"I am someone who has lived many lives. I have done everything: theater, painting, journalism, husband, ex-husband, novels, plays, film scripts, six children, I organized events, political delinquent and fake lawyer, among many other things that I will only name when the penalty has prescribed". The writer Ernesto Mallo does not blink as he describes, almost without taking a breath, all this history. Leaning on the bar, he sips a San Pellegrino —the "best mineral water in the world"— while Satie's Gymnopédies fill the morning with their notes and, above all, their silences.
The life of feverish activity, defiance against power, and a penchant for poking dangerous wounds of this Argentinean based in Barcelona has had many turning points, "from my own birth or that of Camila, my eldest daughter, to the night I was shot, or the encounter I had with Tadeusz Kantor in Caracas". In the 70s and 80s, he stood out as a playwright with works such as La vacuna or Siete cuadros. He has been a taxi driver, journalist, smuggler, bookseller, and who knows what else, "until the corralito arrived, which left me jobless and I began my career as a novelist." A circumstance that, in this case, thousands of readers unanimously applaud.
Eleven novel titles, two essays, and a good number of awards and nominations, such as the Memorial Silverio Cañada of Gijón or the Alfaguara Novel Prize, he has accumulated since 2006. His most famous character, Commissioner Lascano, has just returned with Perro viejo (Siruela), where the policeman, now old, fights against forgetfulness (his own and not only), in a volume where a crime serves to talk about power, politics, greed. About what we are, in the worst terms. Pure noir novel that the author presents this very afternoon, when he finishes the San Pellegrino and the portions he has ordered, at BCNegra.
"For humanity to stop suffering, it must stop working as work is conceived," he defendsA literature that luckily does not prescribe, and "that delves into the dark nooks of the human soul", surprising the writer every day about "how perverse we humans can be: those things bad for people, but good for literature. The inexhaustible imagination of politicians and the powerful to do evil," explains the parishioner, who feels especially fortunate "to have survived against all odds, as half or more of my childhood and youth friends did not make it."
The man who tried not to work
To his facet as a novelist and essayist, Ernesto adds that of activist and literary promoter. "I have been the founder of BAN!, the Buenos Aires crime novel festival, which allowed me to promote a good number of authors and have a lot of fun doing it." He has also been a promoter of Zeitgeist Barcelona, a gathering that brought together professionals, businessmen, political and social leaders, artists and writers to debate the spirit of the times.
—You never stop working, do you?
The writer raises his hands, as if to say stop right there, and speaks: "I don't work, I did it on very few occasions and I always regretted it. I love what I do, I have fun with it and I recommend it, but I believe no one should work. Work is another name for slavery, it is the source of all evil. Wars, famines, injustice... all the miseries of the world derive in one way or another from work or from a world designed to work."
—But, whether you enjoy doing it or not, what you do is still work.
The parishioner does not see it in these terms. "I am not saying that we should stop doing things, but rather build a new way of living and relating. Promote a playful and artistic coexistence. Live life as a game, because there are more things in the game than our reason believes. We learned everything by playing. We must convene a collective adventure of generalized joy and of a free and exuberant interdependence. For humanity to stop suffering, it must stop working as work is conceived beyond that playful and creative dimension."
The city where the fourth time was the charm
In 2015, the much-missed Paco Camarasa invited the parishioner to participate in BCNegra which he organized at the time. "The day I arrived I went to the legendary Negra y Criminal bookstore on Sal Street. There I met and fell in love with a Catalan woman, and she with me. A surprise, because after three marriages I had convinced myself that that job was not for me," he explains.
—The fourth time was the charm, then.
"Yes —he laughs—, but even greater was the surprise when I found out that the lady in question was a commissioner of the Mossos d'Esquadra. I spent a large part of my youth fighting with the forces of order of different dictatorships, many times with weapons in hand and, after so many years fighting with the police, you see, I ended up sleeping with one."
Ernesto Mallo has a love-hate relationship with Barcelona, "but the truth is there's a very good standard of living"Since then, the writer Ernesto Mallo lives in Barcelona. "This city and Catalonia have it all: extraordinary landscapes of sea and mountains, excellent food from all over the world, the best climate in Europe, very handsome men and women, exquisite architecture, low levels of poverty, charming corners and towns at every turn, museums, art, music, libraries. Everything!".
—How strange that you don't see the many flaws it has.
Ernesto Mallo finishes his sparkling water and a grimace of disbelief appears on his face:
—I have a love-hate relationship with the city, but the truth is that there's a very good standard of living here. And yet, it's common to find people with a sour face... What are they complaining about!?