A fondo

In deep

Personaje
Character

PILAR DEL RO
Periodista, escritora y compaera de Jos Saramago

Saldrn ms buenos de esta visita

Por Syra Jimnez-Pajarero Arias / http://camino-syra.blogspot.com Cuando Jos Saramago vio terminada la biblioteca de su hogar, se emocion. Tanta gente, dijo. Para l cada libro contena una persona. Y qu es una biblioteca entonces, sino un recinto habitado por personas que nos llaman para que las miremos? Desde el 18 de marzo, A Casa, el sitio donde Saramago pas buena parte de su tiempo escribiendo y leyendo, est abierta a la ciudadana. Nos lo cuenta Pilar del Ro. La construccin de la biblioteca data de 2007, pero ya ha sido testigo de hechos muy significativos. Imaginaban la importancia que tendra como punto de encuentro? No, nunca pude imaginar este futuro. Lo que nosotros pensbamos era pasar muchas tardes aqu sentados, leyendo, que nuestra vejez sera plcida, rodeados de libros, escribiendo, viendo llegar la noche y encontrar que el da haba sido bueno. No pudimos conseguirlo: la muerte no nos dej disfrutar de un espacio que ahora, espero, muchos podrn gozar en sus visitas. Entendern mejor todo, desde los sentimientos humanos a la generosidad sin lmites de Jos Saramago. Cundo decidieron convertir en tangible un patrimonio que supone un regalo a la cultura universal pero indiscutiblemente a la isla de Lanzarote? La decisin definitiva la tom en un viaje a Brasil, cuando la tripulacin portuguesa de un avin portugus relacion de forma emocionante Saramago y Lanzarote. Es patrimonio de Lanzarote, de Canarias y de Espaa, pero a nadie le ha costado un cntimo: ni a Lanzarote, ni a Canarias ni a Espaa. Saramago ofrece Lanzarote a quien quiera venir. No es mi tierra, es tierra ma deca. Saldrn ms buenos de esta visita porque entendern la dimensin de una vida a travs no solo de los libros, sino de una forma de estar en el mundo. Para facilitar la visita de la Casa-Museo usted ha redactado una gua en espaol titulada Una casa hecha de libros, como la defini Saramago. Deseara haber incluido algn apartado ms? No: cada lector saldr de A Casa con su propia experiencia. Informo, pero no conduzco. Las personas nobles, que son las que visitan estos lugares sencillos e ntimos, sacarn sus conclusiones. Otras, que no vendrn nunca, ya las tienen tomadas. Conviene saber que hay gente en Lanzarote que encuentra mal que se haya abierto este complejo. Conviene que todos sepamos que hay personas que aunque estn en los bares y hablen, estn muertas, no son capaces de ver ni lo elemental. Afortunadamente son pocas, aunque hacen ruido. En la tienda se pueden adquirir ejemplares de las obras del escritor en varios idiomas, postales, etc. Si editara una gua con recomendaciones de lectura para los visitantes, qu textos le seran absolutamente imprescindibles? Depende del lector y del momento del lector. No me siento capaz de generalizar. Puedo decir que en estos momentos recomiendo leer Ensayo sobre la lucidez. Me parece que Jos Saramago describe, de forma adelantada, lo que est pasando en el mundo, el valor de los ciudadanos, la desafeccin de la poltica en el mundo occidental, con unos niveles de abstencin enormes, la emergencia de movimientos sociales en frica Para conocer a Saramago, cualquier libro est bien. Al principio cuesta, porque Saramago no da la lectura masticada, pero cuando se le pilla el tranquillo uno entiende que el autor le ha respetado, ha dejado que sea el lector el que ponga la respiracin al libro. Cmo fue la experiencia del rodaje de Jos y Pilar con Miguel Gonalves? Muy buena: ellos, los cineastas, no interfirieron en nuestra vida, nosotros tampoco en la de ellos. Al final qued un trabajo muy digno, bello y

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Gua de ocio y cultura Lanzarote - Mayo

Desea aadir algo ms? Un sueo de Saramago: que la biblioteca albergara a escritores de todo el mundo. Estamos buscando la frmula para poder invitar a escritores que vengan a Lanzarote a pasar varios meses, vivan en las dependencias que se dispongan y, como contrapartida por los meses que les ofreceremos, slo le pediremos que den una conferencia en Lanzarote y pongan que el libro fue escrito, en parte, en esta isla maravillosa. Mass Cultura agradece a la Presidenta de la Fundacin Saramago su colaboracin y el que cumpla el deseo que el Premio Nobel le confesara: Continuarme.

PILAR DEL RIO

In order to facilitate the visit of the House-Museum you have published the so-called Spanish guide A House made of books, as Saramago described it. Would you like to have included any other section? Not really: every reader will leave A Casa with his own experience. I inform them, but not drive them. Good people, who are the ones who visit these intimate and modest places, will draw their own conclusions. Others, that will not ever come, have already taken them. It is important to know that there are people in Lanzarote who disagree with the opening of this project. It is important that everyone knows that there are people who although they are in the bars and speak, they are dead, they are not able to see not even the basics. Fortunately, they are just a few, although they are quite noisy. The gift shop offers copies of Saramagos works in several languages, postcards, etc. If you would release a guide with reading recommendations for visitors, what texts would you consider absolutely essential? It strongly depends on the reader and the life stage of the aforementioned. I do not feel able to generalize. I can say that at these moments I would recommend reading Essay on lucidity. It seems to me that Jos Saramago describes, in a very advanced way, what is happening in the world nowadays, the value of the citizens, the disaffection of the policy in the Western world, with huge levels of abstention, the emergence of social movements in Africa... Although to get to know Saramago, any book is fine. At the beginning it can be hard, because Saramago does not make reading easy, but when you get it you understand that the author has respect you, has given you the chance to drive the book. How was the experience about shooting the film Jose and Pilar with Miguel Gonalves Mendes? Very good: the filmmakers did not interfere in our life, we neither in theirs. At the end it was a very positive, beautiful and fun work that will close the Festival de Guadalajara, in Mexico, the most important of its kind. We are all happy. It is an opening film, an author who allows to be portrayed. There is not an actor playing Saramago, is the same Saramago living, not acting in the film. Would you like to add something else? A dream of Saramago: that the library houses writers from all around the world. We are looking for the way to invite writers to spend several months writing in Lanzarote, to live on the premises and in return for the stay, we will only ask them to give a conference in Lanzarote and make a note saying that a part of the book was written on this wonderful island. Mass cultura thanks to the President of the Saramago Foundation for her collaboration and hopes she will accomplish the wish that the Nobel Prize confessed her: continue me.
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Journalist, writer and partner of Jos Saramago

Visitors will become better people after this visit

By Syra Jimnez-Pajarero Arias / http://Camino-Syra.blogspot.com When Jos Saramago saw the library of his home completed, he was thrilled. So many people... he said. For him, each book contained a pers on. And what is a library then, but a place inhabited by people demanding a visit? From March 18, A Casa, the place where Saramago spent much of his time reading, and writing is open to the public. Pilar del Ro tells us. The construction of the library dates from 2007, but it has already been witness of very significant facts. Did you guess the importance of the place as a meeting point? No, I could never imagine this future. What we hoped was to spend many evenings sitting here, reading, a peaceful old age surrounded by books, writing, watching the arrival of the evening and finding that the day had been good. But we could not get it: death did not allow us to enjoy the space that I hope now many others can enjoy in their visits. They will better understand everything from the human feelings to the unlimited generosity of Jos Saramago. When did you decided to make this project true? It is a gift to universal culture but unquestionably to the island of Lanzarote. I took the final decision in a trip to Brazil, when the Portuguese crew of a Portuguese aircraft related in a very exciting way the link between Saramago and Lanzarote. It is a heritage of Lanzarote, Canary Islands and Spain, but a costless heritage, neither to Lanzarote, nor to Canary

Gua de ocio y cultura Lanzarote - Mayo

Personaje / Character

divertido, que cerrar el Festival de Guadalajara, en Mxico, el ms importante del mbito espaol. Todos estamos contentos. Es una pelcula inaugural, un autor que se deja retratar. No es un actor haciendo de Saramago, es el mismo Saramago viviendo, que no actuando, en la pelcula.

Islands or Spain. Saramago offers Lanzarote to anyone who wants to come. It is not my land. It is the land of mine he said. People will become better from this visit because they will understand the dimension of his life not only through his books, but through his way of being in the world.