Juan Goytisolo
'
TWENTY-SIX RUE DE BIEVRE
Recently, in Paris, I dined with several friends at a small
Moroccan restaurant at twenty-six rue de Bievre. Over dinner I
thought back to that time in the early seventies when a group of
writer friends- most of whom were associated with the Latin Ameri–
can "Boom"- and myself opened an office for
Libre,
our new maga–
zine, at this same address. We thought, then, that this journal of the
Hispanic literary world would further unite us as a group. Instead,
the personal relationships which had united us soured, and the origi–
nal cordiality and comradeship of the old days corroded into an at–
mosphere of hostile mistrust. The event that was to tear us apart was
the famous Padilla affair.
It all began in the spring of 1970, when I met Albina du Bois–
rouvray, who wanted to finance a cultural and political journal
geared to the Spanish-speaking world. Albina was very young, ex–
traordinarily beautiful, and passionately interested in literature,
film, and social justice for Latin America. (She also happened to be
the granddaughter of Nicanor Patino, the Bolivian tin magnate.)
She agreed to advance one hundred thousand francs to start the mag–
azine, and, at the same time, to allow us complete editorial indepen–
dence . I gave Albina a rough sketch of my ideas for the journal, and
then I contacted those writers I had suggested to Albina: Julio Cor–
tazar, Carlos Fuentes, Garda Marquez, Jorge Semprun, Mario
Vargas Llosa, and Severo Sarduy. When Sarduy heard about our an–
gel he exclaimed, "Young, beautiful, cultivated, millionaire, and, on
top of that, leftist. Wow! It can't be true. Or, if it is, she must have
cancer."
At that time Julio Cortazar had a summer place near Avignon,
and, as Carlos Fuentes had a play which was part of the Avignon
Summer Theater Festival, his friends had a good reason to gather at
Cortazar's house to discuss our plans for the new magazine. Julio
was already separated from his wife, Aurora, and his new compan–
ion, Ugne Karvelis, was serving as hostess . He had just returned
Editor's Note: Translated from the Spanish by Barbara Probst Solomon with Rene
Campos.
