This...Dear and very attractive Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni:
Allow me to address you from this newspaper to make a confession—and, incidentally, to the readers. I know you are at the Guadalajara Book Fair in Mexico, where you have announced the (very laudable) initiative called Narrating Barcelona, which is a literary residency for Latin American authors with an endowment of 80,000 euros (which is not a changaYour city council is offering three months in the city in exchange for a book based on the experience. Some envious people—and provincial ones at that—have attacked you with the flimsy excuse that Catalans deserve it too. Pay them no mind.
What I really wanted to confess is that I lied. cheI am Latin American. Specifically, Argentinian, and if I have dedicated all these years to writing novels and short stories in Catalan, it has been due to cultural appropriation. It's time I took off the mask. idiotOh, sorry. It's just that sometimes I slip into idioms and expressions from my native Buenos Aires.
Don't think I'm doing this for the grant. Although—I won't lie to you—a few days ago I had a gig at the Finestres bookstore with my friend Gurt and my friend Espasa, and the hotel cost us more than we were charging. So, having a place to sleep and drink in would be perfect. Which, by the way, while I'm at it: my friend Gurt and my friend Espasa, but also my friend Alzamora, my friend El Hachmi, my friend Soler, my friend Bosch, and my friend Nopca, I think they're all liars, just like me. They're all more Latin American than Shakira.
We'll talk about the details when I get back from the continent of my heart. Where would the place be? Is it downtown? How many rooms does it have?
Anyway, kidI'll leave it, it must have workContact us at the same ARA.
