Bruno Blog

Last week was a week to forget. There are times when you would throw in the towel and say “enough is enough!”, but I cannot do that, I depend on my job and furthermore, despite everything, I love my job. I must confess that neither San Juan’s break, where thanks to my friends and family I had a few hours of rest and even laughter, made the week better. When the 24th we received an email where we were reported the death of Gregorio Morales, I could not believe it. It was the straw that broke the camel.

Gregorio was at the agency for about three years and from the first day he walked in the door, he stole our hearts, both Joan’s and mine. We saw in him a great person, and when we read what he brought us, we saw a great writer. What more could anyone want? From the distance, he lived between Granada and Madrid and we are in Barcelona, we always felt close. Gregorio followed this blog and encouraged me with his comments; he sent nice and human emails, even though we were having a hard time to find a publisher for his novel. He was sure we would get it, and I tried it all, but no one could understand his novel the way Joan and me did, until Max Lacruz read it, thanks to Gregorio himself, not me. Then he passed the baton to me, and we got it. It is an honor that an editor as Max, who defends a small and very prestigious publishing house, saw the novel the way we all did. Funambulista is publishing the novel. I gave Gregorio the big news, it was a joy that we could shared with him, and we made an appointment to sign the contract face to face and to hug and say “we did it, my friend.”

But fate kept a trick and Gregorio could not sign the contract. Life is unfair, I cannot think otherwise, and with the help of Max, we’ll try to publish the novel in honor of his memory. He cannot touch it, but he will look at it from above, because I’m sure he will be one of the biggest stars in the sky, and he will keep a small space to meet again at that place where there is only goodness, and there we will meet again and will hug and have that moment that life has denied us. Rest in peace, my dear friend.

“A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities” William Arthur Ward

Sandra Bruna

This week Bruno celebrates St. John’s Eve!
 
We wish you a great evening, worthy of L’estiu que comença, and tomorrow a relaxing day full of readings.

The struggle for power has always been there and I think it will never end. It is in our DNA. But power itself is neither good nor bad; it depends on how people manage it. Besides, we all have power over something in our life. And this kind of private power is also important; we have to learn how to manage it. Nevertheless, usually people only worries about Power in capital letters. I think this is because political power is usually controlled by people who cannot be fully trusted.

Politicians have shown us (at least in Spain) that most of them are not reliable and that they take advantage of the power they have. Power is usually accompanied by selfishness, and that often turns into greed. However, well-managed power can be good, but it has to be synonymous with having the opportunity to help, to encourage people to have goals and meet them. These last elections the people has proven to be tired of power abuse, and have voted new people with the illusion that they are not going to end up corrupted by this gentleman who always end up winning the game (I have my doubts and excuse me for it).

But history always can teach us and we find in the past mirrors to the present. In the past, kingdoms battled to achieve power and supremacy over others. This is explained by José Vicente Pascual in his novel INTERREGNO, located at the beginning of the fifth century, with the Roman empire practically in shatters. The peoples from the northern Iberian peninsula, and the tribes, clans and Eurasian nations that have invaded it, are fighting bloodily for supremacy.

The pervading ancient animist cult, and the Celtic religion’s association between spirituality and the forces of nature, as well as sorcery and magic, face the classic deities and, especially, the new Christian faith.

Berardo de Hogueras Altas, from his rich city in the sheltering Cantabrian mountain apex, summons his neighbors and allies to establish a dominion to be defended by a powerful army. They have to face the threat of the Asding Vandals, and the savage Alan parties that devastate the region. They also will defend themselves from the plans of the covetous Hermeric, king of the Suebi, who from his throne in Bracara Augusta intends to take possession of all the peninsular north. Their most fearsome enemies, though, might turn out to be the intrigues for power, and treachery.

Berardo’s call is answered by the brave mountain-dwellers of Gargantas del Cobre, the hunters of the Eione valley, the fierce warriors of Pasos Cerrados … They all know which destiny awaits them: the times of the sword, and legend.

In the past, battles were the “judges” and who lost them had to assume the consequences. Currently, at least in our country, we have no battles nor swords but power abuse has tired the vast majority of the population and a new wave of politicians are intervening. I hope they know what they are doing, because if managing the small things of day to day life is complicated, running a city or a country must be really hard And, in addition, not succumbing to the seduction of power, as always, kings, church, and ordinary citizens have done… I think it would be a huge step forward to get a team of people that know how to manage power to do better things. It would be nice changing the meaning of the word “power”, make it synonymous with “together we can get it,” and that this political change does not remain only a siren song.

Read Interregno first pages (in Spanish).

“When we fear someone, we have already given this person power over us.” Hermann Hesse

Sandra Bruna

I think having memories is one of the most beautiful things in life; being able to store them in memory, like a bottomless box, where you can keep things that you do not want to forget. I have many memories, mostly good, fortunately, because I try to forget the bad things, I try not to be bitter, and to learn from mistakes, not let them frozen. Therefore my magic box is almost full of good memories. Lots of them are good times with my family: summers with my grandparents, Christmas all together, family outings, moments of confessions with my siblings, the advice of my father and my mother’s hugs.

I also keep the best moments with my true friends, or the first kiss that was really important, my  first job, my son’s birth, the decision of working alone and face a world as charming as complex. I’m excited to remember all this and when I open the memory box I can still feel the smell or the feelings, as if the memory was alive. There are also sad memories, not bad ones, these I have already said that are easily forgotten, but the losses of loved ones or breaking relations that have marked you make me feel sad. It is an accepted sadness, but it still hurts. For all this, I don’t want to lose my memory ever, because I think it is a valuable treasure that makes us happier and more human.

As Joan Lluis Bozzo shows us in his book MEMÒRIES TROBADES EN UNA FURGONETA, explaining half-life of Dagom Dagoll Company, one of the most famous theater companies in the world.  The book explains many anecdotes and also the strength, friendship and enthusiasm of a group of people fighting for the same thing. In this first part of his memories Bozzo gives us all this, and also does a precise portrait of 80s Spain.

Read the first few pages (in Catalan) here.

 “Memory is the perfume of the soul” by George Sand, French writer.

Last weekend was a long one, and many things happened. The best of them was the birth of my nephew Luca. A birth is always cause for joy, especially when is an expected child into a family like ours. But the same day, some news arrived that saddened me greatly, the other side of the story; Elsa’s death. Elsa was an editor and friend who fought against cancer for four years. She was a brave woman, a books’ lover. We will miss you.

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