Interview with Mexico City Instigator, Pablo Collada

PenTales: You’re the Mexico City Instigator. Tell us a 100-word story to help us get to know Mexico City.

Pablo: In the suburbs of Mexico City, there is a place called Chalco Solidaridad. It is an urban development built after the 1985 earthquakes that tore down several parts of the city’s downtown [area]. It is said to be the most multicultural area in the whole country. Researchers have found that in a 45-square-kilometer area, approximately 50 different languages are spoken (of the 64 total that are acknowledged in Mexico). That small area is a representation of the city, which is a representation of the country. Dozens of different local cultures that have tried for dozens of decades to live together, accepting the dozens of differences that still separate them in dozens of ways.

PenTales: What are the ingredients of a good story?

Pablo:

1. One piece of a title. The length doesn’t matter, but it actually needs to be stimulating.
2. At least one situation that can be described in terms of the senses: as seen, as smelled, as tasted, as felt, as listened to, as imagined.
3. At least one person who finds himself or herself in a particular moment at a particular time with a particular story that surrounds his or her presence. You can keep on adding people to the story as you please, as long as the concept of the story keeps its flavor.
4. A wise amount of words. There are no suggested amounts here. It can take one sentence or 500 pages to be told, as long as every word is really a part of the story.
5. An identity of its own. That is, the will to say something genuine, not just attempt to walk in someone else’s steps. It can have somebody else’s inspiration, but not the motivation to go the same way.

PenTales: Tell us about a favorite character in a story, and why you relate to this character.

Pablo: I would have to go with Alberto Caeiro, the fictional character under whom Fernando Pessoa wrote an important collection of poems. Caeiro is a shepherd, distant from the knowledge of man but close to the wisdom of intuition and attentive to the progress of his sensations as well as respectful of the thoughts derived from there.

It’s not enough to open the window
To see the fields and the river.
It’s also not enough to not be blind
To see the trees and the flowers.
It’s also necessary to not have any philosophy at all.
With philosophy there are no trees, there are only ideas.
There’s only each of us, like a wine-cellar.
There’s only a shut window and the world outside it;
And a dream of what you could see if you opened the window,
Which is never what you see when you open the window.
(1923)

PenTales: Continue this story (5 sentences or less): As he unfolded his hand, he was surprised to see in it..

Pablo: …an empty battery holder. After buying a brand new set of rechargeable batteries, his career as a famous guitar player hasn’t stopped for a moment. Well, except for the time it takes the batteries to charge again.

PenTales: What was your first thought this morning?

Pablo: ¡Ay guey! ¿Dónde estoy? (Damn! Where am I?)