Serrat's eventful afternoon of success in Mexico

Guadalajara (Mexico)It's three in the afternoon in Guadalajara, Mexico. One hour until... Joan Manuel Serrat He's giving a talk at the Book Fair, and outside the room there are about a hundred people queuing. Inside, the chairs are almost full. A mother and daughter are chatting with two women about how much they admire the speaker. At one point, one of them mentions the surname "Serrat," and the others are taken aback: they thought the queue was for Richard Gere, who's speaking later. "That's why they said he was so handsome!" one of them points out. "Well, Serrat is very attractive too!" the older woman chimes in, and they all laugh. Gere's fans leave the queue, but there are still too many people: the organizers hold up a sign that saysCapacity is full"And there's a generalized 'Oh' that starts out denoting sadness and turns into bad temper.

Most of the chairs in the room are occupied by young people, which contrasts with the average age of the queue. In fact, the event is titled 'A Thousand Young People with Joan Manuel Serrat'. At four o'clock, the musician appears, and the musician appears in the background. A woman stands near a speaker to record the musician's answers. The adults stand to applaud him, and the young people do not. And the complaining voices from outside mix with the murmurs from inside, to the point that Serrat doesn't quite feel comfortable with the interviewer. 'Do you think in Catalan or in Spanish?' Taibo asks. 'What is a Catalan?' and the musician replies: 'I am a cantalanSuddenly, Serrat gets fed up with the noise: "This isn't my fault, good afternoon," he says, gets up, and leaves.

Thanks to the organization, silence falls and the star reappears. He ends up referring to the people who die, to a Europe that "doesn't behave in solidarity, but rather condemns many generous and humble immigrants," and also "finances countries like Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, which create concentration camps to contain these people," and he doesn't remember. In 1976 he went into exile in Mexico: "I couldn't travel to Spain because they had opened a legal case against me for slander against the head of state, and here President Echeverría wasn't letting anyone else in, but finally I was able to stay and I discovered the country." They ask why they should read poetry, and there's also room for football: "To be Catalan, are you already a Barça fan?" asks a boy wearing a Barça shirt. Serrat's response is negative: "The Prime Minister and the Mayor of Barcelona are Espanyol fans." And Serrat replies: "Don't worry: it will work out." The final ovation is unanimous, and the young people, this time, also rise to applaud. On the way out, fans of Joan Manuel Serrat and fans of Richard Gere mingle in the crowd.