Xavier Velasco: The Lone Gladiator

By Carlos Meraz

In each work, Xavier Velasco not only puts at risk his reputation as an accomplished writer and the prestige of being the Alfaguara Prize, but he literally risks his existence and puts it at the service of what he loves most: the novel in turn, since if it Life, with scars and wounds, is not at the service of literature, what good is it to be an author without blemish. That is only an approximation of what his new and more personal work is. The last to die.

On the back cover of the book, which marks his return to the publisher that awarded him for Guardian devil In 2003, the author sentenced: “Everyone can die, except the narrator, or the story also ends up in the pantheon.”

Aware that it is necessary to write with the quasi-musical grace of rhythm and without fear of accelerating emotions and experiences to the maximum for the benefit of the narrative, the journalist also travels light, alone, fast and naked —with outfit as a motorcyclist — in front of the mirror, without modesty, concessions or intellectual pose, in a kind of reflection of himself on paper, where what you see is what you read.

“I have the habit of putting my job before my life, that is, if a part of my life serves my job, I don’t mind exhibiting it, as long as the story works. If that means getting naked or showing things that won’t give you prestige and raise multiple eyebrows, I don’t care. They say that a writer who does not lose sleep by writing ends up putting his readers to sleep.

“In this book I left all my soul. It has to do with a very arduous path, but at the same time fun and full of adventures; with a character who forces himself to live like in a movie and constantly defies boredom. It is a novel full of failures and learning at the same time, because success does not teach you anything. It is a compendium of everything I learned from stubbornness, that is, I tried to be a novelist and it did not stop me. When you are young, mistakes are cheaper and only then do you learn ”, he warned.

In the end, Velasco, 56, remains the enfant terrible of Mexican literature of this century. A charming cynic consecrated in sarcasm for whom loyalty is embodied in his five mammoth dogs of the Giant Pyrenees breed, who always accompany him while he religiously writes at least three pages a day in the garden of his house in the San Ángel neighborhood .

“My way of taking life seriously is to laugh at it. I like to establish complicity with the readers and my interlocutors through humor, which is something exquisite. Solemnity, which always has something ridiculous, I detest and make me sick; the literary elite make me yawn and besides, I do not have a social life as a writer, but as a person who walks his dogs and goes to the movies with his wife.

“Now I have a stuck novel that has to do with tennis, a sport of which I am a lost fan. I also made a quarantine diary that I published in www.zendalibros.com, Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s site, with 105 deliveries, almost a book that I have to polish to publish, and I have another project that I am forbidden to speak of, ”he revealed.

When asked if that secret has to do with making a movie script, Velasco responds with one word: “Hot!”

SUDDEN DEATH

In a journalistic ping pong exercise, Xavier Velasco participates in a spoken portrait where each response describes the human being behind the character, in a kind of couch talk, through Proust’s questionnaire, in a different conversation with a writer, ditto.

– What character in the story do you identify with?

– Let me think … I think it would be Winston Churchill.

– Who would you have liked to meet?

— A Oscar Wilde.

– If you had not been a man, what woman would you have liked to be?

– Maria Magdalena.

– If you could choose who to reincarnate, who would you choose?

— A David Bowie.

– Who would you ask for an autograph?

– Two months ago I asked tennis player Roger Federer for one and then Novak Djokovic.

– Which character from the Wizard of Oz would you be?

– The tin Man.

– What super power would you love to have?

– Be invisible like the character of Alice, in the Woody Allen film of the same name.

– Who are your heroes in real life?

– The authors of the boom Latin American: Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes and Gabriel García Márquez.

– What photograph or image would you never hang in your living room?

– One from Stalin.

– What other people’s work would you have been fascinated to make known?

— Tomorrow in battle think of meby Javier Marías.

– What book marked your life?

— The War of the End of the Worldby Mario Vargas Llosa.

– And which one did not meet your expectations?

— The wild detectivesby Roberto Bolaño. In the middle I couldn’t stand it anymore, it had a rhythm but it bored me; This is not the case, but there are other writers who have no rhythm and also have gunner’s ears.

– Who would you never work with even if they paid you the treble?

– With the government, whatever.

– If you hadn’t been a writer, what would you have dedicated yourself to?

– To the underworld, probably.

– What song do you think that listening to it several times can be equivalent to torture?

— Snail soup. I get out of weddings when they put it on. That is why I got married in Las Vegas, Nevada, in a chapel officiated by an Elvis Presley and I planned everything, like the songs that would be played in the ceremony, and thus have a musically controlled environment.

– And which one inevitably generates the desire to dance?

— African heritage, with Celia Cruz and La Sonora Matancera.

– What character you met on the street would you choose to change the sidewalk?

– There are too many politicians to choose and change the sidewalk. I definitely don’t trust politicians.

– What movie marked your life?

— Mechanical orange, de Stanley Kubrick.

– Who is the best actor in the world?

– Robert De Niro.

– And the greatest tennis player of today?

– Roger Federer, without a doubt. Tennis is my favorite because, unlike team sports, there you face yourself and in that fight you go further. In that it is similar to literature, so I am a lone gladiator.

– What reminds you of your childhood?

– The noise of crickets and the smell of certain hair fixers, such as The Dry Look Gillette.

– What alien habit can’t you stand?

– To stupidly conceited people, who spend their time doing self-promotion.

– What dish would you eat before being shot?

– Risotto, it’s my favorite dish.

– What politician would you give a slap?

– To Donald Trump and his emuli, like Jair Bolsonaro.

– If you were president of Mexico, what would be your ideal cabinet?

– Taking into account my disabilities and incompatibilities that I have to hold a position as the Presidency, I would try to surround myself with experts, with a great knowledge of the area; Moreover, I would start from the assumption: I know little and I need to surround myself with people who know more.

– What do you regret?

– You’re welcome. I once thought: Why didn’t I start writing earlier? But reflecting, I was not yet ready. So I don’t regret anything.

– What do you feel now about being as famous or more famous than your famous friends?

– Fame, as Gabriel García Márquez said, is a mountain that you run up to and then slide discreetly through the dark part so that they don’t see you. Because when you get to the top you feel terribly intimidated and say: I don’t want to stay here anymore!

– What is your favorite maxim?

– One that my mother said: “No one was born who sent me …” and ended it with the term “… Look!”

– At the last dinner of your life, who would be your 12 hypothetical guests?

– Only the people closest to me, the ones who love and love me.

– And like you Judas, who would be the guest?

– My ex.

– How would you like to die?

– Asleep.

– What would your epitaph say?

– “He wrote everything he wanted” or “He missed some things to write.”

– What do you think of a journalist?

– I feel lazy, because they work a lot. It is a job like that of the policeman, with too many sacrifices for so little pay.

– How much does a Metro ticket cost?

– I have no idea.

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