It's early in the morning and Graziella Moreno peeks through the bar door, taking a few minutes from her saturated daily schedule to order "a tea with milk and cinnamon." Immediately, she quickly reviews the pastry offerings: "I'm seeing a cinnamon roll over there that looks very good." Adjudicated.
Recently awarded the Letras del Mediterráneo 2020 prize for her brand new novel El Salto de la Araña (AlRevés), this Barcelona native born "in the prolific sixties," who already treasures six novels and several short stories in the best tradition of crime fiction, was going to be a journalist, but stayed a judge.
"My intention was to study Journalism, but I didn't get a spot. I enrolled in Law and I liked it. Afterwards, I spent a year trying various jobs, including selling encyclopedias, although I didn't place any. Finally, I took the competitive exams to work in the courts as a civil servant and, once in, and since I've always liked to complicate my life, I thought about preparing for the judiciary.
The result is that Graziella has worked as a judge in Amposta, Gavà, Martorell and, for the past ten years, in Barcelona. In parallel, she had time to get married and have two children. Quite something.
Fiction with little fiction
The fact is that, despite the density of her family and work obligations, the judge continued to use the scarce scraps of her time to keep writing.
--I was lucky enough to publish my first novel in 2015.
--I suppose your work serves as inspiration for a lot of stories, right?
--In my novels I don't invent anything, in them is the human being with all their nuances.
That human being who, for better or worse, parades before her eyes every day. "I have a job that allows me to be in contact with people, with society, I see the best and the worst of each one, of what we are capable of." In her work she is a judge, in her greatest hobby, writing, she is part of all those people who are also her. Judge and party.
And it's going to be a long haul, because she is currently already working on another novel. "This one has suffered several interruptions, but I hope to finish it by 2021. It's a story about truth and lies, about love and betrayal."
Prospering in Barcelona
Proud of having achieved with her effort whatever she has, Graziella assures she has no godfathers. "They say that he who perseveres, succeeds. We are on it."
And, when she looks back, it becomes clear that it runs in the family.
"My maternal grandparents and their three children came from Girona to make a living after the Civil War. My grandfather was a carpenter and got a house near the Cathedral. I remember him in the workshop, working, the smell of wood. My father studied Medicine in Seville and, when he finished, he came to Barcelona to work in whatever he could until things started to go better for him. Like so many others, the city welcomed them and they were able to get ahead."
Notes of nostalgia accompany the voice of the judge-writer, in recalling that city that is no longer the one of her childhood and youth, "the one I remember with most affection."
--Do you miss that Barcelona a lot?
--Things change and it always seems to us that past times were better. Perhaps it's because memory invents memories and sweetens them.
Like so many other fellow citizens, she doesn't like that this Barcelona of today is losing its identity and she especially detests its real estate speculation: "The right to decent housing is enshrined in the Constitution and it seems that no one is interested in remembering it."
Through the radio speaker in the Bar, the day's news filters in.
--Just put on music, please--, Graziella asks.
--Anything in particular?
She casts a complicit glance, sips a little of her tea with milk and cinnamon, and then speaks:
--Surprise me.