Mallorca, Ana María Matute's refuge

PalmShe was one of the most distinctive voices in Spanish-language literature—still very much alive today—and won the most prestigious awards in a time that was much more difficult for women than it is today. She also spent a few months as a guest of Mallorca, where she set her life on the island. First memory, the novel that won her the Nadal Prize and one of her favorites, according to her own admission. We remember Ana María Matute on the 100th anniversary of her birth (July 26, 1925).

Ana María Matute was born in Barcelona to a Catalan father—"a true Mediterranean," she said—and a mother from La Rioja. Her imagination was nourished by two essential landscapes: the forest of Mansilla de la Sierra, the village of her maternal family, where she spent the summer, and the sea that she glimpsed from her home in Barcelona, before the boom urban planning. They lived half the year in Madrid and the other half in the Catalan capital, so they were nowhere near it.

Despite developing her literary career in Spanish, Matute emphasized in an interview with Geraldine C. Nichols that she spoke Catalan, and liked it a lot. In another interview—in Spanish—she suddenly used a Catalan word: "deslumbradas" (dazzled), to express the effect that the stories she told them had on her nieces. When she was nominated for the Nobel Prize, she said: "I would be delighted if they awarded it to a writer in the Catalan language."

A decisive episode in her life was her marriage to Ramón Goicoechea in 1952. Later, Matute would refer to him as the Bad OneIn 1954, his only son, Juan Pablo, was born. That same year, Matute obtained with Small theater The Planeta Prize, which wasn't as famous as it is now. In fact, it had only started two years earlier. Now, the idea of women writers gaining access to a pantheon previously reserved only for men clearly didn't sit well with some. "An inevitable evil: women continue to win literary prizes," headlined one newspaper. "Against all expectations, a woman has now won (against important men)," lamented another.

Cela Conde's Comics

Towards the beginning of the 1960s, the couple came to Mallorca with their son. They settled in Portopí. According to Jorge de Cascante, their financial situation was very tight: the only income was what she earned from her writing. One afternoon, upon returning from the street, the young writer found that her husband had sold the typewriter, the tool with which they earned a living. That was the end of it.

'El Malo' returned to the Peninsula with their son, and she found herself stranded in Mallorca and penniless. It was then—as Matute recounted in the magazine— Magazine–, when the future Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela, who had been living in Mallorca for 35 years at the time, appeared as a kind of good Samaritan. He and his wife, Charo Conde, dutifully paid the accommodation bill—6,000 pesetas at the time, a respectable sum—and then invited Matute to live with them in their home.

Matute and Cela had met at the legendary gatherings at the Café Gijón in Madrid, and it was the beginning of a good friendship. They admired each other. Matute understood that the Galician's novel Pascual Duarte's family had been "a ray of light in the darkness" of the post-war period. For his part, Cela, having to give "only one name" of a Spanish writer comparable to the authors of the boom Ibero-American, gave Ana María Matute the "extraordinary writer" award – in an interview on Spanish Television.

Cela and Matute maintained a good understanding throughout the time. Many years later, when they met again at a Primavera Novel Prize luncheon, the author of The hive reminded Marisol, Juan Pablo's wife: "I held your husband in my arms and he was tiny."

The author ofForgotten King Gudú She spent three months at the Cela couple's house in Palma, "sheltered like a stray cat," as she put it, in the company of other prominent authors, such as Blas de Otero and José Manuel Caballero Bonald—a close collaborator of the Galician author. A strong connection developed with Caballero Bonald. They shared issues of the comic. Tom Thumb, which they borrowed from young Camilo José Cela Conde, the future professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. They particularly liked the stories about the Cebolleta family, and in particular the expression "Oh, what an Asian luxury!", which these characters often used. When they both won the Cervantes Prize many years later, they remembered that private Mallorcan joke to congratulate each other: "Oh, what an Asian luxury!"

At Can Cela—on what was then called Carrer de Bosc—Matute also had the opportunity to read some of his own texts, at those evenings that brought together writers in Spanish and Catalan. Another of the participants was Llorenç Villalonga, so it seems likely that the two knew each other at that time.

Chuetas, smuggling, and possession

The 'flamenco dancer' the Chunga He also passed through the Cela galaxy in Mallorca – the one from the time of the magazine Son Armadans Papers. According to what the Galician Nobel Prize winner told Miguel Signes, Chunga "spent hours sitting on the floor spelling" The silly children", a collection of stories by Matute. The truth is that the artist could barely read. But he liked the title. In that same conversation, Cela also praised his protégé: "She's an extraordinary novelist. The most important writer in Spain today."

Ana María Matute must have already known Mallorca quite well before, to set the scene on the island First memory, the novel with which she won the Nadal Prize in 1959, surely the most prestigious award in the Spanish language at the time. The protagonists are two teenage cousins, Borja and Matia—some points in common with the author are evident—who become refugees on the island during the terrible period of the Civil War. "Perhaps First memory is among those I like the most," she said of her books.

At no point does the author explicitly state that the setting of her story is Mallorca. But, from the beginning, the references indicate that this island, seemingly far from the front line of combat, cannot be any other. the rest of the Mallorcans as the only descendants of the converted Jews, and systematically discriminated against to this day. "Disgusting chueta," says a character. "Judaicos" represent a living contradiction: descendants of a persecuted minority who become repressors in the service of the new regime. The reference to the Jews is clearly present in the story: in the old, deserted town, a square bears their name, recalling the burnings of the past. The same lineage as the protagonist-narrator of the Béarn by Lorenzo Villalonga. And he's also a handsome man, with a singular charm. The lord of the Son Major estate, like Toni de Béarn, is surrounded by a certain demonic legend. However, his eagerness to travel nonstop from island to island might make us think, perhaps, of Archduke Ludwig Salvator. Another character surrounded by legend.

Of course, smuggling is present, with the café at 'Es Mariné'—in the port—representing the epicenter of a criminal activity, yes, but tolerated by all, who turn a blind eye: "Everyone knew that Es Mariné and a few of those who went to eat at that terrace were involved in smuggling." The smugglers, of course, use the caves provided by the island's geology.

Some of the protagonist's observations could correspond to the author's own surprise. There are no rivers on the island. The island's flowers "were something unusual." "I'd never seen flowers so large or of such a bright color." The bread is "insipid," lacking salt, which is shocking to those who have come from outside.

It is possible that Matute met her second man, Julio Brocard, in Mallorca, whom she called the Good and the great love of her life. He died in 1990. She died in 2014. It seems that the island fascination endured. When Gazarian-Gautier asked her what shape "the map of her magical territory" would be, Ana María Matute replied: "An island. Of course it would be an island."

Information prepared fromThe book by Ana María Matute Jorge de Cascante (Blackie Books), Ana María Matute. The Voice of Silence by Marie-Lise Gazarian-Gautier (Espasa), Xavi Ayén's interview with the writer in the magazine Magazine and texts by Gabriel Ferret and Fernando González.