“Women writers are invading everything; how long it takes us!”, launched Bárbara Jacobs

There as you see it, writers are sometimes sincere. Barbara Jacobs smiled between mischievous and shy after her statement, which she came to understand when referring to her two collections of stories.

One is the Anthology of the sad story, made in 1997 with Augusto Monterroso (1921-2003), her first husband: I don’t know how I dared, but there it is; Tito was, as you know, very witty, to say the least, and the fact that he invited me to collaborate on a book was great..

From the other, The best Mexican stories, of 2001, he assured that that’s the bottom line, they are (the stories) that I would really choose and, therefore, it is one of those times in which, she emphasized, she has been sincere.

The writer, poet, essayist, translator and columnist, collaborator of The Day, She received a tribute on Wednesday night at the Casa Universitaria del Libro (Casul), of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), after donating all of her published work to the Women’s Library of that institution.

With nearly 25 titles, her name joined that of Elena Poniatowska, Cristina Pacheco, Margo Glantz, Sara Sefchovich and Elsa Cross, to mention some of the authors who have participated in this initiative promoted three years ago by that university body. through which it is proposed to bring together the work of Hispanic creators and make them available to students, readers and researchers for consultation and reading.

–What does this donation and being part of such a unique project mean to you? –She asked Bárbara Jacobs (Mexico City, 1947) in an interview before the tribute.

–It’s fantastic, almost incredible, when they invited me I thought they had made a mistake, but they insisted, and well, there are now all my books; I am well placed: I am a woman and I am a writer, and the colleagues who are already here are my friends, I love them and admire them all.

–Has literature changed in some way with the increasing presence of women in it?

–Well, we are invading the field, taking possession. All the companions that have already appeared in this collection are first class. What can I say! It’s very nice; I feel very proud to be in that group. Of course we have broken up. How long they last!

–Has having all your books together like now allowed you to notice something about your journey through literary life?

–Although I must say that I have advanced, if I read my first book, I see it very well; Of course I wouldn’t write it again. Each of my books are different and each one has its place both in the literary world and in the readers. There are those who prefer some and others; That’s why I have so many, to please many people.

–Do you maintain the same motivations or incentives to write today as in your beginnings?

–I have always been a rather isolated person, it is not that I have not had friends since primary school, but they themselves will tell you that I was the quietest, the most reserved, and that is how I have continued; I’m surprised they still call me. That is why literature has been my interlocutor, my refuge, my best means of communication, my everything.

My journal is my way of talking to myself. There is a cabinet at home full of my diaries, there are many of them; They all have a date; I don’t dare read them, but someone will one day. I have never thought about publishing them.

Barbara Jacobs adds that her diary has been an unstoppable company and that she decided to wear it from a very young age precisely because it is an unsociable personand has always had it as a resource.

“I started it in Montreal, when I was about 12 years old, but, formally, there are all my notebooks since 1964. It has not been inspiration for my books, but rather I talk to him or ask his permission; I tell him: ‘if you see that I am going to water it, please, give me water.’”

Although at the time he stated that his book The good company It was his literary testamentthe writer now assumed that the next one I write, if I finish itwill also fulfill that function.

I always assume that the book I am writing is going to be the last, and now I am getting closer and closer to believing in what I say myself, but I hope I also write the next one.

The author of The dead leaves, Twelve stories against y days of your life announced that in May a book of short literary essays will be published, titled From the hand to the light, and that he has another one finished, but that he has not delivered, because It’s more fun and attractive, and I’m afraid it will push aside to the one who is about to appear. Is called There hasn’t been or ever will be a better gypsy, like the Spanish copla, he clarified, singing that melody.

Although in the interview he reserved the details of the book on which he is currently working, because It’s a secret, but it already has a title and some advanced pagesduring the tribute the author gave more details.

I think everything I have written has been autobiographical, but this is clearly an autobiography, kind of strange, but it is what it is, and I’m already a few pages in, and, if I don’t die, maybe I’ll finish it, well almost to the end , because I won’t be able to do it. Let’s see who I entrust it to; I would love for it to be your turn at the endhe told the writer Alberto Ruy Sánchez, his friend and editor, who participated in that tribute alongside Guadalupe Alonso, director of Casul.