Juan de la Cabada, in accordance with Marco Tulio Lailson / Elena Poniatowska

Though Juan de la Cabada was elusive from a younger age and all through all of the years of his life, now the boys who love literature ought to get better him, get to know his work, as a result of if there was a rare author within the 30s, 40s and 50s, it was Juan de la Cabada, one of the vital cleanly lovely beings in Mexican literature, one of the vital artistic, regardless of himself. The land couldn’t cease him, the political struggles tore his paper wings, the corn from his tooth, the white locks on his head, his lengthy steps of a tall and skinny man, his scarecrow determine that immediately seems in HEADSTREET. Juan de la Cabada is the most effective of our literary characters, the freest of our kites, probably the most genuine of our males of letters, probably the most energetic participant in his personal life.

Why was it nice? For the originality of his life and his work, additionally very free, and, above all, for his capability for dedication to probably the most clever causes, the noblest, these of those that stroll down the road searching for their future. Juan rose step-by-step like an incredible wind of freedom, he opened doorways and home windows, he turned like a climate vane within the public squares, he entered the confessionals to slap the priest tired of God. Pal of those that don’t have anything and of those that waste their lives and his expertise, Juan got here from Campeche to Mexico Metropolis to unfold his nice sooty chook wings amongst us.

Octavio Paz and, above all, Elena Garro, made him a bit nest and guarded his flight, every in their very own method. Octavio admired him; Elena used him with out realizing it. Enchanted by the originality of his free life, the bravery and vanity of his actions and phrases set him alight within the public sq.. This man have to be imitated. Throughout his life, Juan de la Cabada had no treatment as a result of he by no means wished to have it, however he was like a chook, as a result of in every of his turns over the waves of the ocean, and later over the volcanoes, his creativity flew, an originality that now It goes past our understanding, as a result of yearly we grow to be extra blunt and fewer free.

A singular and insanely beneficiant character, Juan de la Cabada strode by way of the streets of town centre, sweeping his expertise over the cobblestones.

It was good to satisfy him at rallies, public squares, seashores that additionally need to fly, noisy cafes. Juan raised his arms and all of the patrons moved. This man is the navel of Mexicostated an organ grinder. Perhaps Juan was the navel of Mexico with sooty wings that we have now not but been capable of rescue inside our little literary life nor throughout the eventful and unhappy lifetime of the Mexican left.

Juan de la Cabada didn’t lend himself to tributes or diatribes both, though his loopy boy wings withstood the throwing of stones, the blows, the Lecumberri jail, the civil struggle in Spain, in 1939. Juan walked by way of our lives, supposedly serene as a kite. to the wind. In the long run, his white hair, so previous and raveled, flew like his head, a rustic boy filled with frayed phrases, flew. His hair made him fly, in addition to his tenement yard airplane arms that have been nothing however massive wings fabricated from newspaper. His letters additionally flew and now it could be good to retain and shelter them, as a result of we didn’t take note of Juan de la Cabada whereas he lived amongst us, however he crammed our creativeness with lights, that of day-after-day, that of the Zócalo esplanade and that of Paris, that of the danzones {that a} up to date of his knew methods to paint so effectively who by no means established his recognition in Mexico: Miguel Covarrubias, The child.

Within the Nineteen Thirties, Juan got here from Campeche to stroll by way of all of the blessed streets of the middle, he walked on the stones of the Zócalo esplanade that all the time makes waves, he walked the blessed streets of Donceles and Tacuba a thousand occasions, we noticed him go by like a chiflonazo and we did not know methods to retain it, as a result of as intellectuals we’re all the time catching flies.

Now, to exchange us, Marco Tulio Lailson from Hidalgo has undertaken his rescue. He has searched by way of all of the attainable and unimaginable paperwork of the battle of the Communist Social gathering in a Mexico that can also be unimaginable for him as a consequence of his distinctive and unrepeatable vocation for failure.

Younger and enthusiastic, biographer Marco Tulio Lailson involves the home to speak about Juan de la Cabada.

–Marco Tulio, why did it happen to you to write down about Juanito de la Cabada?

–As a result of I found his work in a co-edition of the Financial Tradition Fund (FCE) with the Polytechnic, in 1981. It was a present that an uncle gave me. I learn it and I used to be excited, though I’m from right here in Mexico Metropolis and never from there, like Juan.

–Is it an English surname?

–There’s a controversy within the household about whether or not our final title is Swedish or Irish, however in actuality we come from Actual del Monte, Pachuca, capital of the paste. Do you know that in Actual del Monte there’s a British pantheon? There isn’t any one from my household in Actual del Monte anymore, as a result of they’re scattered in Cancún, in Guadalajara, in San Francisco, and I stay right here, in Mexico Metropolis.

–When did you begin amassing the work of Juan de la Cabada?

–I’m a language and literature trainer at one of many excessive colleges in Mexico Metropolis, within the Del Mar neighborhood, which is the border between Tláhuac and Iztapalapa. I educate writing courses and I attempt to awaken in my college students the need to learn. The topic doesn’t appear to curiosity them, however it’s one thing that has all the time fascinated me and, primarily based on my vocation, I started to purchase many books, together with these by Juan de la Cabada. Opposite to what I believed, he turned out to be a virtually forgotten writer. I did have references to him from readings in my youth and since Juan was a public determine. Certainly you bear in mind the interviews that Cristina Pacheco did with him on Channel Eleven.

“Juan de la Cabada had a protracted public life; he not solely appeared on tv but additionally in newspapers, and he was acknowledged at marches and political demonstrations. He was an emblematic determine. After his demise he was utterly invisible, though Cristina Pacheco interviewed him within the mid-Nineteen Eighties. From 1986 onwards, he started to be forgotten. There have been no research about his life, nor a biography, and his work stopped being revealed. The primary compilation of his tales made by Ermilo Abreu Gómez for the FCE is from 1981, and it was not till 2016-2017 {that a} reprint of his work was made.” Stroll of lies. That is why I say that Juan de la Cabada has been forgotten. In Campeche there’s a statue of him and Bellas Artes created a nationwide youngsters’s literature award in his title, though he by no means wrote for kids.

“Olga Rappaport, the protagonist of ‘The Conspiracy’, is a outstanding character. She is a Jewish boarder at an American faculty who’s rejected for being unattractive. ‘Blanche or the Secret’ is a prodigious story. What’s so shifting about Juan is the best way he treats the character. A fantastic author, Juan had the flexibility to delve into each. The woman Olga, excluded by her classmates, ends dramatically and Juan exhibits that he had an incredible capability to be moved, particularly by those that are rejected. He understands them like nobody else and, along with his story, he makes Olga Rappaport go down in historical past.”

–He in all probability succeeded as a result of he by no means stopped being a baby. Many people additionally know that Juan went to Spain to battle in opposition to Franco, and in Mexico he protected the exiles. As well as, he helped Elena Garro (whose father was Spanish) cover The Güero Medrano, chief of the Rubén Jaramillo colony in Morelos…

–What I discovered is exactly that vital episode within the lifetime of Elena Garro, who requested De la Cabada for help for the toma from lands of landowners from Morelos and Guerrero, amongst others, these of the banker Agustín Legorreta.

–Do you could have letters from Juan de la Cabada?

–A few of his archives are below the safekeeping of the Universidad Veracruzana. It’s not all of his work, as a result of with the demise of Julia, the daughter of Esther, Juan’s spouse, a substantial a part of his work was misplaced, already scattered. I had the chance to seek the advice of these letters and different paperwork that Julia saved, as a result of Juan was very disorganized, he would depart his home with out even combing his hair; many supplies disappeared. I didn’t do the work of amassing all the things scattered right here and there; the Universidad Veracruzana did it. Gerardo Hurtado Hernández is the one who is aware of probably the most about Juan; in 2010 he revealed a number of the letters, due to the help of the federal government of Campeche. Therefore my curiosity in writing Juan’s biography for Taibo II, who’s a leftist, to publish it; he already made me a counterproposal for publication and I labored with Mrs. Paloma. I discovered paperwork within the second-hand bookstores in Donceles, which have very good issues. They was once low-cost, however now they’re very costly, as a result of booksellers have already found their worth.

“I used to be stunned by the truth that Juan de la Cabada had forgotten the left wing. Apart from what Julia saved. That is why I stated: ‘Here’s a very fertile area for analysis.'”

“I’ve written books of poetry and I’m focused on literature, as a result of it’s the neatest thing I can do and, as well as, after I was younger I appeared in a collective e book: With the identical pen.

“Juan fascinated me and I made a decision to rescue him. As a substitute of doing him justice, critics related his literature with the leftist propaganda of the time, and Juan wrote far more than that. ‘Maria, the voice’, ‘Quick circuit’ are improbable tales. Juan not solely gave himself over to the Communist Social gathering, a label that minimizes him; he was far more than that. He collaborated in Frente a Frente, organ of the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists. Ermilo Abreu Gómez and Juan de la Cabada have been nice pals, each communists. “Juan was tall, güerillo, with half-slanted eyes.”

–Sure, he moved by way of life as if on a stage the place there have been no risks or limits; it was a pleasure to seek out him on any nook heading to Chilpancingo. Juanito, the place are you going? Oh, effectively, I will Iguala, to show; experience me. However how do I get there? Nicely then I will go along with you to select up your youngsters.. I had no agenda or life plan, and immediately I remembered: Discover that I believe I have never eaten.

–And that was additionally one of many difficulties in writing his biography; understanding the place he was. What he did not do for himself, he did for others. There are data within the Nationwide Archives of how he confronted the gendarmes at a tribute to Julio Antonio Mella. The police beat him and took him to Lecumberri.