Where Have You Been, My Character?

25^th October, 2013 in a place called Rota.

Rota is a municipality in the south of Spain where almost 28,516 inhabitants live and with one of the most important naval bases for the U.S Marine and Air force units in the Mediterranean Sea. Usually, this town is a quiet place and the holiday destination of many during the summer months. One of the regular visitors is our unaware character, the poet Luis Grarcia Montero, his wife Almudena Grandes Hernandez and their daughter, Elisa.

They are believed to still be in Rota the on 25^th when a dinghy coming from Africa was found. Later that day, 37 illegal immigrant corpses lay on the sand, barely 200 meters away from the beach of Rota.

This is not the first time that a tragedy like this happened in this same place. On Sunday 4^th November, 2003, as many as 34 immigrants lifeless bodies were “rescued” by the Spanish military forces, almost one day after the dinghy had been seen in trouble.

Usually this notorious lack of care and humanity is blamed on political and international relations misunderstandings. Who could believe that the U.S naval forces would not be ready for such a simple mission as picking a dinghy that is approaching the coast?  But on the other hand, should the Spanish military forces expect that a foreign naval force will rescue immigrants coming into Spain?

This issue address, in essence, a problem that goes beyond the personal experience of our poet, yet took part during one day of his life. I want to use him and his family as the conduct to explore further into this particular aspect of global affairs. I don’t want, however, to lose focus on the life of Luis Garcia in the face of a more global episode.

My ultimate goal is to offer the reader some insights of his thoughts, literary achievements and how this one event – the sinking of the dinghy - affected his trait of thoughts and future work. In this aspect, a great amount of research must still be done. I will start by contacting him via e-mail, which can be found in his web-page along with a short biography written by him:

http://luisgarciamontero.com/contacta/

Choosing an Unaware Character

I wanted to pick someone I admired and shared my cultural context with. This criterion is not so that I can easily offer an idealised representation of my character, but for the selfish purpose of discovering more about their every-day live. I believe it will be more interesting for the readers to engage with a piece of writing created by someone who is passionate about the subject from the beginning.


          Poetry has helped me to understand the dynamics between the world and its written perceptions. Still, even a bibliographical truth is rather subjective under the hand of a poet. But, who is he when he drops the pen on the table until the next day?  The answer is simple: the potential character of a true story:

Luis Gracia Montero was my breaking point from classical poetry – his poem “Como Cada Mañana” (As Each Morning) was my only connection to contemporary poetry until recently. Montero executes his profession as a professor at the University of Granada, where one of my childhood friends is now studying (this give me a sense of comfort in case I am in desperate need of primary sources.)

Nevertheless, there is another possible character in my mind:  Francisco Catalan is a well-known artist within the Albacetense region (Spain). This painter and designer caught my attention in his exhibition “La Realidad Imaginada” (The Imagined Reality) on the 6^th of April, 2013. My fascination for his work compensates, however, my lack of knowledge about his private life. Fortunately Francisco is a resident from Yecla, which is barely 15 mins away from my hometown. These geographical conveyances give me a (probably false) impression of him being somehow approachable. It also offers me the (probably false too) opportunity for research that will try to trespass beyond his artistic work and into his countrymen word of mouth and shared stories with his neighbours/friends/ bar partners/family, etc.


Being emotionally involved with what the works of Luis Garcia and Francisco Catalan represent in my understanding of the written and visual art, I am now felt to face my decision. Which man might become a better character to represent a fraction of his life?