Legal Dispute Halts Publication of Pedro Lemebel’s Work: A Family Feud.

Text prepared by the Siempre Viva en Vivo program.

Due to an intricate legal dispute by the writer’s “hereditary community”, Editorial Planeta suspended editions, reissues and distribution of Pedro Lemebel’s books.

While Chilean writers remember Pedro Lemebel at the Buenos Aires International Book Fair, expressing praiseworthy words about the famous national author, oblivious to the Lemebel of readers and bookstores, Geraldine Mardones, niece of the beloved and unforgettable chronicler of sexual diversities, fights for release the author’s work Goodbye Ladybug Cutelegally confronting his half-sister Daniela Mardones, both members of the “hereditary community” of Pedro Lemebel, revealing that Editorial Planeta suspended all editions, reissues, publications and distribution of the disputed writer’s work.

The surprising news of the cancellation of new editions and distribution of all of Lemebel’s written work by Editorial Planeta is known through an interview that Geraldine Mardones had with the journalist Víctor Hugo Robles, activist and friend of Pedro Lemebel, host of “Siempre Viva en Vivo”, the only radio program on sexual diversity and HIV/AIDS, broadcast by Radio Universidad de Chile.

In the conversation, Geraldine recounts her relationship with Pedro Lemebel, the family link that unites her to the famous writer for being the daughter of Pedro’s deceased brother, Jorge Mardones Lemebel, until recently Lemebel’s universal heir. “I had a relationship with Pedro’s parents, they always knew who I was, my direct relationship was with my grandparents,” Geraldine recalls, adding that “my father always denied me. I waited for the DNA test to sue him. In 2015 I asked for that test to close a cycle and because Pedro’s father, my grandfather, asked me for it before he died.”

Geraldine assures that before Lemebel’s death she had a fluid relationship with her siblings, especially with Daniela, who today appears as the “administrator” of Lemebel’s work. “I was 16 years old when I met my sister Daniela, with her were my first outings, my first reels, it was a sisterly relationship,” she says. Everything changed the day Lemebel died. Geraldine remembers that her sister called her “huacha” at the writer’s funeral in the Santiago Metropolitan Cemetery. From that moment, she acknowledges, the distance that separates them and confronts them in court began. Why that change? Economic interests? Not wanting to share the Lemebel heritage? “If you ask me now, I think so,” says Geraldine, lamenting that her sister is motivated by a sense of profit and not the dissemination of the work of the Latin American chronicler.

Geraldine not only denounces the “difficult and long process” of recognizing her rights, but also the concealment of her father’s death. “I found out about her death through a fake Facebook profile. Nobody warned me, to this day I don’t know where he is buried, ”says Geraldine, acknowledging that this fact bothered her. “I felt angry, now we know that it was for economic interests and to keep me out of Pedro Lemebel’s legacy,” she accuses.

Lemebel in court

These days, as a result of the lack of agreements, Lemebel’s work has been canceled by Editorial Planeta, a situation that has not limited Daniela Mardones to sign contracts with publishers in the US, highlighting the translation and edition of a book by Lemebel under the Penguin Random House label, a work that would appear in September 2023. The authorizations for this work and other publications “have not had the approval of the entire hereditary community,” they say from the defense of Geraldine Mardones.

Felipe González, Geraldine’s lawyer, explained on “Siempre Viva en Vivo” that his client, in addition to Daniela, her brother and her mother, “form a hereditary community within which Pedro’s work is found. This, because Pedro’s heir was the father of Geraldine and Daniela, who died and, therefore, bequeathed his assets to his heirs. As it is a community, there is no designated administrator and, consequently, the heirs together must make all the decisions”.

“Unfortunately this has not happened. We understand that, until now, the administration is carried out by Daniela, without permission, consultation or authorization from Geraldine. In addition, Daniela did not even inform the publisher of her father’s death, and she continued to receive payments directly, without Geraldine’s legal representation. Until today, Daniela has not informed us about the financial status of the income from the writer’s work and, what is worse, she created a brand that bears the name of Pedro Lemebel.

Felipe González, Geraldine’s lawyer

“We have always been in a position of a negotiation to promote the artist’s work at all levels, nationally and internationally, but we have only found the same answer: Daniela wants Geraldine out of everything in exchange for meager amounts of money,” denounces the Geraldine Mardones’ lawyer, assured that despite not wanting it, they requested the division of assets, “a process that we have already started by requesting the appointment of a dividing judge. The counterpart has forced us to reach this situation that, in truth, we do not want ”, he assures.

Geraldine Mardones confesses that she feels hurt with her sister Daniela for acting in bad faith. “I am part of the Pedro Lemebel community, but I am not placing restrictions on the work. I hope that this ends in the best possible way and that Lemebel’s work continues to be disseminated, which is the most important thing”, says Geraldine, thanking “all the people who continue to remember Pedro and I hope that they continue to spread his work, reading his books, listening to their programs”, he affirms.

For his part, Víctor Hugo Robles, journalist and host of “Siempre Viva en Vivo”, appreciated the open radio conversation with Geraldine Mardones, whom he defines as a person who “is fighting to liberate the work of Pedro Lemebel”. “It is essential to safeguard Lemebel’s literary production as part of everyone’s heritage. I dare to ask the parties in question, the hereditary community of Pedro Lemebel, to try to reach a conciliation, an agreement, both for their own good and for the good of the arts, culture and the people, as Pedro Lemebel would have always wanted it”, declares the activist, known as “El Che de los Gays”.

The transmission of the interview with Geraldine Mardones in “Siempre Viva en Vivo” will take place this Sunday, May 7 from 10:00 p.m. through Radio Universidad de Chile on 102.5 FM or from the Web: www.radiouchile.cl

Photo credits: Víctor Hugo Robles