These days, Puigdemont has been compared to various characters from the history of escapism, such as Houdini. He reminds me more of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland: Smiling, he appears and disappears at will, disconcerting Alice or saving her from decapitation, always in unexpected ways. Salvador Illa, a philosopher with a background in politics, has enormous challenges, including dealing with this cat, whose movements seem to always be ahead of him. I hope that, in a political climate more suited to Machiavelli than Plato, Illa does not end up like the latter when he travelled to Syracuse with the noble intention of transforming a tyranny into a kingdom of peace and justice. Good luck, Salvador.
Santiago Lamas. The Escorial (Madrid)
Goodbye, Gena
Gena Rowlands has died. I don’t know what to write about her, as much as I have written about her. She was one of the best actresses in the world. No one has surpassed her performance in Opening Night. That constant state of helplessness. That fragility. That drunkenness almost the entire film, so well played; and with it reaching the end of the performance within the film. Even adoring extraordinary actresses, no one has managed to get there. Gena, in minor films and in great performances, always enormous in beauty and talent. She has died at the age of 94, lost in her memory. With that beauty, with that talent, with that intelligence.
Ovidio Parades Alvarez. Oviedo
Art as an antidote
Art has the ability to embrace the shadows. In those moments when moral loneliness sneaks through the cracks of the soul, art whispers to us that we are not so alone. A film, a poem, a song… all are witnesses that someone has felt the same. There are works that give us refuge; they are a bridge to other souls who have walked the same path of doubts and silences. They remind us that we are part of a constellation of sentient beings who find understanding in reflection, in beauty a relief, even if ephemeral, from the complexity of existence.
Marta Gonzalez. Valencia
A horn for pedestrians
Many cyclists will tell you that the bike lane is sacred, as it is for exclusive use. And the sidewalks? They are for pedestrian use. If a pedestrian invades the bike lane, a bell will immediately ring to warn the cyclist of the infraction, even though he knows that when the lane ends, he will commit various infractions (sidewalks, walking areas…). Will we pedestrians have to get a horn?
Francisco Garcia Castro. Estepona (Malaga)
Exotic travels
I’m travelling on another continent and I can’t take three steps without hearing words in Spanish; it seems that all Spaniards have had the same idea. I feel somewhat disenchanted with a panorama that has lost all trace of exoticism and mystery: we all go to the same places taking the same photos, like a production line. And all to come back, tell some funny, though insignificant, anecdote, and conclude by saying that “there’s no place like home”.
Ana Blazquez Jimenez. Malaga
