Like Sean Connery and Sofía Loren, as a child, Paco Moreno Ortega sold milk on the streets of his hometown, Málaga, where he came into the world in 1931.although his childhood was spent in the Rincón de la Victoria.
There was a moment in his life when he doubted between being a painter or a writer, but When he won the National Contest for Education and Rest in 1959, he opted for brushes. However, for many years he has combined his two vocations and proof of this is twenty books, the last one, ‘24 hours in 47 sonnets‘ (Jákara), with verses accompanied by photos of the author’s daily life and he already has a storybook underway with a Madrid publisher.
genes and illusion
How do you manage to maintain such a Picassian vitality? «I think that on the one hand, the genes a bit, because my father died at 93, my mother at 97 and an uncle of my father at 105 but also because I am young in mind and I am still enthusiastic, external happiness must be brought to you so as not to lose the illusion», Explain. And then of course, he comments that there are habits: “I have never drunk alcohol or smoked and I have led a very healthy life, with classic Mediterranean cuisine.”
Paco Moreno Ortega talks to The opinion in his apartment in the Center, a house full of his own paintings but also of friends and artists he admires. After closing his studio in the Pinosol neighborhood, his house is also his studio and he works on the easel that belonged to his friend Paul Coronadothe same one who told him: «Paco, you are very Franciscan».
As he remembers, when his young friends told him to quit studying and enjoy life and summer more, «I thought, but maybe I enjoy doing this more than you; it’s my world”.
And his world begins every day around 9.30 in the morning. After a scant breakfast of bread with oil and garlic and a decaf drink, he starts “painting, writing or reviewing chapters” until lunchtime. After an hour’s nap, he continues painting or writing until in the afternoon he goes to a bar in the Center to chat, and two of those afternoons a week, a gathering with friends “in which we mainly talk about cinema”.
On the way back, dinner and television, starting at 10 at night, “because everything that is political does not matter to me.” He almost always takes the opportunity to watch one or two classic films, until 1.30 in the morning. «The other day I saw the first version, the French one, of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac‘”, remember.
This is how his days go by and as he details, his inspiration does not run out. “Right now I’m writing a lot,” she says.
Victory Corner
When asked about the fate of his paintings, Paco Moreno explains that He would like to donate his work to Rincón de la Victoria, where he spent his childhood until he was 8 years old and where his family is buried. Mayor, Francis Saladoknows the proposal “and says he is delighted,” says the artist, currently embarking on paintings with religious themes and a modern air.
At 91, constant and creative, he continues to enjoy life while remembering when, doing military service with the ghouls, he sat on the floor of the crowded Portillo bus, an unusual gesture at the time. “I have been a totally free person,” she remarks with a smile.
