The Geography of the sea urchin – The Distance
I don't remember exactly when I wrote La distancia. It must have been between March and June 2019. Back then, not even the wise men had any idea what…
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La geografía del erizo
Poetry
Illustrations: Miguel Panadero
Prologue: Juan Vicente Piqueras Salinas
Cuadernos del Laberinto, 2020
ISBN: 9788412130935
Just as Xu Guangqi (徐光啟), also known as Paolo Xu after converting to Christianity in 1603 under the influence of Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci, asserted that East and West shared common principles, the sea urchins of this geography break their silence and speak to us directly, and in their way call for a terra communis, where it’s places that make love and within which one breathes deeply before saying goodbye. They seem to be clear that identity is only confirmed when other identities capture our signs of life and return them: Pink Floyd sang Is there anybody out there? This Hegelian echo is fundamental, even if one carries spines, because this is what dictates to every being the imperious need for the presence of another, even though bristly fear and hatred will inevitably, although paradoxically, arise from that need. Nothing destroys us more, wrote George Steiner, than the silence of another human being. Hence Lear’s foolish fury at Cordelia and Kafka’s profound observation that many men survived the siren’s song but none their silence.
To combat this annihilating silence, one must first have a tendency toward the other, and secondly, be able to rouse their echo, so that it accompanies us. Hence, perhaps, the last verses, somewhat ethylic, of this book:
When I take you by the hand,
I no longer imagine we’ll need
to grow spines to save ourselves;
Instead, I imagine myself marching
toward the world,
as if it were on my side.
It must be the wine!
Dibugrafías
Short story, Art
Libros.com, 2017
ISBN: 9788417023928
Singapore, New York, Beijing, Madrid and many other locations around the world are the inspiration for more than 50 stories, each a reply to a painterly inquiry.
The result is Dibugrafías, as clear an example as any of “writing on the move”, creating wherever, free from the shackles of “sitting down to write” and the setting for such enigmatic characters as the numbered woman, the headless man or Mister No.
José Felix Valdivieso, a graduate of Law, as well as East Asian Studies, has a passion for languages, from Yoruba to Japanese, along with Chinese. He is the Communications Director at IE Business School and the author of the 2010 book Cosas y murciélagos (Things and Bats), published by Incipit Editores.
Miguel Panadero is a multi-faceted artist, engaged in a lifelong quest through painting, illustration and sculpture. His art, a reflection of the human condition and our relationship with our environment, has featured in numerous one-man and collective exhibitions.
Cosas y murciélagos
Short story
CYAN, 2010
ISBN: 9788481988215
The world is travelling at 01 speed, unable to keep up with its own narration. These Things and bats are a bridge, a way of holding onto the world, of approaching the words of these things and the bats that live in it. Things, bats, you and me, are all points and the connections between two points and the bridge we have to extend to know ourselves as “existed”.
The magic is in connecting, and for that magic not to be broken, we need to be alert to all inclemency, because when one least expects it, suddenly, along comes a shout and finishes everything off.
José Félix Valdivieso
1965, Bruselas
Ecuadorian father and Spanish mother (Canarian), giving him two nationalities, he defines himself as a Janissary (the product of parents of different nationalities). He studied Law at Madrid’s Complutense University, and Oriental Studies, specializing in China, at the Spanish capital’s Autónoma University, and holds an MBA from IE Business School; he also briefly strayed into London with the intention of studying an LLM at University College.