Sílvia Subirós i Mercader: "My father has never taken a vacation, not a single day off, and the verb 'to rest' is not part of his vocabulary"

BarcelonaI interview Sílvia Subirós i Mercader near the office where she works, in Barcelona. She tells me that her son is three years old, his name is Guiu, and between work and family, she has snatched time from time to write the biography of her grandfather, Josep Mercader. The creator of the Motel (Cal·lígraf). It is a book like no one has ever written it because she has been able to access unpublished material: recipes dictated by word of mouth by her grandfather and especially the films he had recorded. A large part of this material was already used for the documentary La cuina dels homes. In the book, there is the information that she could not fit in.

The connection with grandpa is through movies. He recorded; you too.

— First I decided to make the documentary, and then the Cal·lígraf publishing house in Figueres commissioned me. I accepted, but I told them from the outset that I wouldn't write a common biography, that I wanted to extend the perspective I had already given when I made the video. When they told me, I had just had my son, then I started working on the TV3 series Women in struggle. When I finished it, I got down to it.

Has it been laborious to put all the documentation in order?

— Yes, because I had a lot of varied material. I spoke again with some people who knew him to see if I could pull more threads. I realized I had left a lot of material out of the video, and I've picked it up again.

Did only the older siblings know grandpa?

— Albert and Jordi, yes, are only fifteen months apart: they remember very little about their grandfather. They must have been 3 and 2 years old. Despite this, their grandfather has been very present. The four siblings have grown up with his presence despite being dead. As if we were constantly paying him homage, but it wasn't that either.

Continuing the Motel Empordà and l'Almadrava was remembering it.

— Of course. He had them both built. He built the Motel with two partners, whose shares he later bought out. The initiative was the grandfather's, he knew it was a good time to do something in Figueres.

There is that image you explain of the road from France near Figueres full of cars, stopped, and from the Motel coming out waiters serving sandwiches, food.

— The grandfather knew Figueres well, he had worked at the Hotel Duran. His wife was also from the city. He had a clear idea of how he wanted it and also the name, Motel, which the dictatorship did not accept. At first it had to be called Hotel Ampurdán.

Josep Mercader was so modern that even the name Motel was groundbreaking...

— The spaces are still as he designed them. Later he bought the land to build the Almadrava Hotel, in Roses. His wife dies in 1967, and the Almadrava opens in 1969.

In the book you say that then he throws himself into work and that everyone found it normal.

— The grandmother died very young... In the family, we have several ideas why she bought those plots of land in Roses. Either because it was near Cadaqués, her hometown, or because she saw that Roses would have a tourist boom. Or for both reasons. The space was and is wonderful. It's curious that she didn't think of doing anything in Cadaqués; in 1969 it probably wasn't as it is now. The road wasn't like it is now. And in l'Almadrava it wasn't easy either, the water didn't reach there, they had constant power outages.

Your father, Jaume Subirós, has been in charge of the two hotels for forty-seven years.

— And like his grandfather, he doesn't separate work from life. They are the same. The father makes four trips a day between the Motel and l'Almadrava. He starts breakfasts at Almadrava. Then, lunches at Motel. And returns for dinners at Almadrava. He lives at Motel. When I was little, I used to do even more. Father doesn't know what a holiday or a weekend is. He works them all.

Where did the children live?

— In the two towns, depending on the year. From October to April, in Figueres. From April to October, in Roses. We went to school in Roses. Dad took us there. He has always liked to drive. Now my parents live at the Motel, in Figueres. When my little brother, Lluís, was born, they converted the top floor into an apartment. Then they moved the laundry room from the top floor to the ground floor. That's where I grew up, and where my parents live now. In Almadrava we lived in a small house outside the hotel. It's still there. Lluís and Albert live there now.

What do you think of this hotelier life?

— When I was little, I thought everyone lived like this: half a year in different towns, which had hotels and restaurants. We had a good time. We got along with all the workers. Everyone took care of me. We got along with the customers, especially those my age. We formed a group of boys and girls, who wandered around there. It was a lot of fun. My mother also worked in the hotels.

When your grandfather died, your father was very young.

— He was 30 years old when his father-in-law died, and he finds himself with two hotels. He had started working there at 11 years old. He had two small children, and he takes charge of everything. My aunt was very young; I think she was 18 years old. El Motel and l’Almadrava were two moral responsibilities.

You also start working on it at a young age.

— Like all my brothers. We were there, and they ended up telling you: "Do this, do that." I worked at the bar, in the restaurant, by the pool, at reception for a long time, I also took care of the luggage. I went to all the areas where needed, but my brothers were made to rotate so they would know the dining room and the kitchen. Not me. I went directly to the places where needed, and the kitchen was never one of them. We never even talked about it. It was different times. The kitchen was very hard. My father never even considered that I would go through the kitchen. Therefore, I don't hold anything against him, I just asked him if he had ever considered it.

What did he/she/it answer you?

— He said: "How come not?" He was shocked. He told me he thought it would be good for me to be at reception to practice languages. There was no malice. Besides, my father is one of the most feminist men I know. And modern. It's not a reproach I'm making, but I wanted to make visible a situation that was normalized: women didn't go into the kitchen.

You didn't want to go into the kitchen either?

— They didn't offer it to me, nor did I go. Not to my mother either. I also tell you that I, as a teenager, wanted to get out of there. So I suppose if I had wanted to, I could have dedicated myself to cooking. If I had told them: "I want to go in", my father would have answered me that go ahead.

You wanted to study something else.

— I started with economics, but I switched to filmmaking and then to literary theory and comparative literature. And I also did a master's degree in documentaries.

Your three brothers, Albert, Jordi, and Lluís, have stayed at the two hotels. Your father always says one sentence about you: "He is not with us, but he is not against us".

— [River] The father is very dear. He is the engine of both hotels, an authentic man, and the experience of eating at the Motel and Almadrava is also authentic. It’s not one of those quick consumption ones, where you take a photo and post it on Instagram. It’s a complete experience. The father has managed to maintain a space, a way of doing things, people feel good there and they return. You won’t find a place like the Motel or like Almadrava. It’s not just about eating well, but about feeling very good there. The service provided by the brothers and the father is very important. In the end, the father has been in charge of both hotels for many more years than the grandfather. The grandfather was only there for about fifteen years due to a heart attack. He was there from 1961 to 1979. And I must say that our parents have given us the freedom to do as we please.

The life of your parents is the Motel and the Almadrava.

— That's why my father has never taken holidays, not even a day off, and the verb to rest is not part of his vocabulary. In fact, I only remember two family trips: one when my brother Lluís hadn't been born yet, and the second one that Lluís and I took with our parents. The two older brothers didn't go on it with us anymore because they were teenagers and didn't want to come. Only two trips with our parents in our entire lives.