Poets are liars

Ricardo Blanco’s Blog

• Fists held high in Mexico: Juan Villoro and ‘El puño en alto’
  The earthquake in central Mexico has produced startling and heartrending images, but perhaps none so powerful as those of rescue workers poised with fists held high – the sign for silence – so that any sounds from the rubble and ruins might be heard. Yesterday the writer Juan Villoro published a poem in the Reforma […]
• And then, everyone leaves  . . .
    On Tuesday, after all the poetry and talk was done, we were taken to see a Uruguayan folk dance group of superior talents: in the second half of the show the men produced these steel balls called boleadoras (I forget how, if at all, they relate to any aspect of cattle husbandry) and whizzed […]
• An evening walk to the Rio San José, with dogs
                         
• San José de Mayo
  A cold evening: walking in this strange amber light towards the theatre in San José’s main square. Everything seems to happen in slow motion here. Even the dogs are pensioners, shuffling arthritically down the pavement; they make some effort to accompany you on your way before giving up and slumping to the ground. I want […]
• Confabulations
  One of the things that delights me about the work of John Berger is that you can dip in at random and find something that provides context to almost anything you care to name. This morning I try the trick with Confabulations, a gathering from his late notebooks published last year: ‘What has prompted me […]
• River Crossing
  So, we were just on Santa Fe (the main thoroughfare connecting Palermo to the centre of Buenos Aires) trying to hail a taxi, when these young people, on the way back from a night out – or rather, still on a night out – at 7.15 in the morning, approached Pedro and me as we […]
• Night Bus
  Before leaving Valdivia, I am able to take a final walk down to the river, where the pleasure boat Neptuno is tied up to the dock, guarded by a pair of old dogs who bark selectively at passers-by. The light is magical after a cold, sunny day.  The overnight bus from Valdivia to Santiago covers 850 […]
• Far South, foul weather
  In the south of Chile, early September means late winter, and the weather is cold and damp. This comes as a shock to the system, if your body still thinks it’s summer. Driving from the airport into Valdivia, the fields and surrounding woods are draped in mist, and the melancholy that I described on the […]
• Faded passport
  When I check in for my flight to Santiago at Buenos Aires aeroparque, the young woman at the Aerolineas Argentinas desk, who I assume must be new to the job, stares long and hard at the cover of my passport. She screws up her face. I can tell she doesn’t like what she sees. Immediately […]
• Medialunas
  For any visitor to Buenos Aires, the first thing to address is the breakfast medialunas issue.  These delightful creations (like croissants, but sweeter and more doughy) are placed in front of you, or find a way of leaping onto your plate – accompanied by an individual portion of dulce de leche –  and they look […]