"To start off on the wrong foot, which is something very healthy, I'll tell you that I don't drink alcohol, so I'll order a Bitter Kas, a synthetic and delicious concoction that I would save in one of those capsules of humanity's memory. But never alone. It has to be with some olives or some potato chips."
The journalist, writer, and reference expert in the world of fashion, Marta D. Riezu, settles down at the bar and alternates chips with her drink, while in the background only some conversations and the murmurs of the street are heard, and the newcomer is safe "from the imbeciles listening to music or voice messages on their mobile."
"At the bar, I'll tell you whatever you want; in that, I have the character of a confessor drunkard, even though, as I told you, I don't drink a drop. I've always worked in writing, it's what I studied, and I've been indecently lucky. I've never aspired to be in a newsroom or to have an important position; it's not that I have the talent for it either. I like to have a certain freedom, and I also like to obey a team, if that team is intelligent. Obeying someone with talent is not dishonorable at all; on the contrary, it's tremendously practical. I'm organized in my tasks, and then in my free hours, I read and write something I feel like. Or sometimes I don't write anything."
For now, to an infinity of collaborations with mastheads such as Elle, Vanity Fair, El País, Glamour, or El Mundo, Marta adds two successful titles published for Anagrama, the most recent of which, Agua y jabón (Water and Soap), weaves through a succession of exquisite ethical-aesthetic fragments a rich and honest canon of elegance. For this, the author uses figures, moments, notions, and snapshots from history and her own history to guide the reader through her stylistic ideology.
"Contact with readers is very strange. You can write whatever you want, it gets printed, it runs loose out there. Very different people write to you: sailors, priests, bakers, teachers, grandmothers. The book as an artifact is a miracle. It builds bridges and does it that easily, in a snap. Working with the editor, clearing the path, I also like very much. I love being told my mistakes. I would have an editor for daily life who walked beside me guiding me, like Pasolini's crow," she laughs, sipping some of her Bitter Kas.
Settled in the wonderful years
From childhood to adolescence, the parishioner lived in one house and one neighborhood. "Then we moved and from 12 to 22 I lived in a better house in a better neighborhood. That change of environment was completely disconcerting, pleasant but mysterious." Then came the blow. "At 22 my mother died and life went from a before, marked by carelessness, to an after marked by responsibility." That's when the writer and journalist considers her youth ended. "But then came wonderful years, and I'm still in them, but the big blow has already been dealt. The loss of my parents is what has most marked my life. The other things, job changes and loves, are clearly secondary."
"The loss of my parents is what has most marked my life. The other things, job changes and loves, are clearly secondary"--- Man, I'd say that love thing won't be so secondary...
--- Well, in fact, I believe that the choice of partner determines 80% of your happiness, and I'm being modest. That's why I'm a great advocate for singlehood!
After continuing to drink her beverage, the patron insists on feeling "very lucky" to have everything she desires, and she doesn't complain about anything. "I almost don't dare to say it out loud so as not to offend luck." Some keys that justify this state of grace may be "never having been a social climber or having fought with anyone at work, except for one single time with an annoying person who was a pain about the air conditioning." And, also, "being consistent and discreet."
--- Even so, you have something of an influencer and a public figure or, at least, a reference face when it comes to fashion and style.
--- Look, even if I faci la mona on Instagram, I am aware of the ridiculousness of it. The important thing is not to lose sight of who you are, your miseries. And let others speak of your merits.
A city for which we are not good enough
"I chose Barcelona. I was born in Terrassa and arrived here two decades ago. I had it and I have it very clear. I think we should be more rigorous and demanding as citizens, starting with self-criticism. Many of us, as neighbors, are not good enough," reasons the writer, who confesses that she had a good relationship with the city in the nineties, but that it "is now regular, these things go in five-year periods". Above all, she confesses that it affects her "in a profound way" to see "people abandoned to their fate, without opportunities. In the United States you see them and you think that in Europe this is unthinkable. Well, not anymore. That feeling of 'everyone for themselves' is terrible."
"I chose Barcelona. I was born in Terrassa and arrived here two decades ago. I had it and I have it very clear"However, she cannot deny the impact, for someone from Terrassa "accustomed to growing up in four streets," of arriving in a city with so many different neighborhoods: "It seemed amazing to me." And she remembers, then, "the excitement of when I liked someone and I would drop by where they might be; certain record stores, certain meeting points. Some spring days and especially some autumn days, walking through any street here is enough to be very happy."
--- Our gastronomic offer also provides numerous reasons to feel authentic joy.
"I like everything: the tasting menu at one of those restaurants that break the bank, a half portion in a filthy bar, midday menus with battered dishes, combo plates in service areas, sandwiches, street stalls. Everything that can be ingested interests me. As a friend says: I don't have a stomach, I have a cement mixer," replies Marta D. Riezu, her coffee-colored gaze gliding over the various delicacies offered to her, while uttering a universal maxim of knowing how to eat:
--- With time, one learns through trial and error. Gastronomy is one of the few places where error is not paid for very dearly.