The universal Paris of Ramón Chao

Paris It was during part of the 20th century the capital of culture in Spanish and no one sums up that era better than Ramon Chao. RNE documents In this chapter, follow the footsteps of this Galician and Hispanic American journalist who died in 2018.

Director of the Spanish service Radio France International; correspondent of Triumph; literary critic in The world; critic of the world in The diplomatic worldRamón Chao mastered the basic arts of the trade: asking questions and telling stories.

Thanks to his good character, friendships and contacts, Ramón Chao became an excellent animator of the Hispanic cultural and political world that met in Paris.

Although in his Galician beginnings everything seemed to indicate that his life was going to be different. A child prodigy of the piano thanks, among other gifts, to having absolute pitch, it seemed that he could make a career as a concert pianist, but a succession of anecdotes changed the course of his life to direct him towards the French capital.

Because his anecdotes are legendary, and Ramón ended up drawing a wonderful map of his time: alongside him will appear names as prominent and disparate as Manuel Fraga, Santiago Carrillo, Gabriel García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier, Juan Carlos Onetti, Mario Vargas Llosa, Paco Ibáñez , Antonio Saura, Luis Buñuel.

In his literary work, marked by an autobiographical tone, titles such as After Franco, Spain, Lake Como, Conversations with Alejo Carpentier, A possible Onetti, Priscilian of Compostela o The Black Hand in Colombia: a train of ice and fire.

But, in addition, Ramón is also the father of Antoine y Manu Chaocreators of the group Black Hand. Musicians with outstanding artistic careers, whose work is better understood by knowing the environment in which they grew up.

Ramón Chao always maintained deep political convictions and in one of his last vital stages he was going to join the movement anti-globalization. With his close friend Ignacio Ramonetdirector of The diplomatic worldwill contribute to the celebration of the Porto Alegre World Social Foruman alternative to the economic and liberal dynamics imposed by the markets.

This documentary, made halfway between Paris, Madrid and Vilalba (his hometown), recovers his figure and his work through the voice of Ramón Chao himself and the testimonies of his son Antoineand the journalists Ignacio Ramonet, Juan Cruz y Moncho Paz. With a script by Antonio Delgado, The universal Paris of Ramón Chao It is also a sound fresco of a time when all exiles and cultures in Spanish intersected in the French capital.

RNE documents It is broadcast on Fridays, from 11 p.m. to 12 p.m., on Radio Nacional.