Something frivolous and profound about Raúl del Pozo | Culture | EUROtoday

He was good-looking. It would be the deepest and most frivolous factor I can say about him, and I additionally know that he would approve of it, though I might approve of it solely now that he’s useless. [Raúl del Pozo falleció este martes a los 89 años]. People favored him at first sight, he had a “good charm”, paraphrasing Sabina, who, to dismiss buddies who do not appear very good-looking, tells them that he has a “good charm”. And one thing even higher: Raúl del Pozo acted like one, that’s, with out believing it and throwing balls out, that are essentially the most twisted good-looking, the modest ones.

He walked elegant and good-looking, paying consideration to not magnificence, which is vulgar like all the things you’ve or do not have, however to varieties, manners, figuring out methods to be and figuring out methods to deal with your self, which is the one factor that issues. Regarding the latter, in the future he needed to hit me. It was in the midst of the pandemic, and he was within the backyard of his home in Chamartín once I confirmed up, after so lengthy, wanting to present hugs and kisses to everybody: I used to be kicked by Reverte and slapped by Del Pozo. “But what difference does it make to you if I catch you?” I shouted whereas Edu Galán coated my mouth and threw me out of the home.

Raúl del Pozo was all the time the primary concern of these of us who needed this job, and we had been shortly conscious of what such an anomaly, so veteran and lucid right now, meant. He had survived his time, seen his buddies and his spouse die, and he put his effort and expertise into persevering with rowing. Many helped, from José María García to Arturo Pérez-Reverte, who in the future stated that, though Raúl left the home, he needed to be taken out extra, and surrounded extra, and he arrange a fantastic journalism prize with out cash for the winner that served, and serves, to hyperlink the identify of an period in extinction to the modern names of the present period, the winners of his prize.

He had an unfathomable profession and one thing even higher: he had an exemplary approach of closing it, very human. He learn the feedback on his articles, he responded to and have become indignant with the complaints on social networks, he joked about them however he didn’t disguise that they damage him whereas we instructed him, astonished, that why a person who had already written all the things, and recognized all the things, and browse all the things, had to concentrate on pseudonyms and nameless individuals.

He did not care: he understood that his place was not within the tower he had constructed for many years however among the many others, those that had been beginning out and those that weren’t, these topic to ruthless and unfair criticism, to argued criticism and in addition to flattery. He by no means went as much as the stage to say his place, however till the tip he was within the enviornment, with younger and outdated, delivering present occasions on the infernal tempo of a every day article till he started to die. That is greatness.

His columns had been all the time a mine of knowledge as a result of till the tip he prioritized getting concerned with present occasions, pulling out the phone and tablecloth, resorting to the unique sources and never settling for the “they say what they say” so widespread and deceitful of the lazy occupation. He arrived late to one in all our final dinners as a result of, he stated, he did not know if he would lastly be capable to make it. He had misplaced a tooth on the age of 89. It was at La Posada de la Villa in Madrid and we had been virtually all the time there, Lamet, De la Iglesia, Reverte, Galán, Lucas. I do not know if he ever knew it, however we had been and can proceed to be there for him, as we proceed to be there for David Gistau.

I paid a whole lot of consideration to Raúl as a result of I hadn’t seen him for some time and I assumed he was beginning to skid. He did not snicker at first due to the tooth, he laughed later, flirtatiously protecting his mouth. He ended the dinner laughing heartily, and that’s the picture I’ve of him: that of a buddy who distinguished, if we went all out, what was vital, and that what’s vital is all the time the identical: the love and respect of others for who you’re and what you do. He was good-looking, sure, however it isn’t essentially the most profound factor, though it’s the most frivolous factor I can say about him: he actually was one of the best.