Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Apr 8th 2011, 6:38 pm
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Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
If you're interested in this subject, it's a fascinating article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/20...n-life-writing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/20...n-life-writing
Aged about 16, "when I was rebelling, I told my father, 'In Spain in the 60s, all decent people were in prison'." He looks stricken. "I was saying he wasn't decent. Maybe I wrote this book to say I'm sorry, because it's not true . . ." He breaks off to pace the room, patting his chest to calm down. "It's difficult for me to talk about my father. He was very modest, Catholic, totally devoted to his family – not as ambitious as I am. He had five children and he wanted to bring them up. I understand I'm not better than him. I thought I was, and now I don't."
Cercas was born in 1962 in Ibahernando, a village in Extremadura near the Portuguese border. When he was four, his family moved to Catalonia – a magnet for migrants from Spain's poorer regions – where they settled in relatively affluent Girona. Both sides of his family were Francoist. "My mother's hero was her uncle, who was 16 when the war began." He was killed in one of its last battles. "He wanted to fight with Franco and save religion, family, country," Cercas says. "He thought he was doing the right thing. From a political point of view he was a villain. But morally, he was better than a lot of people." Through a radio programme inspired by Soldiers of Salamis, about people who helped individuals on the enemy side, Cercas also learned that his grandfather had saved a republican's life, stopping others from throwing him off a bridge.
Cercas was 13 when Franco died and says he believes in democracy "because I remember the smell of dictatorship. It smells like shit – the moral corruption, how people treat you. Democracy is not paradise, it's just the best political instrument we've got." At the Autonomous University of Barcelona he studied classical Spanish literature, but preferred American postmodernists such as Robert Coover. For two years in the late 80s he was a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. "I wanted to be an American writer, but in America I found I was Spanish; I began to have a siesta. You discover who you are when you're not at home."
Cercas was born in 1962 in Ibahernando, a village in Extremadura near the Portuguese border. When he was four, his family moved to Catalonia – a magnet for migrants from Spain's poorer regions – where they settled in relatively affluent Girona. Both sides of his family were Francoist. "My mother's hero was her uncle, who was 16 when the war began." He was killed in one of its last battles. "He wanted to fight with Franco and save religion, family, country," Cercas says. "He thought he was doing the right thing. From a political point of view he was a villain. But morally, he was better than a lot of people." Through a radio programme inspired by Soldiers of Salamis, about people who helped individuals on the enemy side, Cercas also learned that his grandfather had saved a republican's life, stopping others from throwing him off a bridge.
Cercas was 13 when Franco died and says he believes in democracy "because I remember the smell of dictatorship. It smells like shit – the moral corruption, how people treat you. Democracy is not paradise, it's just the best political instrument we've got." At the Autonomous University of Barcelona he studied classical Spanish literature, but preferred American postmodernists such as Robert Coover. For two years in the late 80s he was a teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. "I wanted to be an American writer, but in America I found I was Spanish; I began to have a siesta. You discover who you are when you're not at home."
Apr 8th 2011, 10:36 pm
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
" Democracy is not paradise, it's just the best political instrument we've got."
Like Churchill said. "Democracy is a failure, but it fails better than anything else we've tried."
Like Churchill said. "Democracy is a failure, but it fails better than anything else we've tried."
Apr 9th 2011, 6:44 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
I absolutely love that quote and haven't heard it in years, cheers.
Apr 9th 2011, 6:57 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Thanks for posting this. Well worth reading.
Apr 9th 2011, 8:38 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
I liked the part about finding who you really are whilst living abroad. I can relate to that on a regular basis; when it rains on the odd occasion in high summer, I walk about in it without an umbrella.
Apr 9th 2011, 8:41 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Thanks for posting such an interesting article. More books to add to my "must" reads.
Rosemary
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Apr 9th 2011, 9:21 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Apr 9th 2011, 10:23 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Not only that, at least once a month we eat fish and chips. And at the moment we are arguing over lunchtime today, being restricted by having to walk. The choice is Indian, Chinese, Columbian, Spanish or English. Unfortunately the English venue is going to lose, I noticed that the scruffy waitress has got dirty fingernails last time and my feeling of patriotism vanished into thin air.
Apr 9th 2011, 10:36 am
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Apr 9th 2011, 10:54 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Reminds me of my brother, he worked in Dubai for years, then retired to Sweden. On my recommendation he went to Vejer, trouble is he went in September and hated it, he said it was just like being back in the desert, everything was brown! He must have missed Bil's garden.
Apr 9th 2011, 11:55 am
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Reminds me of my brother, he worked in Dubai for years, then retired to Sweden. On my recommendation he went to Vejer, trouble is he went in September and hated it, he said it was just like being back in the desert, everything was brown! He must have missed Bil's garden.
Apr 9th 2011, 12:49 pm
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
Christianity,( as in Christ not as in religion), and communism to me appears to be the apparent way forward but as per usual there will always be some power hungry individuals, (religion, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung), to ruin it and there are always people to blindly follow.
The democratic system used by the west in general has the ability to temper the worst excesses of power and although these excesses are used, quite often in all walks of life, at least we can feel reasonably free as individuals and considering the alternatives that is important.
Out of interest do others feel like me when watching the Spanish parliament in action. Respect shown to the person speaking and not the sad pathetic noises bursting forth from the gobs of the ignorant MPs in England.
Graham
Apr 9th 2011, 12:53 pm
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Re: Heavy interview with Javier Cercas and Spain's transition to democracy
If one looks at the different types of political systems they all have one failing they are run by humans with all the failings that humans have. I would make a great dictator, I believe strongly in the original American Bill of Rights but eventually someone or a group of someones would annoy me and wielding all of that power would start me down the route towards tyranny.
Christianity,( as in Christ not as in religion), and communism to me appears to be the apparent way forward but as per usual there will always be some power hungry individuals, (religion, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung), to ruin it and there are always people to blindly follow.
The democratic system used by the west in general has the ability to temper the worst excesses of power and although these excesses are used, quite often in all walks of life, at least we can feel reasonably free as individuals and considering the alternatives that is important.
Out of interest do others feel like me when watching the Spanish parliament in action. Respect shown to the person speaking and not the sad pathetic noises bursting forth from the gobs of the ignorant MPs in England.
Graham
Christianity,( as in Christ not as in religion), and communism to me appears to be the apparent way forward but as per usual there will always be some power hungry individuals, (religion, Castro, Mao Tse-Tung), to ruin it and there are always people to blindly follow.
The democratic system used by the west in general has the ability to temper the worst excesses of power and although these excesses are used, quite often in all walks of life, at least we can feel reasonably free as individuals and considering the alternatives that is important.
Out of interest do others feel like me when watching the Spanish parliament in action. Respect shown to the person speaking and not the sad pathetic noises bursting forth from the gobs of the ignorant MPs in England.
Graham
The huge problem with all the religious cults of personality, whether Hitler, Jesus, Mao etc is that they are all anti democratic.