Nélida Piñón, matriarch of Brazilian letters, returns to the novel with a fable about the epic history of Portugal
As a fabulous gift, Nélida Piñón (Rio de Janeiro, 84 years old) celebrates the recent granting of Spanish nationality. Daughter and granddaughter of Galicians, the Brazilian literary matriarch is in Spain to present her new novel, ‘One day I’ll get to Sagres’ (Alfaguara), the first to be published in 16 years, and to leave her legacy in the Caja de las Letters from the Instituto Cervantes. In his sweet Spanish, he nostalgically recalls his childhood in Galicia and offers the keys to a “sensual and violent” novel in which he recreates the history of Portugal. An early feminist, she believes that women have only made partial conquests and that real power is still forbidden to them.
The writer explains that the story of her novel haunted her since in 2004 she advanced the idea to Carmen Balcells, a legendary literary agent and “friend of the soul.” “I told him the plot and he told me that it was a very violent story, but I explained to him that, as a woman, I can be lyrical, sensual and violent,” says the narrator in the living room of her temporary home in Madrid, where they run around his dogs Pilara and Susi, with whom he always travels.
He states that his novel “follows in the wake of the winds that guided the great Portuguese sailors”, those who made a “nation” of the neighboring country and are “very present” in the life of Mateus, the protagonist of an epic fable that travels through Portuguese history from the 15th to the 19th century. The son of a prostitute accused of witchcraft, born in a northern village in the nineteenth century, Mateus is a “brutal, sad, and classy” peasant raised by his grandfather Vicente. His death, his vital beacon, prompts him to undertake a utopian journey to the southernmost tip of Portugal in search of a better life.
On his journey, Mateus will meet the footsteps of the navigator Vasco de Gama and the writer Luis de Camoens, two milestones in the history of Portugal, a country to which Piñón also feels “like a homeland” and to which he moved to conclude the novel . Mateus will discover that, being miserable, he is the son of greatness. That Portugal went through many things to become a nation and that, thanks to this, it can face all the adventures, “he explains.
“Historical feminist”
“Literature is not made of information, it is made of mysteries that the writer must bring to the language and to the reader,” he says. Mysteries that she finds in any place and situation. “When I traveled through the scenes of the novel in Portugal and saw a log, I would think of the blood that had been spilled on it and my imagination would be triggered,” he explains. «I could not have told this story with a female voice, because a woman in the 19th century could not travel or be a pilgrim. The woman was then destined for the home refuge, “he clarifies. «A female character created by a man can be as wonderful as the opposite. There is Flaubert, who said ‘Madame Bovary is me,’ “says the writer and former president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, who considers herself a” historical feminist. ”
«I have met the great feminists, very cultured women, but we cannot say that there has been a definitive conquest of feminism, but that there have been advances since the seventies. Today women do not have a significant presence in power. You just have to look at the photos of the G7 or the G20, where there are only ties, “she adds with a laugh. She immediately clarifies that she is one of those who believes “that the compliment is wonderful” and that she is capable of “praising” men and women. “I want them to be gallant with me, as I am gallant with everyone,” he claims.
Winner of the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature in 2005, Piñón “does not understand” that it is necessary to apologize for what happened in the past. “We must know deeply what happened to rectify our vision. History is indelible, and we must know it well through great historians, who we lack. History is not studied as it should be in order to establish an analogy with the present, “he laments. “With horror our culture has been built. We were not saints and we are not now “, he maintains.
Double nationality
With four Galician grandparents, he had the right to Spanish nationality “but I did not have the courage to ask for it,” he confesses. The Spanish ambassador to Brazil, Fernando García Casas, informed him that the Spanish Government wanted to offer it to him, and he accepted. “Now it is as if I gave life to my dead again,” he explains in Spanish “that has nested in the depths of my heart since my childhood.”
“I remember how as a child, on a visit to Madrid with my parents, I asked for olives with anchovies in a bar, believing that I already knew Spanish,” says the person who deposited photos, personal and family objects, manuscripts and first editions in box number 1261 of the Cervantes of works such as ‘Guide-map of Gabriel Arcanjo’ (1961) or ‘The Republic of Dreams’ (1984).
She is the author of the story books ‘El tiempo de las Frutas’ (1966) and ‘Sala de armas’ (1973) and of biographical texts and essays such as ‘Homer’s Apprentice’ (2008) or ‘The Epic of the Heart’ (2017 ).
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