By: William Gonzalez
Manuel Francisco Reina (Cadiz, 1974) He is a Hispanic philologist, novelist, poet, screenwriter, literary critic, playwright and columnist. He has been a collaborator of media as important as El País, La Vanguardia, ABCD of ABC and currently has a column in The Plural. He has published more than 50 books. His work The Paca Princess It tells the romance of the Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and Paca Sánchez written together with the journalist Rosa Villacastín. A true editorial success even brought to the big screen by Radio and Spanish Television (RTVE).
The first mirror in which he looked at himself was the poetry of Rubén Darío. What has Rubén meant to you?
[Resopla] Dario means so much to me. It is like a symphony orchestra, capable of taking the entire Spanish tradition —not just the Spanish one—, making it its own and renewing it. He turns it into a symphony orchestra in verse. You realize what he does with Castilian: take Virgil’s hexameter and take it to tradition. My head was blown. Indeed, it seemed like a mirror in which to look at myself.
The repercussion of his book is so great The Paca Princess that the Government of Nicaragua invites him to the commemoration of the centenary of the poet’s death. How was his visit to Nicaragua?
It was very exciting. The Ortega government had not yet radicalized. I discovered a country that I had only known through Rubén’s literature and through my teacher Pilar Paz Pasamar, she came into contact with the poets of Liberation Theology. She also meets young people who are eager for literature. It was exciting to visit Rubén’s grave.
Meet Ernesto Cardenal thanks to the Nicaraguan director of Hispanic Culture René González. How was the meeting?
It is one of those things that you treasure forever. The same thing happened to me when I met García Márquez. I have been very lucky because I have met many teachers and I have understood them. With Cardenal I connected immediately. The image I have of Cardenal is a teacher without pretending to be, which makes him even more interesting. I have an intimate, tender, fraternal image of confidence. He was working and writing until the last moment.
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April 2018 is a turning point for Nicaraguans. You are an injured party, they declare you a personwelcome for not supporting Ortega and for his articles against the government. What do you think as a writer of censorship and abuse of power?
That is a misfortune. Of course, my position is on the side of the Nicaraguan people. Many of the guys who came to my lectures were killed and others went into exile. Dictators don’t have ideologies, they have masks. Let a dictator declare you a person non grata it is a compliment. A medal that I wear. The terrible thing is the impotence as an intellectual of not being able to do much more than denounce what is happening and that intellectuals like (Ernesto) Cardenal were confined in his house, the mass of the deceased was not allowed to have peace, that intellectuals like Gioconda Belli or Sergio Ramírez have to exile from their own country. The most terrible thing is the number of people who are in Nicaragua without a chance to live in freedom, to have a society in which their basic needs are guaranteed.
Sergio Ramírez’s novel has been censored in his own country. What do you think about that?
I think it’s horrible. It is the typical paraphernalia of all dictators. It’s crazy, a disgrace. Fortunately, social networks facilitate and make it possible that no matter how much you prohibit the work of Sergio Ramírez, anyone who wants to read it at the stroke of click you can download it. The tremendous thing is that there is someone who allows himself the luxury of censoring a work. We had no doubt that Sergio Ramírez is a master of contemporary literature and that Daniel Ortega is a dictator.
In April, in Cádiz, he attends the premiere of the documentary “Nicaragua Libre para Vivir” by director Daniel Rodríguez Moya. How was that approach to such a cruel reality?
I left the screening of the documentary devastated. Relive the reality of that wonderful town, tiny in size, but wonderful in cultural, artistic, linguistic wealth and potential. From that country where I fell in love with its people and desire to get ahead. Nicaragua belongs to Nicaraguans, not Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Seeing murdered people with my own eyes is very hard.
