plaza
Anyone who bought one of the thousands of
»CHAMBAO
With 2009 now well and truly underway, the first of Madrid’s
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EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
Arts & Travel Guide many arts festivals arrives: Escena Contemporánea. Running for just under a month, the program is a celebration of theater, music and dance, with companies from Beirut, Prague, London, Paris and Amsterdam coming to call. 09 Festival Escena Contemporánea. Until February 22 at various venues throughout Madrid. See http://escenacontemporanea.com for full program.
»CIRQUE DU SOLEIL The world-renowned Canadian circus troupe has returned to Spain once more. This production, their fifth, is called Varekai, a word from the Gypsy language meaning “in any place.” The story follows a lonely young boy who falls from the sky into an enchanted forest. As audiences have come to expect, the company will deliver plenty of breathtaking acrobatics and impressive stagecraft. Varekai. Cirque du Soleil. Until February 22 in Seville. March 26 to April 19 in Bilbao. See www.elcorteingles.es for more information and tickets.
OTHER »ARCO ART FAIR Madrid’s ARCO is one of the world’s biggest contemporary art fairs, coming to call in the city on an annual basis and taking residence in several huge conference halls in the IFEMA center, which is located near the airport. Every year there is a guest country, and this time around the choice is India. Thanks to the crisis, there will be a slightly reduced roster of 250 galleries from 30 countries this year, allowing visitors to pick up a piece of art or just wander around and enjoy what’s on display. ARCO Madrid. Until February 16 at IFEMA, Campo de las Naciones, Madrid. See www.ifema.es for more information.
»HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS For 82 years, some of the tallest men in the world have been entertaining audiences with all kinds of basketball tricks, having played 25,000 games and entertained everyone from presidents to popes. The ball-bouncing maestros will be coming to Spain in May, wowing the crowds with their skills. The Harlem Globetrotters. May 21 at Palau d’Esports l’Illa, Benidorm. May 22 at Pabellón Fuente San Luís, Valencia. May 23 at Palacio de Deportes Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid. May 24 at Pavelló Olimpic de Badalona, Badalona. May 26 at Palacio de Deportes de San Pablo, Seville. See www. ticketmaster.es for more information.
Purely preserved for pleasure Six centuries of history set in a verdant natural park give Guarda a lofty feel
Guarda sits atop a plateau inside the Parque Natural Serra da Estrela, a stunning mountain range in Portugal’s central-eastern region of Beiras. Although neither particularly large nor influential, Guarda can boast about being the country’s highest-altitude town, at 1,000 meters above sea level. Somebody once described Guarda as the town of the five “F”s, and the definition has stuck. The first “F” stands for forte or strong; this is because Guarda still preserves vestiges of its military architecture, including a fortresslike cathedral, stone walls and a tower that was once part of a castle. The town was established in the 12th century as a bulwark against various enemies within presentday Spain, including the Kingdom of León and the Kingdom of Castile, and that explains the origin of its name: a guarda is a keeper, both in Portuguese and Spanish. The second “F” stands for
Guarda was built in the 12th century as a bulwark against various enemies Chase away the cold with roast kid and lamb, bean stews and wild boar meat Portugal’s Beiras region is steeped in history. / reuters
farta or abundant, a reference to the wealth of the surrounding Valley of Mondego; the third for fria or cold, which is easily explained by its location, where winter temperatures hover around the freezing mark; and the fourth “F”
PORTUGAL »OVAR CARNIVAL It’s carnival time in Ovar, where the party will run for 11 days. The location for the festivities has been dubbed “Tentzone,” and will feature live music from acts such as Orishas and Per7ume. DJs will feature too, with Frenchman Fernando Alvim stepping up to the decks.
»STAND-UP COMEDY The Giggling Guiri stand-up comedy club sees its first Northern Irish comic come to call next month, Belfast’s Colin Murphy. Expect political and observational satire performed to up-for-it crowds in Madrid and Barcelona. Colin Murphy. March 14 at Sala Clamores, C/ Albuquerque 7, Madrid and March 15 at Teatre Tradicionàrius, Trav. Sant Antoni 6, Barcelona. www. comedyinspain.com
Torre de Menagem and various Catholic churches and chapels. From Guarda, it is easy to take a short drive through the mountains to visit other peaceful-looking villages whose walls speak of a bloody past. Almeida, right on the border with Spain, is a tiny town of 1,500 inhabitants, yet it contains an impressive star-shaped fortress that dates back to the 17th century. Pinhel, northwest from here, boasts a castle with two towers as well as the Church of Misericórdia, decorated in the typically Portuguese “manuelino” style. February and March is a good time to visit the region because this is when the almond trees begin to bloom — a spectacle that draws many Portuguese from other parts of the country. And if the weather is not quite as warm as it might be elsewhere, it is easy enough to chase away the cold with the hearty dishes that are served around here, including roast kid and lamb, bean stews with wild boar meat, cured cheeses and stuffed sausages, washed down with one of the local red wines.
SUSANA URRA Madrid
Tentzone. Until February 24 at Parque de Estacionamento, Ovar. See www. tentzoneovar.com for more information.
»STOMP The phenomenally popular British company that spawned imitators throughout the world is coming to Porto to show off its skills in dance, percussion and acrobatics — all of which make use of everyday items, such as Zippo lighters and brooms, as instruments.
means fiel or loyal, because in 1385 Álvaro Gil-Cabral, then the keeper of the castle, refused to turn the town over to the King of Castile. The final “F” stands for formosa or beautiful, an obvious adjective for a place of green
Stomp. From February 18 to February 22 at Coliseo do Porto, R. Passos Manuel, 137, Porto. Tel: +351 223 394 947. See www.stomponline.com for more information.
»FROM DISNEY TO WARHOL This intriguing exhibition examines how children’s books and characters have inspired artists over the years. Some, such as Dieter Roth, actually made books that appealed to the young, while others, such as Andy Warhol, created works based on the design of tomes for toddlers. Do Rato Mickey a Andy Warhol. Until May 14 at Museu de Serralves, Rua Dom João de Castro 210, Porto. www. serralves.com »OASIS While latest studio effort Dig Out Your Soul may not scale the heights of Be Here Now, which was the fastest-selling album in British history, Oasis’ Portugal gig is sure to be
valleys, clear lakes, and fields of olive trees and cereal. The town itself contains a great many buildings of historical interest, including the cathedral or Sé, the city walls, a medieval Jewish quarter, the convent of São Francisco da Guarda, the
electric. The old favorites will no doubt be trotted out, as well as their new material. Oasis. February 15 at Pavilhão Atlântico, Parque das Nações, Lisbon. www. pavilhaoatlantico.pt
»LA BOHÈME The celebrated opera by Giacomo Puccini comes to Lisbon under the direction of Julia Jones, the British maestro who has conducted at many of the world’s most prestigious venues. Jones is accompanied by the Teatro Nacional’s choir and the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra. La Bohème. Until February 22 at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, Lg. S. Carlos, 17, Lisbon.
»INNER WORKINGS What lies inside machines that make images, such as projectors? Swedish artist Alexander Gutke tries to get to the bottom of this ques-
Serra da Estrela: ht tp://www.quintadoriodao.com/ eng/o ut/estrela.html Beira gastronomy: http://www.portugal.gastronomias.com/beira_alta.html Guarda:http://www.mun-guarda.pt/
tion through his work, with sculptures and the use of actual projector parts. By revealing the innards of all of these image-creating machines, Gutke brings the normally invisible workings into focus. Alexander Gutke. Until April 4 at Culturgest, Av. Aliados 104, Porto. Call +351 222 098 116 for more information.
FARTO The first solo show for artist Alexandre Farto sees the young innovator bring his striking take on the parallels between observation and intervention in the urban sprawl to the walls of the Vera Cortês. Farto recently exhibited at New York’s Outsider show, and the buzz surrounding this 21-year-old is going global. »ALEXANDRE
Even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat. Until February 21 at Vera Cortês, Agência de Arte, Avenida 24 de Julho 54, Lisbon.
6
EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
SPORTS Problem car sees testing canceled for off-the-pace Alonso EL PAÍS, Madrid The former world champion of Formula 1, Fernando Alonso, racked up the worst time yesterday in testing sessions at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit ahead of the start of a new season in six weeks’ time. Out of the five drivers on the circuit on Thursday, the Spaniard completed the most laps, 133, but in his Renault team’s new R29, he finished two seconds behind Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais, who topped the timesheets in a 2008 Toro Rosso. He was followed by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima, all driving their teams’ 2009 car. Despite the slow time, Alonso was positive after the session, saying that it was the first time he’d been able to “drive in good conditions” since the R29 was unveiled. “It’s been a good test day with 133 problem-free laps, so we can say that it’s been the first day with good conditions given that [teammate] Nelson [Piquet] had hydraulic and brake problems in previous test days.”
Despite the desperate attempts by three English defenders to stop him, Villa fired Spain in front at Seville’s Sánchez Pizjuán stadium. / a. ruesga
Spain reigns supreme Defeat of England no more than routine business for European champion
Canceled session However, it was reported yesterday in German magazine Auto Motor und Sport that Renault has decided to cancel a testing session planned for next week at the Montmeló circuit in Catalonia due to the problems the R29 car has been suffering. The R29 has been off the pace and somewhat unreliable since its January debut at Portugal’s Portimão circuit. That has prompted the engineers to try to solve the problems the car is suffering before continuing with the testing schedule. Alonso is hoping to take his third title in the upcoming season, after winning the championship in 2005 and 2006.
JOSÉ SÁMANO Seville No one can knock Spain off course. One after another, opponents worthy of respect are dispatched, and all the while the Spanish soccer team is able to blood new talent, while effectively retaining its title of European champion. And without renouncing its recipe for success: a beautiful style which is nonetheless never soft. Today’s Spanish soccer team, with coach Vicente del Bosque having overseen seven straight wins since taking over after last summer’s waltz to glory in Vien-
na, is faithful to its own style when it is producing stellar soccer or merely going through the motions. The latter was all that was necessary against England in Seville on Wednesday night. Spain got hold of the ball and bided its time without suffering so much as a scratch. It was a precision job. The team coached by Fabio Capello never gave the impression it could dispute the final result; and in pure soccer terms it was a mismatch. For Spain, basic order in its play, a touch of subtlety and a spell of Xavi at his very best were more than sufficient to rattle up a 2-0 victory
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mier League’s clubs have evolved, the English national team sticks to its prehistoric potion: a goalkeeper without hands, stalactites for defenders, sweaty midfielders and forwards as big as can be found. For Spain, while Fernando Torres has become even more direct during his time in English soccer, David Villa has developed his astute, predatory skills, scoring Spain’s first after tormenting the English back line. Young sub striker Fernando Llorente, tall but with feet that obey his brain, headed in the second from a Xavi free kick.
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and extend Spain’s unbeaten run to 29 games. The Barça midfielder, deservedly voted MVP at the European Championship, took a few minutes to find his ideal position on the field from which to probe the English defense — but once he did, he found it was made of plasticine. Despite the aggressive start Capello’s men made at the Sánchez Pizjuán, the absences were too big for this gray lineup to make up for: Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard stayed in England, with David Beckham and Frank Lampard starting the game among the substitutes. While some of the Pre-
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Mostly clear skies Most of the peninsula will enjoy blue skies today, with some cloud in the north. The Balearic Islands will see cloudy spells with a chance of light rain, and snow at altitudes above 700m. The Canary Islands will be clear in the eastern isles and cloudy elsewhere. Temperatures will fall slightly in parts of the peninsula and the Balearics. Lows: Madrid 1ºC, Barcelona 6ºC, Valencia 6ºC, Málaga 6ºC, Bilbao 5ºC, Lisbon 16ºC.
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EL PAÍS, Friday, February 13, 2009
BUSINESS
Pastor may issue bonds backed by the state
Moody’s says Spain prime candidate for downgrade
Spain drops into recession, statistics bureau confirms Activity contracted 1.0 percent in last quarter of 2008
A. S., Madrid
EL PAÍS, Madrid A. S., Madrid
Spanish bank Banco Pastor may issue ¤1 billion in bonds under the auspices of the government’s asset issue guarantee program, Chairman José María Arias said Thursday. The government has agreed to back asset issues by banks to an amount of up to ¤200 billion. So far, only savings banks La Caixa and Caja Madrid have tapped the facility to an amount of ¤2 billion each. Arias stressed Pastor had “enviable” levels of liquidity and “adequate” cover for contingencies, and that it would tap the government program to increase lending to companies. Pastor booked a net loss in the fourth quarter of last year of ¤5.85 million, compared with a profit of ¤47.98 million a year earlier as it opted to increase provisions by ¤168 million to cover soaring defaults. The bank’s bad loan rate at the end of last year jumped to 3.6 percent of total lending from 0.8 percent a year earlier. The bank fully set aside as provisions capital gains of ¤111 million from the sale of a 1.14-percent stake in electricity company Unión Fenosa. Pastor bank booked a net profit for the whole of 2008 of ¤164.1 million, down 18.8 percent from a year earlier. Arias said Pastor did not forecast the need for a capital increase to bolster the bank’s shareholder funds any time soon. “We have [latent] capital gains which can provide a cushion against the crisis,” he said.
The National Statistics Institute (INE) on Thursday confirmed what had been self-evident for some time; that the Spanish economy slipped into a recession for the first time since 1993 at the end of last year as a housing bubble burst and the global credit crunch tightened its grip. The INE estimated that GDP in the fourth quarter of 2008 fell 1.0 percent from the previous three months, when it contracted 0.3 percent. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, GDP was down 0.7 percent, but was up 1.2 percent for the whole of 2008. The INE will release a breakdown of the figures next week. “The contraction in the level of GDP is the result of a negative contribution from domestic demand, which was partly offset by a positive contribution
from the foreign sector,” the INE said. Spain’s GDP grew 3.7 percent in 2007 as the country enjoyed an extended economic bonanza driven by a booming homebuilding market, which has now collapsed, and a consumer spending spree, abruptly ended by soaring unemployment and tighter borrowing conditions. Experts, however, say the worst has yet to come. The governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Ángel Fernández Ordóñez on Wednesday described the current downturn in activity as the worst since the Great Depression in 1929. The government expects GDP to shrink by 1.6 percent this year before growing 1.2 percent next year. The European Commission, however, has forecast the Spanish economy will contract 2.0 percent this year and remain in recession in 2010. Brussels also expects unemployment, which is cur-
Anti-trust office approves Gas Natural takeover of Fenosa A. S., Madrid Spain’s National Commission for Competition (CNC) said Thursday it had approved Gas Natural’s proposed takeover of the country’s third-biggest electricity company, Unión Fenosa, but imposed a series of conditions on the deal. One of the main provisos is that Gas Natural offload some
Uncertainty returns
600,000 retail clients, about 9 percent of the current total, and sell combined-cycle plants, which are fuelled by gas, with combined installed capacity of 2,000 megawatts. Gas Natural alone currently has 3,600 megawatts of combined-cycle generation capacity. The CNC also obliged the country’s biggest gas distributor to maintain Unión Fenosa’s
Equity
Investors remain in a state of confusion about the current economic crisis and the proposals put forward to address the deterioration in activity. The majority of analysts have called for more details about the generous US bank bailout plan, particularly a specific timetable for it. Opinion also remains widely divided in Spain about the solutions proposed to pull the domestic economy out of recession. The Spanish blue-chip Ibex 35 closed down 1.85 percent at just above 8,200 points, and has now accumulated a loss of 4.47 percent over the past three sessions. The last set-back would appear to have ruled out the emergence of a period of wide sideways movement, which would have helped to consolidate positions. Turnover in the continuous market came in at ¤2.120 billion, including ¤1.811 billion in open-market deals.. Analysts are leaning toward
the idea we are heading for a period of strong volatility, and do not rule out the market retesting lows. The economic figures released yesterday provided backing for the latter possibility as it was confirmed Spain had slipped rapidly into recession, while industrial output fell in the euro zone. However, surprisingly enough US retail sales picked up in January. The National Commission for Competition’s approval of gas Natural purchase of Unión Fenosa served to provide some support for the electricity supplier’s share price, which is slowly approaching the ¤18.33 offer price. During these times of crisis, the offer is particularly attractive and even Banco Pastor has stated its intention to tender its stake in Unión Fenosa to Gas Natural. The bank reported its earnings for last year had suffered from a sharp increase in loan defaults.
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Of the countries that currently enjoy Moody’s Investors Services highest Aaa sovereign rating, Spain and Ireland are the most most vulnerable to a downgrade. So said Moody’s Thursday, citing the serious problems the countries’ economies face. Moody’s said Spain’s ability to hold onto its rating will depend on its ability to rapidly revive its economy, which slipped into recession at the end of last year for the first time since 1993. Standard & Poor’s last month cut its AAA long-term sovereign credit ratings for Spain by one notch to AA+ due to the deterioration in the government’s finances as a result of the sharp downturn in the economy and a massive injection of state funds to help underpin activity.
Cement use, output plunge in January on building slump EL PAÍS, Madrid
gas joint venture with Italy’s ENI as an independent company. It was also told to sell its 5-percent stake in Enagás, the company which operates Spain’s gas transportation and storage grid. It was also instructed to “reduce” its ties with Cepsa, Spain’s second-largest oil company, in which Unión Fenosa holds a 5-percent interest.
IBEX35
Consumption of cement in the first month of the year dropped by 51.9 percent to levels of below those of 10 years ago as a decade-long boom in the homebuilding sector turned to a bust. The industry association Oficemen said Thursday production in the month dropped 47.8 percent to 1.9 million tons as all of the 37 integrated plants in the country had either reined in output or had shut down.
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rently the highest in Europe at 14 percent, to peak at 18.7 percent next year. The government believes the jobless rate will hit a ceiling of 15.9 percent this year. While acknowledging the “unprecedented” nature of the current economic crisis, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero yesterday remained upbeat about the prospects of a relatively prompt recovery in activity. “We expect to see positive signs within no more than a year,” the premier told reporters. Cristóbal Montoro, the congressional spokesman on economic affairs for the opposition Popular Party, said yesterday Spain was “immersed” in the “worst and longest” recession in its economic history, and predicted the downturn would extend into next year. “We have not touched bottom, and we don’t know how bad things are going to get,” he said.
12,70 12,70 88,55 10,03 33,45 4,84 3,86 5,71 6,67 7,25 6,98 16,84 4,34 2,50 13,68 23,99 21,57 21,83 12,79 16,79 13,13 2,98 5,51 1,98 31,00 15,20 2,29 9,72 32,76 13,84 6,32 21,95 5,98 14,08 17,66
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12,40 12,61 86,50 9,95 33,10 4,80 3,82 5,62 6,50 7,08 6,85 16,50 4,24 2,46 13,55 23,75 21,09 21,27 12,54 16,55 12,92 2,92 5,43 1,96 30,25 15,00 2,26 9,51 32,31 13,69 6,23 21,70 5,92 13,90 17,64
13,18 12,89 89,15 10,30 33,99 4,92 3,92 5,86 7,00 7,30 7,14 16,95 4,36 2,50 13,90 24,31 21,99 22,57 13,30 17,03 13,26 3,02 5,56 2,01 32,10 15,72 2,32 9,98 33,29 14,33 6,68 22,40 6,06 14,26 17,79
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2009 MADRID: Miguel Yuste, 40. 28037 Madrid. 91 337 82 00. Fax: 91 327 08 18. Legal deposit: M-14951-1976. © Diario El País, S.L. Madrid, 2002. “All rights reserved.
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ENGLISH EDITION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE
The bulging chest of drawers that Cortázar left behind A total of 750 documents penned by the influential Argentinean writer have been collected in a revealing book CARLES GELI Barcelona When a writer dies, sooner or later a chest of drawers turns up containing previously unpublished material. In the case of the Argentinean Julio Cortázar, this chest was stuffed so full of documents that its five drawers barely opened. But on December 23, 2006, his first wife and heir to the Cortázar legacy, Aurora Bernárdez, managed to slide them out with help from the scholar Carles Álvarez, a Cortázar obsessive who was delighted with the find. Álvarez immediately quit his job as a civil servant and devoted his time to putting these papers in order, working closely with Cortázar’s 86-year-old widow. It took them a year just to take stock of 750 separate documents, which he catalogued in a 100-page list. “For the first three months, we were finding one unpublished text a day,” Álvarez recalls, still brimming with disbelief. The result of the project is a book that will be published in May simultaneously in Spain and Argentina. The title, somewhat inevitably, is Papeles inesperados (or Unexpected papers), and it promises to be a real feast for fans of the master of short stories. It contains 11 new tales, a previously unpublished chapter from Libro de Manuel, 11 new episodes of Un tal Lucas, four interviews with the author, 13 new poems… The new book contains a total of 450 pages of original material that is the best possible tribute to a true giant of Latin American letters, 25 years after he died. It is surprising that Cortázar kept these papers at all considering he never thought them to be of much value. During his lifetime, he sold a lot of his own work to US universities, including Texas and Princeton. But the greatest source of information for Papeles inesperados was Cortázar’s mother, who passed on the material she had kept — and which the author of Rayuela wanted to burn — to his wife. That is why we can now enjoy a text such as Discurso del día de la Independencia (or Independence Day Speech), a paper that a 24-year-old Cortázar wrote and delivered to his teachers and classmates. According to Álvarez, the writer was always a top student, whose grade average hovered around 8.7 out of 10. Another early gem is the short story Los gatos (or The cats), written in January 1948. This is one of his earliest known works, yet to everyone’s surprise, it already
contains one of the features of his best stories: the diegesis, or telling of a story by a narrator (as opposed to mimesis, which shows the action). “Cortázar had an uncanny ability to make the narrator switch characters without the reader noticing — unless they are very alert,” said a spokesperson for Alfaguara, the Spanish publisher of Papeles inesperados. According to his widow, however, the most surprising text of all — and “an irresistibly funny one” — is Manuscrito hallado junto a una mano (or Manuscript found next to a hand), about a music lover with an unexpected talent. As for the new chapter of the novel Libro de Manuel, the theory goes that it was left out of the final manuscript “because it was redundant and because of its highly erotic content.”
“For the first three months, we found one unpublished text each day” Writer Julio Cortázar, photographed in 1968. A new book brings together 450 pages of unpublished material. / efe
The drawers also yielded three stories about “Cronopios,” a fictional character invented by Cortázar, whom he described loosely as a naïve, spontaneous and idealistic individual. These stories are Never stop the press, Vialidad and Almuerzo. There were also 11 new episodes of the adventures of Lucas, an alter ego for Cortázar. Lucas, las cartas que recibe (or Lucas and the letters he gets) and Lucas, sus erratas (or Lucas and his typos), are the best of the lot, according to Álvarez. In the latter story, Lucas gets obsessed with his own typographical mistakes, and ends up believing they are rats (there is a play of words here between the Spanish “errata” and “rata”). He then hires a Japanese miniaturist to create a special cage in which to trap them.
Cortázar’s bonhomie and friendly nature made it impossible for him to say no when his friends asked him to write something about them. That is why we now have about a dozen such texts — one about the sociologist Ángel Rama, another about the singer and actress Susana Rinaldi — as well as 11 essays about his great passions: painting, sculpture and photography. These articles were originally published in the various magazines he wrote for. Cortázar’s imagination has overwhelmed even his own widow. While she and Álvarez were putting all his newfound material in order, they were forced to create a new chapter for Papeles inesperados, which they simply described as “pure Cortázar” for lack of a better description. They
are fascinating word games that reach the category of epigram. Since metaliterature was always part of Cortázar’s work, it is not surprising to find four “selfinterviews” among his work. In three of them, he is interviewed by a sarcastic duo, Calac and Polanco, who play down everything he says. Both characters show up regularly in his work ever since he first created them for his novel 62, A Model Kit. Papeles inesperados also includes 36 articles on literature, politics, travels and miscellaneous items, such as the speech he gave when he received French citizenship. The last chapter contains 13 unpublished poems. In 1956 Cortázar bought himself a mimeograph, a precursor of today’s photocopiers, and made “manual copies” of his poet-
Revolutionizing Spanish Although he was born in Brussels and lived most of his life in France, Julio Cortázar (1914-1984) grew up near Buenos Aires and wrote all his major work in Spanish. Thanks to his groundbreaking techniques, which drew on jazz, Surrealism and French nouveau roman, he was con-
sidered one of the most influential of the 20th century’s Latin American writers. His best-known work is Rayuela, published in English as Hopscotch, a novel which sacrifices plot to make way for character development and philosophical wanderings. Its use of the Spanish language, in
particular, was considered revolutionary when it was published in 1963. But Cortázar is just as wellknown for his short novels, and has been compared to Jorge Luis Borges in that respect. Blow-up and Other Stories, and Cronopios and Famas are two of his finest.
ic compositions for his friends. One of those sets, which was preserved over time, makes up the bulk of this last chapter. Papeles inesperados is a definitive contribution to the human and literary side of Cortázar. “The vital period covered here ranges from the early 1930s to nearly 1984 [the year of his death]; that allows us to see every side of him, from the haughty to the playful, from the backward rural teacher to the politically active, critical author,” says Julia Saltzmann, the head of Alfaguara in Buenos Aires. “To me, this is his great autobiographical text besides his correspondence, because it shows the evolution of the person and the writer, of the pre-Cortázar individual to the famous Cortázar.” “Since there are texts of all types and from all periods, we can travel from the grandiloquent and even slightly affected prose of his youth, to the rhetorical liberation of the Spanish language that makes him one of the most extraordinary authors of 20th-century literature,” says Álvarez. Álvarez also said that it is unlikely that any new Cortázar material will turn up at this point, leaving little hope of finding Soliloquio, the 600-page novel that he wrote as a young man and which was sadly lacking from that chest of drawers in Paris.