Those who know that allergic-to-Gillette skinny boy, whom some people call Charly, others Carlos Manuel, and me proudly “Namesake”, knew that at any given moment he would win an important literary award. Because though he might like journalism very much, Carlos Manuel Alvarez Rodriguez was born to write literature…
I woke up today with the news that his “La tarde de los sucesos definitivos” (The afternoon of final events) had taken the Calendario prize of the Hermanos Sainz Association, and I was glad. Not only for the 3,000 pesos that he pocketed, with publication included, but because I feel that people will talk more about him, and one day it will not be necessary to have access to Internet to read him…
While still a student, Carlitos has been contributing for some time with online outlets and in Cubadebate he had the honor to make his first detractors. Now he has his own column in OnCuba magazine, where he warns defiantly: "This mouth is mine”…
Some might point out the sin of the extension, or that he moves from totalitarianism to doubt in his claims, or that he reminds us of his liking for baseball, of making love to women with poems, or combining sublime readings with chronicles written by his buddies. But has the merit of being able to say what he wants…
Precisely the fluidity of his prose narrative convinced the narrative jurors Alberto Garrandés, Legna Rodriguez and Mercedes Melo Pereira, to grant him this award, coveted by anyone looking for recognition, publication and some money…
I, why deny it?, declared myself long time ago unconditional fan of his articles. As he himself had the impudence of comparing me with Juan Orlando Pérez, Michel Contreras and Yamil Diaz, I could venture to say that Cardenas had Virgilio Piñera, but now it has Carlos Manuel. I hope he doesn’t it, because then everything goes to hell…
The first of his that I read was a lonely final grade for my classes on Pablo de la Torriente : I do not remember the text, but I do remember it struck me so much that I graded him 5 points despite his repeated absences. Years later he confessed his shame at that grade, and began to read me out of pity, as if he owed me something. He told me, the crazy bastard, that I had taught him a major lesson … as if these were time when we could afford to chastise talent.
Our paths crossed again in 2011, when I was in Vietnam and he in Facultyland, the surreal realm where Julio Garcia Luis is still The Dean a after his death. We exchanged emails where we talked everything from the influences to the preferences. I got into heated arguments with his critics in the Cubadebate forums, he demanded me for a compilation of my chronicles, with his prologue, what else, and so…
For now, and since he has no cell phone or where to reach him, and I am quite sure he will squander part of the prize buying beers for his buddies at the El Diablo Tun Tun, I share with you one of his comments on the stir his articles cause, extracted from our correspondence which I treasure for the time when we become famous, and scholars will kill for the possibility of studying us and write papers and huge books on our respective works …
"One is not infallible, and sometimes hesitates. One always goes looking, trying, humbly, to break the mold, to reinvent every word or every line, and sometimes I wonder whether I am on the right track. But that’s normal, that fight is with me, there is no reader involved, or any scholar, nor any of imbecile coming out to offend. Even Faulkner, can you imagine it? said that no writer can feel secure, there is always fear, that the person who feels completely sure and does not hesitate and does not question what he s doing, is a perfect idiot. Indeed Faulkner said it uch better, more precise and elegant, but that’s more or less is the idea … almost nobody makes a just, fair critic, based on facts. The guy who does not understand gets insulted and watch it!, there he goes to get to you. That shows how many troglodytes are surfing the net, and how sick we Cubans are of literal concepts, at least a good part of us, because the indolent picky anarchist role doesn’t suit me either. "
So long for now, Namesake, Congratulations and May other awards come.
