The relationship between father and daughter contains a magic that is reserved for them and that few manage to decipher. But on the night of Saturday, March 19, attendees at the sixth edition of El Reel Literario, organized by the Instituto Cultural Nuestra Américawere able to approach the warm paternal memories that the daughters of the writers keep Fernando Artieda (1945-2010) and Jorge Velasco Mackenzie (1949-2021)in addition to approaching their work through the eyes of those who saw them work, rewrite, imagine and leave.
The discussion around both authors was carried out with the aim of highlight a narrative work that gave voice and visibility to suburban Guayaquilof the street, with its noises, characters, language and identity.
Christina Velascodegree in communication, revealed during his speech that his father did not have a writing routine. “He always had to come up with an idea,” he said. “And for that, I developed the observation, I went out a lot. He saw what was happening in the parks, he spent time talking with people in the streets, on the Malecón, with the people in the market”, he commented. “In fact, I have returned to the market and many people recognize me and ask me about my dad and they are amazed when they hear the news because he was friends with everyone, he was a very talkative person.
Once that first almost spontaneous stage had been completed, Velasco continued, “then yes I had that habit of writing everywhere, as he had already said a few times, “he recalled. “He wrote in line to pay for electricity, at the cinema, where he was encouraged and I found the inspiration to do it.”
Velasco is also the heiress (“because that’s how my brothers also decided”) from his father’s library and wait for the future find the best place to preserve and share the literary discoveries that fed the author’s mind in life. “Books never stopped coming to the house”, he admitted. “Before they were just my dad’s books, but now it’s something invaluable information I received from my father and opening them is, for example, reading his notes and it’s something very emotive that it is difficult to deliver just like that, I always find something that he tells me through his books”.
He also hopes to bring to light unpublished works by his father: a book of short stories and two novels. He further recalled that Velasco Mackenzie also wrote two playsone of them, ‘Tattoos on the soul’ has not yet been staged. “That would be another way to preserve her legacy, for a theatrical group to come and ask us to represent her”.
In this first panel also participated Monica Murga, university professor and director of Humanities at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil; and the teacher Hernan Zunigarecognized plastic artist of the city and who was close friend to Velasco Mackenzie.
Remembering Fernando Artieda, his daughter Renata, who is a poet and narrator, welcomed the prologue she wrote for her ‘Antología Seco y Volteado’ (2009)at the request of his father.
“At that time he was already sick, he could still walk, but he was already using a walker and we were already moving him with a wheelchair. But at that time he asked me, first, that I transcribe the texts that he had chosen for his anthology, from the book to the computer, and then that from that work I wrote something, “he recalled. “I should have done an analysis exercise, but I got romantic because of my father”.
In this space, he covers the works selected for the publication interspersed with a very personal voice: “because He taught me to be poor, to have everything without asking for it, that is, to dream and read, to read the dreams of others and, at the point of paranoia, feel guilty for trying to be free (…)”, he narrated during his reading. “Now I understand that Our first links with him, in addition to running out to hug him when he got home from work and flying on his flower bike, were Rafael Escalona and Rubén Blades.”, he continued. “And who is going to tell me now ‘little clove of garlic?‘ and I return to his first book as the circle I wish life to be, because I lack chest is that I suffocate, because I have too many hands I don’t get tired (…)”.
April 15 will be the twelfth anniversary of the death of the author, who was always available to share with younger authors. “He always had that good predisposition and help them more than curatorship, advise them with readings‘Keep reading and writing’, which is the only way to keep improving”.
Renata also highlighted the journalistic facet of his father. “Tell stories from the writing is much more complicated than from the audiovisual, in terms of news. She had a interesting focus on journalism because he began to chronicle (…) He always had that romance with Guayaquil, to read the Guayaquil citizen, but not the bourgeois citizen, but the one with the rag ball and Kit shoes”. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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