Ran regret has caused the death of the writer Hernán Lara Zavala among his Cuban friends. We wanted it very much here. I had the honor of giving entrance to our property. Back in 1982 he was part of the jury of a magazine contest Plural in which they gave mention to a story of mine. As we usually happen when we make judges, a text that was not the winner remains in memory, and Hernán ended up writing a note of mere greeting, which was followed by an irregular exchange, until life brought him to Havana to meet one of his sisters, I do not remember if Magali or Ana, which for some reason was here. To get to know each other, I invited them to a restaurant called Centro Vasco, to which there was still something of its ancient glory, I thought. Lunch was fine, the conversation better, and as he said Lichi Diego, friendship arose at first glance, effortlessly. In what we ate and talked, the waiter listened to the Mexican singing of my guests, so that in the end, very smiling, brought the account in dollars with the unappealable decision not to collect it in any other currency no matter how much I protest and threw me off my hair. Hernán would remember my embarrassment forever, which in the end served to seal friendship with a gold brooch.
We exchange our first books, and we continue to read with loyalty, as writers, but above all as friends, to whom the other does. I immediately liked his prose, his voice, his writing. Among his titles are my favorites From Zitilchén, for being the first; Peninsula peninsula, For the love he himself had to this novel, and, I don’t know why, the shortest of all, Hand luggage
To put it soon: Hernán was my favorite Mexican, among the many and good ones that I have known, relevant figures or simple people, if there are simple Mexicans. I loved his elegance, his leisurely and intelligent speech, his British point and his way of laughing with some delay to taste the matter before. I will forget your figure before your speech. With no less admiration I remember its extraordinary work, the work in cultural diffusion of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in the collection of our classics or the International Rayuela series, in which it published us to many Latin Americans. Particularly outstanding was the work that, with Gonzalo Celorio, developed in the international meetings of writers who, sponsored by the UNAM, took place during the 90s, a cultural action that should be studied because it represented the most successful and sustained effort to keep related to the writers of the continent after the wave of the greats. An act that passed in cultural terms, which had a politician what a dulce of salt. We approached Mexico and UNAM. His best fruit were the relations he led between authors from different countries, the edition of works, contact with Mexican authors. It allowed me to meet Sergio Pitol and Emilio Carballido, to mention two of the most beloved, with whom I shared a table and walks and I was in its libraries and kitchens and took five tiles in the courtyard of catering.
Everything was woven by Gonzalo and Hernán with inspiration and constancy. The Cuban chapter was one of the main ones, very important for us at that time, so noticeable on the island. It resulted in a group that became its own life, with many visits from Mexicans to Havana, always fun and useful, and numerous projects and dreams that were carried out or not. For conspiracies and friendship, it became a group, baptized as pineapple by us and pineapple cast by them.
Of all this was Hernán an essential driver, he translated it in work and results. And although we never boast of this, we always think that this story of friendship and cultural relationship had its first chapter at that lunch in dollars of the Basque Center.
Now Hernán has gone, so no more, and all this comes to mind with love and pain. We have to give us a collective goodbye to the island’s friends, and to read again Of Zitilchén, Peninsula Peninsula y Hand luggage, To listen to it while it moves away.