He has a crazy day signing copies of his newly published memories ‘The future is already yesterday’ (Ed. Roca) and attending interviews in Barcelona. This Monday will be the official presentation in Madrid, in the Circle of Fine Arts. There, Rafael Payá Pinilla expects many of the friends, both popular and not, who have treasured throughout these 79 years of life. «I did not expect so much impact, my house’s phone does not stop asking for consultations and astral letters. What excites me most is the love of people, ”acknowledges the seer, very grateful for the great reception.
That of Abseiling or ‘Rappepel’, as the clients who went to their father’s store, is an exciting life. His family lost everything he had in Barcelona because of the war and emigrated to Madrid, where they had no choice but to start from scratch. «My grandfather had a fight and, with my uncle, they opened a hat that was very fashionable at the time. Balenciaga became very close to my grandfather, almost as brothers, it was his first hatter ».
In the middle of the war, they were looted everything and, at the end, it was Balenciaga Who told them to stop the skins and hats. He helped them get an apartment on Lagasca Street, in which there were only wooden shelves full of precious fabrics that he sent them from Paris. In fifteen days he ran mouth and that was filled with ancient and new clients, ”Rappel recalls. There was the afternoon the young Rappellito until, with 17 years, he opened his first store in Madrid. «I wanted windows and managed to rent the bass of the building where we lived in Ayala. Through a good friend I got Carmen Polo, Franco’s wife, who brought many friends; That was a success ».
Thus he opened its doors ‘Rappel’ and that is what all its stores were called, always in Barcelona and in Madrid. «My grandfather and my father were Rafael; They linked the P Pinilla and Pel de Lelleía ». But his hobby was throwing the cards, and his voice was run, so all the clients began to want a dress and a tarot reading. “The arrival of Prêt-à-Porter did a lot of damage to haute couture worldwide, so he began to lower his clothes to measure and agreed that they offered me to work as public relations in Florida Park.”
The owner was my client of the store and wanted her to talk to her husband and, incidentally, jealous, since it was thirty years older than her. I was not very convinced to work at night until he told me that he was going to pay me 100,000 pesetas a month and told him that it started the next day. When I told my wife, he told me to ask him if he gave something to her, and that was how I was working there, I alternated it with the tarot consultation at home and closed the store. So Rappel was married to Luisa Chaverriwith whom he had three sons (two daughters and one son) who have given him a grandson. The seer left behind forty years of life the day he came to his consultation José María Morónhis partner, from whom he has not separated again and who yields an affectionate tribute in his memoirs.
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A short time later his media baptism came. Started on the radio with María Luisa Seco and on television by the hand of the great Jesus Hermida in ‘In the morning’ in TVE. “His mother was my client and told him that he threw the cards, and told me that it was going to be a bombing for the program, and so it was, it gave me a lot of popularity and very good image,” Rappel recalls. Another of his great television milestones was his weekly presence for seven years in the popular program of Channel 9 ‘Tómbola’. «Every Thursday I read the future to some famous guest and made a different robe. There were almost 400 robes that I released and still kept with love. At the end of each program, they gave me an envelope with a million pesetas, something unthinkable today. It was a very funny stage in which I earned a lot of money ».
“I read Pedro Sánchez’s hand and said ‘Chico or lived in my house'”
For their consultation, customers of all kinds pass, rich and poor, he acknowledges, everyone is worried about the same thing: love and money. The most demanded is the astral chart, although, without knowing the exact time of birth, it is more complicated to do it. The political class also feels curious about its future. “Once I was at a reception and President Pedro Sánchez approached me, he greeted me and, when he shake hands, he told me: ‘Since I shake hands, could you read it to me?’ I told him four things and closed my palm of my hand, while saying: ‘Chico, or lived in my house’ ».
Without retirement
He would like to be remembered as a good person and a good friend. «I do not like to say the bad things I see in the cards, but it does prevent and advise, even friends who are going to set up a business. I warn them of the partners or the risk they can run … ». Rappel could retire if I wanted to, but it will never do it because “I have this power to help so many people, I feel obliged to continue doing it while I can and my head works,” he concludes.
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