MADRID.- “What predominates with ALS is discomfort. It is an uncomfortable disease and it makes me angry to miss things about my son, but life is what it is and not what you want it to be,” he says Darío Lopérfido to THE NATION. He responds in writing to the questions from his home in the Spanish capital, where he has an intense morning routine that includes reading information from the international press, political analysis and the reunion of the classics of universal literature, especially with Albert Camusthe philosopher of the absurd who has accompanied him throughout his life. In the afternoons, there is something unavoidable in his daily life that he emphasizes: the joy of seeing his son arrive from school.
In July 2024, Lopérfido (Buenos Aires, 1964) was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neuromuscular degenerative disease. His intellectual activity did not cease. He continues his work in the Vargas Llosa Chair who has been a member for five years, has a column on Cristina Pérez’s radio program, writes for several publications, listens to classical music and a few months ago premiered a series of interviews with a name inspired by a work by Camus, The rebel manan epithet that he also admits has always identified him.
A man of the world, Lopérfido lived in Berlin, Madrid and New York, as well as Buenos Aires, the city of which he was Minister of Culture. The last time he was there was last August. “I’m not surprised. I have remnants of cities in my memories. I like Buenos Aires, although many years ago it stopped being the city that was compared to Europe to be more Latin American. But it still has charm and beauty. I miss some people,” he says.
-Albert Camus has been one of his philosophical and vital references. Have you felt Mersault, protagonist of The foreigner [me refiero a su escepticismo, la aceptación del sinsentido de la existencia]closer or have you received a new reading since the diagnosis of your illness?
-Mersault is a product of the era most linked to the absurdity of Camus, in a dark moment in Europe. I have always wondered about the meaning of life. One doesn’t understand much of what life is about, but it fills it with meaning. That’s the difference with Mersault and me. What the disease generates is greater difficulty in generating meaning and the idea of the future is lost. The nonsense grows, yes.
-Is there an author who is currently a balm for you or that you have discovered since you received the diagnosis of your illness?
-I am not very interested in living authors, unless they are my friends and I read them like the brilliant Pola Oloixarac. The Colombian Juan Gabriel Vásquez seems very good to me. I reread a lot and enjoy it. Dostoevsky, Camus, the Russians of the 19th century. I like to reread the authors of New American Journalism, such as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese or Joan Didion. I reread Vargas Llosa, too.
-He is a member of the Vargas Llosa Chair and knew and treated Mario Vargas Llosa a lot. Do you remember any meeting with him that was particular due to some dialogue or discussion? Did he know you had ALS?
-Meeting, talking and working with Mario was one of the most important things in my life. Being part of the group that accompanied him in Paris on the day he entered the Academy of French Letters was an honor and an unforgettable event. He didn’t know about my illness. Mario was a huge writer and a great defender of freedom. His legacy is extraordinary.
-“What they call recognition consists of others finally thinking about you what you already thought,” writes Martín Caparrós in First of allthe book where the author explores the ALS he suffers from. Do you feel that your work has been deservedly recognized?
-I feel that I am recognized for some things I did, but as I always took strong political positions, there are people who do not recognize me or love me. It doesn’t worry me in the least. In the world of culture there is discursive corporatism and I am opposed to that and I am liberal. I feel quite recognized after my time at the Teatro Colón where I met very interesting people. People who know about cultural issues recognize me and that’s enough for me. Politicians seek recognition in a rather painful way. I exchange sincerity for recognition and it seems fine to me.
-In the face of your illness, does anger, sadness, and resignation predominate? All of them?
-In the face of illness, all mixed sensations appear. The fury, the sadness, the joy. Resignation to dying exists, but it seems normal to me. This is what I mentioned about the meaninglessness of life. What predominates is discomfort. It is an uncomfortable illness and it makes me angry to miss things about my son, but life is what it is and not what you want it to be.
-Why did you choose to live in Madrid? What does the city offer you or what does Spain offer you? He has also lived in Berlin and New York.
-I love Madrid. The two stages that I lived here add up to almost 15 years. I like my son to grow up in Madrid. Berlin is also a great place to live and, for me, it is crossed by love. Love for my wife and the place where my son was born. All my memories of Berlin are linked to love. I lived in New York for a while, I was young and my friends lived there, I had a lot of fun.
-And how aware are you of the Argentine news? I imagine that even more than the Spanish ones, and politics here has become an accumulation of political scandals in recent months.
-I am aware of the Argentine news and write every week in Argentine News and in Newsweek and I have a column every week in Rivadavia with Cristina Pérez. I closely follow Spanish politics, which is currently monopolized by the corruption scandals of the Pedro Sánchez government. I follow world politics very closely. I am concerned about the weakness of Europe, which has had bad rulers without temperament. The failure to send troops to Ukraine showed that Europe leaves its citizens adrift in the face of autocrats like Putin. That’s bad.
-“The Rebel Man” is his column on Cristina Pérez’s radio program and also the name of his series of interviews with personalities held in Madrid. What have you rebelled against in your life? What is your biggest rebellion today?
-The rebellion in my life was trying not to go with the flow. Devoting myself to culture and not validating corporate speeches, for example, that of actors who tend to be quite crude and brought me difficulties that I celebrate. The average official endorses idiotic things just to stay in office. As I grew up, I became convinced that idiots should be treated as such. I felt very free acting like that.
-“It is the most brutal left in years,” he said in his radio column, on the world stage. Has it caused the mistakes of the left or is it causing the decline of Western values?
-I have no doubt that the current left is the most brutal and unscrupulous in years. They went from wanting to represent workers to representing transvestites. They defend narco dictatorships like in Venezuela and justify Islamic terrorism that wants to change the Western lifestyle for a horrible life where women have no rights. They are brutal and dangerous. We must always defend the West, which has the best lifestyle where equality between the sexes is guaranteed and where the law exists. The left went from defending Stalin to justifying the caliphate. They are serious idiots.
-You were Secretary of Culture, during the government of Fernando De la Rúa. He said in a recent interview that “Kirchnerism has been a brutalizing force for culture.” Because?
-Kirchnerism brutalized the entertainment world. It turned them into populist spokespersons who defended the single discourse, justified corruption and defended atrocities such as dirty campaigns following the death of Alberto Nisman. When I said that there were not 30,000 missing people, I met people from the entertainment world who made solemn faces and said the most idiotic things I had ever heard. I remember that, with a playful and democratic spirit, I invited them to debate the topic. I especially remember inviting Cecilia Roth already Rafael Spregelburd. They all refused, but continued to maintain the solemn foolish tone. That episode gave me the measure of how brutalized show business was. People whose job is to know the words of a script and feel that they can give their opinion on history or international politics and discriminate against those who think differently. Kirchnerism empowered them and the public conversation became brutal. Oddities like 678, Football for everyoneand the official media, paid with money from corruption, counted on the participation of people from the entertainment industry.
-Do you consider that Kirchnerism has reached its decline? Has Cristina Fernández de Kirchner caused her own decline?
–Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is in total decline. It’s like the actress Sunset Boulevardby Billy Wilder, who was a silent film star and continued to behave like one when cinema had become talkies and no one paid attention to him. Fernández de Kirchner always felt like a star and went from speaking in Plaza de Mayo to speaking to 10 idiots on a dark street in Constitución and with an electronic anklet. She is entering madness very clearly accompanied by her son Máximo who has serious cognitive problems. The Peronists flee from him and he has been left with a lumpen entourage. The decline of K is a beautiful spectacle. The collapse of populist power is always a great spectacle.
-He has been critical, at times, of Javier Milei’s government, and at others he has rescued lines of action. Since December 10, there is another composition in Congress that will be able to convey its policies and management plans. Are you optimistic about the change that may occur in this second half of the mandate?
-I criticize what I see bad and I praise what I see good about Milei’s government. It has a great advantage: there is no opposition. Peronism is very bad. They have to carry out the major reforms quickly, especially those that have to do with unions. You have to take away the power and the box. He has to take advantage of this time for reforms and not dedicate himself to internal ones and not have cases of corruption. People are making efforts and need to see that there is no corruption. Mood changes are very rapid when cases of corruption appear.
-Do you miss political life? He had retired from it before moving to Spain. Because?
-I don’t miss anything about politics. I prefer to write and analyze. Politics in Argentina is quite mediocre and I don’t miss that mediocrity at all.
