Güiraldes, who worked as editor of the author’s work for years, told the audience about the type of influence the writer had on her professional and personal life. “Angélica taught me to be an editor and a feminist. I was surprised that she said ´una´ and not ´uno´ when she spoke in general. ´One should remember…´, ´one cannot prevent that´. She was forty years older than me , who on top of that thought I was a feminist, and used the feminine naturally,” she recounted about those shared dialogues.
Later, he said that during all those years of friendship they exchanged many emails and that on one occasion the editor told him that one day she planned to publish that correspondence. “Do what you want. They’re yours,” she answered, unconcerned by the informal register with which she and the two exchanged about their family, literature or the publishing market.
Güiraldes has two possible titles in mind for this compilation: “Che, Mercedes Querida”, the way in which the author began most of the exchanges, or “La Goro”, as those who loved her called her.
In front of the audience, the editor read three emails that account for that intimacy shared for years: one in which she told about a new grandson (a black puppy), another in which she reconstructs the days full of doubts and impediments that she spent in the beginning of a new novel with rigor and corrections and a third in which he sarcastically compares his life in Rosario with that of Andrea Camilleri, whom he admired. “I want to stay calm at home writing crazy stories,” she confesses in one of those letters to ignore the bureaucratic issues that sometimes take the life of an author.
Saitta – one of the directors of Eudeba’s “Two Centuries Series” collection in which “Tomb of Jaguars” was published – confessed that she feels she “arrived late” for the author’s work. “I’m a bad reader of science fiction and prejudiced. Until something was unlocked when I started editing the collection and she chose to include “Tumba de jaguares”. I don’t dare to say that it is her best novel, but I can say that it is one of the best works of Argentine literature. I didn’t get to know her but during those days of editorial work I read her in notes and magazines. I surrendered to that brilliant self-confidence with which she spoke, how she laughed at what literary criticism said and why what his readers were supposed to expect,” he said.
Later, she reconstructed the backstage of a tribute that the National Library paid her in 2017. “Alberto Manguel presented her as ´the great lady of science fiction´. And she rehearsed a response between blunt and full of self-confidence: ´Now it seems to me hopeless, there was a time when I wrote science fiction, but it’s like having measles, it’s over.
Castagnet, author of the prologue that accompanies the edition of “Tombs of Jaguars”, participated in that tribute in 2019 and celebrated being able to be present in Rosario to be able to do the exercise of remembering her.
“It is important to do it in life but it is also important for her, for the readers and for those of us who mourn to have a celebration of those who lit the way for us. Angélica was a great conversationalist, one interviewed her but she also interviewed her interlocutor Castagnet reminded her.
He also referred to a certain trend of criticism and specialized journalism that classifies his work as “science fiction.” The problem of trying to define whether science fiction is or is not, actually has to do with not paying attention to other constants in his work. : for example, humor. She said that she was not trying to make people laugh, but that she intended to write as if she were chatting in a cafe because she hated solemnity,” said Castagnet. She prefers to inscribe her work in a “hybrid or bi” genre: “In that ambiguous genre, bi , she felt comfortable. I think that if she had been considered the great lady of the police, she would have wanted to distance herself from the police “.
Closing his exhibition, the writer shared a reflection on his correspondence with the author and how he is present even in her absence. He said that the alias in her email, “kidsadita”, was in honor of a Hindu tree with pink flowers, an image that reminded him of the flowering lapachos he found on the streets of Rosario.
Organized by the Municipality of Rosario and the Fundación El Libro, with free admission to talks and writers’ tables, literary workshops, stands and an outdoor area with food trucks and shows, the tribute to Gorodischer was one of the most convening events of the journey.
During the next nine days, Rosario readers will be able to listen to authors such as Camila Sosa Villada, Selva Almada, María Teresa Andruetto, Ana María Shúa, Pedro Saborido, Juan Sasturain, Juan Sklar and Reynado Sietecase, among other figures from the literary world.
The tribute to Gorodischer was part of the organizers’ desire to publicly acknowledge other recently deceased authors such as Juan Forn, Horacio González and Gerardo Rozín.
In addition, during these days, the Rosario-based National Oral Narration Meeting will take place for the first time, with a specific program that proposes training courses, laboratories, round tables and talks aimed at narrators, pedagogues, teachers, students and those interested in the theme.
Source: Ambito
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