Emilio Aragón: “You don’t have to politicize everything, life is much more” | Culture

For Spain it is Emilio Aragón (Havana, 65 years old). For his grandchildren, Captain Bebo. The best storyteller on the face of the earth. And a special grandfather because he is also a child. With new shoes and the enthusiasm intact. Before the interview, he comes across several ―newly printed― copies of his first adventure book on a shelf and his eyes twinkle. “Take a photo of me for my grandchildren! “Nothing has moved me as much in recent years,” he says of Telmo Wolf. The Captain’s Mystery (Alfaguara). And he has done almost everything in life: musician, producer, screenwriter, actor, businessman, clown, film director, presenter… And what’s left? Time is short. For this reason, he gets up from a table if they start talking about politics, he does not use social networks and he barely watches television. When will you start writing a novel for adult audiences? “When I grow up,” he says with a mocking smile.

Ask. In the book, she gives this advice to her grandchildren: “What defines us is the love we give and receive. Not the money or the trophies we win.” How did you learn this lesson?

Answer. Thanks to my mother (Rita Violeta Álvarez), who has been unconditional, also for love. Sometimes we forget because life is not a bed of roses and we learn the hard way. At thirty years old I worked a lot and missed many moments with my children, but it is never too late to try to recover them with the grandchildren.

Q. Precisely Telmo Wolf It is born from the adventures he tells them before going to sleep. The character of Captain Bebo is you.

R. Yes, but I have tried to write as if I were writing to an adult, to the child within us all. It is a novel that children can pass on to their parents. I don’t know how to write from anywhere other than from the heart and, from time to time, I’m a bit lazy, but I wanted to tell a fast-paced story to compete against social networks and video games, something that is not easy.

“I have written this adventure book to the child that every adult carries inside.”

Q. How have you managed to find the balance between vocation and personal life?

R. I am, as the Americans say, a early bird (early bird). I wake up very early, I exercise, I listen to music. And then I start writing, working or studying until lunchtime. I always try to reserve the afternoon for my family.

Q. And in the time of family doctor and as a producer at Globomedia?

R. That stage was crazy. In the late ’90s, I got off the train and we had to move to Boston. I realized that I couldn’t, that I was putting work before other things, family and also artistic issues that seemed more important and necessary to me.

Q. Did you come to this conclusion alone?

R. No, I came because I suffered from anxiety. It was the best idea I’ve ever had. I grew my beard long, didn’t watch any television and started studying Composition, Conducting and History. Here I couldn’t go out on the streets and it helped me a lot that no one in the United States knew me.

Q. He defines himself as “a musician who has done other things.” If you could start from scratch, would you have focused entirely on music?

R. Miguel Roa, the orchestra director, told me: “Leave all this now! Television, scripts… And focus on the music.” And I answered: “What more would I like!” I am satisfied with the professional life I have had, but you always have the question of “what if”. What if I had suddenly gone to study jazz at the Juilliard school when I was 18? Where would I be?

Q. What’s wrong with being good at so many things?

R. I’m not good at so many things.

Q. Well…

R. No, it is not false modesty. People see success, but not all the failures behind it and there are many along the way. Many things that have not worked or have worked half way.

“People see success, but not all the failures behind it.”

Q. Why do you refuse to be on social networks?

R. Because I don’t have time. I have a secret Instagram account where I follow musicians, chefs and things about books.

Q. Like Queen Letizia.

R. Yes (laughs). I use it to see and I limit my time, I try to spend only 15 minutes. In the end, you have to narrow it down well because we receive too much information and stimuli. Also, it is a problem that children have. Now I have started meditating to cleanse my mind.

Q. Are you concerned about how artificial intelligence is affecting art?

R. It’s scary. I don’t know much about the subject and I’ve always been very bad at technology, but I can’t imagine that a machine can compose. There will come a time when you will have to verify if something is made by a person or not. I don’t have the capacity to see how far it can go.

“I don’t have time for social media, but I have a secret Instagram account.”

Q. Don’t have time to watch TV either?

R. I only watch fiction, series and movies, and sports. I’m interested in knowing what is being written and how, but the problem with dedicating yourself to this is that when you see something you look at it from a critical point of view.

Q. And nothing open?

R. It’s just that, physically, I don’t have time. Although if they recommend an interview or forward me a link, I will see it promptly.

Q. Why has Broncano connected with older people?

R. One of its great virtues is that it is real. He is like that, very direct. And this is important in everything you do. In television, you don’t know what will work and what won’t. The public is sovereign and that is the fun of this job. To connect, chemistry and truth are essential.

“One of the great virtues of Broncano is that he is truly, very direct.”

Q. Is it difficult to be moderate and stay in a neutral zone?

R. Very complicated. I believe that everything should not be politicized and that life is much more than politics. It is true that we have to be attentive to what is happening, but it cannot become the axis of our lives. In my day to day life I want to talk about music, literature, the things that have happened to my grandchildren at school. And not from what one politician or another has said. There is a lot of tension and it has become toxic.

Q. He will also be touring Spain until April 2025 directing a classic of musicals, Godspellalong with Antonio Banderas.

R. It was the first musical comedy I saw when I arrived in Spain at the age of 14 and it marked me. Like the book, it is also a work for all audiences, adults and children.

Q. One of the themes that appears in the novel is bullying. Because?

R. I am very sensitive to the issue. In my time, it only happened in the schoolyard, but today it also extends to social networks. Children are under brutal pressure.

Q. They pick on Telmo, the protagonist, for having dyslexia.

R. Yes, I experience it in my family because we have members with dyslexia. When children learn that people like Steve Jobs or great artists were dyslexic, it is not a problem. However, ignorance leads to these terrible situations.

Q. Many artists go through traumatic childhoods. Was yours happy?

R. Yes, very fantasy, nurtured by my father (Emilio Aragón, Miliki). I wrote at home sketches and witnessed it all. I accompanied him to the performances, I was in the dressing room, on the stage, on the television sets… The child I was is continually in my DNA because my father did not treat me as if I were one, he spoke to me like an adult, from you to you. I have always had a lot of fun and I continue to have fun. In this job, if you don’t have fun, don’t do it.

Q. Do you spoil your grandchildren a lot?

R. Whenever I can, everything they let me do (laughs).

Q. When a grandparent dies, you stop being a child…

R. Without a doubt, it is a special relationship. When I held my first grandson in my arms next to my daughter I couldn’t even speak. I really like this phrase: “One actually dies three times. The first when you physically die, the second when you are buried, and the third when someone names you for the last time.” It is the grandchildren who truly keep the grandfather’s name, his memory, alive.