«For me, the street here in Madrid has been an ordeal for many years; an ordeal of insults, death threats, some pushing, spitting…”, says Cristina Fallarás (Zaragoza, 1968), a journalist and writer who in 2012 became the first woman to win the Dashiell Hammett Award for the best black novel in Spanish for ‘ The Lost Girls’ Her new novel is ‘La Loca’ (Ediciones B), a dialogue “between today and the 16th century” in which the author recreates the life of a woman, the so-called Juana la Loca, who is the story of many This Thursday at 8 p.m., the “Writers in their Ink 2023” cycle, coordinated and presented by Lola Gracia, closes at the Salvador García Aguilar Library in Molina Fallarás speaks with THE TRUTH aboard the car that takes her to a television set -When are you in your sauce? -I’m in my sauce and in my ink when I’m writing. -The way it does? -I keep writing with my BIC pen and my school notebooks. From the moment I pull out the notebook and write, I feel in my element. – Has it always been like this? Well, a person gets older. [risas]…; I used to be in my element when I went out, went out for dinner, etc. But now I’m better at home, or with my pen and notebook, or when my friends come over and we celebrate like women are together. ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW «The so-called Juana la Loca was from Felipe el Hermoso to ‘pirri’ himself» – Are you tired of the street? – Oh, honey, a little yes. Keep one thing in mind: the street, here in Madrid, has been a trial for me for many years; an ordeal of insults, death threats, some shoving, spitting… Plus, I’ve stopped drinking and socializing. You take care of yourself in a different way and if you also manage to make your home a place where people like to come, that’s wonderful. And then, boy, that everything is so expensive to see who can go and eat happily, right? Therefore, when they say to me ‘shall we meet for dinner?’ I reply: ‘Great! Who brings the tortilla? Who brings the croquettes? I put the house’. -There are people who think you are a hard, cold woman. – Well, let them think about it, they don’t know me. I am a blessed bread. I think it has to do with a certain image I give on television. Now, for example, there’s a lot of talk about the emeritus king, and there’s a lot of talk about the mass graves of the Civil War and historical memory, and there’s a lot of talk against machismo, but when I started on television, it wasn’t normal to talk about these things to talk. When I thought about what things about Juan Carlos [I], or about the usual and constant sexist violence we endure, the contestants got full for me, they got furious with me. They attacked me and I, yes, when they attack me, I react. I’m a big supporter of peace, but when they attack you, you react. Women were raised to be quiet and I’m not going to be quiet. I think that idea of a very belligerent and a bit grumpy Cristina Fallarás comes from that time, but those who know me know it’s the opposite. DISAPPOINTMENT «The fact that the response to ‘Me too’ is very violent has caused me deep concern» –What has reaffirmed this? –In that all men, and the vast majority of women, are macho; and that men are not currently fighting for feminism, nor against sexist violence, with the fighting spirit they should. I know there are many men who argue about what I say and assure them that they are not so; well, some won’t be like that, but as a social group it’s not behaving as it should. -What else? – I dare to put my finger on the wound of childhood, in that when I talk about mothers who kidnap girls and boys, I keep defending that they are not kidnappers, but protectors. What is against the law? Yeah, but look, I’m advocating that the law isn’t respected if the law doesn’t protect your children. Several times I have called to disobey certain rules that I believe do not protect women or children. And if they say ‘you have to give the child to its father, because the child deserves to have a father’, well look, if the father is an abuser, no! And if the judge says yes, then I, the mother, say no. –How is your relationship with men outside your public facet? -Very rich. I have had three husbands and I have not poisoned any of them. [lo dice sonriendo, acordándonos de la canción de Massiel ‘Lady Veneno’]. Of course, two of them turned out to be very evil and very psychologically abusive. But my relationship with men is extraordinary, you would have to ask them how their relationship is with me, which is often not very good. You know what I think? –Well, suddenly… –That we talk a lot about the violence that women are victims of, while I believe that men also suffer from structural violence because they have to be brave, they have to be very strong, they don’t care about their feelings to show… Socially, it seems to me that the patriarchy treats men almost more badly than women. And it makes me terribly angry. We see it with gang rapes: there are two that are very violent and there are others that are dragged into having to live up to something that is cruel. Disappointing – Don’t you think the ‘Me Too’ movement helped? -It’s been very disappointing. In the old days, society could say it didn’t know the extent to which women were abused, but “Me too” showed that it was constant, and we could count it all one after the other. There are millions and millions of stories. I thought this would spark a revolution, but no. Hence the fact that nothing has changed; In addition, the fact that the response to “Me too” is very violent worries me. It disappointed me at first and then worries me greatly. –In your novel “La Loca,” you wildly charge that idea of romantic love, including not wanting to get rid of the dead lover’s corpse, who represented the so-called Juana la Loca, among others. –Well, see, the so-called Juana la Loca was from Felipe el Hermoso to the ‘pirri’. She is already dead and has carried him with her for more than ten years, but not because love prevented her from divorcing him, but because there was a law that said that the queen could not remarry as long as the body of the king remained unburied. What does Juana mean by not burying Felipe el Hermoso? Make sure nobody married her anymore, she was super smart, crazy nothing! ‘I’ve had enough, that’s it!’ he thought. –I don’t know if they will ‘forgive’ what he says. –I’m telling you, but after my birthday and three husbands, I became a lesbian. And I’m happy. Lesbians laugh at me when I say I turned lesbian, but I feel like saying it. I say things the way I want. The gay community doesn’t have that ideal of romantic love so much, and neither does the lesbian community; There is something, but not as beastly as in heterosexual relationships, more amenable to family, loving forever, when I leave everything for you, when I leave my country and I leave my house and I’m quitting my job. Hey, I’m not leaving anything for anyone, leave me alone with everything! “He used his body against everyone” – What do you find fascinating about Juana? –That he used his body to antagonize everyone. That woman was brutally abused by her husband, locked her up like an animal and left her to starve and catch a cold. Later, her father and her husband signed a letter that they made public saying that she was crazy, when she was not at all, as all the chronicles of the time bear witness to. She wondered, “Will you leave me nothing? Will you leave me without a kingdom? Will you leave me without wealth? Will you leave me without means?” I am sovereign over my body, you can take everything from me, but in my body I reign. Seeing me endure brutal psychological abuse with two of my husbands, I also used my body and denied them access to it. –That’s when the derogatory description of hysterical used for women appears. –A woman who says “I’ve come this far” is called hysterical, while when a man says it, it is noticeable that he has put the finishing touches. Men are coercive, women are hysterical… But look, they can call me Manolo if they want, fortunately many women already see it differently.
Source: La Verdad
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