There was a time when the Mississippi and New Orleans were Spanish. Far from Louisiana travels to that time (the end of the 18th century), the novel with which the Aragonese Luz Gabás (Monzón, 1968) won the Planeta 2022 award on Saturday and will be published on November 4. At the moment when that territory changes from French to Spanish, a passionate love story takes place between Suzette, a French Creole, daughter of a merchant, and Ishcate, son of the chief of the Kaskaskia tribe, which forms the backbone of a plot that it reflects the historical turbulence, the resistance capacity of the human being and the enormous crossing of cultures that took place at that time. Gabás attends to this newspaper in a hotel in Barcelona.
How is your life in Benasque?
Like that of a normal family mother, who works with hours. Sometimes I think of a scene while ironing or taking care of the animals.
Animals? What animals do you have?
Geese, chickens, a dog, horses… I would have more but they are a lot of work.
His works take place far away, in exotic colonies, or very close to where he lives, the Aragonese Pyrenees.
But notice that the feelings are common. Cultures are nothing more than different manifestations of the same essence.
And what is the essence of this novel?
It is about the effort, for example that of dragging a ship three leagues, before they were steam powered, with sticks, step by step. I imagined such a hard life.
Why the kaskaskia tribe?
There are dozens of tribes, this one is in the French zone that remains in English territory, they speak French but keep their customs.
With whom did the Indians go, with the French, English or Spanish?
The Indians were the same, they usually went with the one who gave them the most gifts.
His hero, Ishcate, too?
Ishcate sees that her territory is in danger, that her customs are going to disappear, her warrior soul asks her to fight but she sees that it is against an insurmountable wall. His dilemma is to remain faithful to his traditions or accept the European ones. He doesn’t want his lands to be sold to the English.
What gifts did the Europeans give to the Indians?
Lots of booze, mostly tafia, but also cheap rum, wine, whatever. Two hundred years ago, there is the origin of the alcoholization of the indigenous people. To meet with the boss, alcohol was brought to him although the law did not allow it, but it was given to them underhand, so that they would not be put to the knife.
That of threatened traditions is also seen in his previous work, El latido de la tierra.
There, the young woman, in the Pyrenees of Huesca, sees that the rural world she knows is lost and has to make the decision of what to do with her inherited heritage. Basically, it’s the same, it’s a universal theme.
What does it tell us about Suzette?
She has been brought up to marry well, have a rich husband, and bear many children. Her sister is more ambitious, but she is more romantic, she would have preferred to be freer, without so many ties of society, to be able to travel or go to the great prairies.
What a movie could be made with this book, right?
If they find the budget, that doesn’t depend on the writers, I make novels and, if they like it, let them make the movie.
Did you like Palm Trees in the Snow, an adaptation of your first novel?
In a movie there are not as many things as in a series, something had to fall out of the novel and it was the political part. But many young people went to see Mario Casas and they left learning things about Guinea. Others later bought the novel.
Is there a political part in Far from Louisiana?
The context comes out, all the rejection of the Spanish, the rebellion of the Creoles took place, which left many dead.
You have been mayor, but you don’t look like a politician.
I have never felt like a politician, but rather a manager: give me a budget and I will tell you how to manage it and what is enough for us. I am not political because I do not understand the folds. I didn’t really understand Shakespeare until I got into it and experienced what treason really is.
Oh yeah?
What we just talked about, you tell me A and then in the meeting you say B. My word is sacred and there are things I don’t understand.
The book is structured in four parts.
It has greater ambition and breadth than other works of mine, it is more complex, it takes place over forty years. It has the same parts as the Mississippi River: upper course, middle course, lower course, and sea. As chronological references for moviegoers, everything happens between The Last of the Mohicans and John Wayne’s films, in the enormous territory that Spain had in the heart of North America.
There are real historical figures…
For example, the governor of Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez (1746-1786) from Malaga, who, after taking part in the invasion of Portugal and fighting the Apaches, was crucial in the war of independence from the United States, helping to expel the British.
Has it been forgotten?
His military career has been written about, but everything else is missing, for example his dialogues with the Indians. I am missing an epic construction, a novel, not a mere succession of biographical events, novels offer the whys.
How have you approached the treatment of indigenous people?
Although I can’t help but be a Westerner, I have tried hard to understand all the characters. This is not a story of good guys and bad guys. I love and get into the skin of my characters and it would never occur to me to lower them. There were, in reality, many romances between French and Indian women. Normal: the pioneers and adventurers were single men and what other women were there.
A message for the present?
The novel reflects moments of uncertainty, illness and war, three things that we live now. There have been many tremendous historical contexts but humanity has come out ahead. Society is like an ash tree, capable of growing on cement, life goes on, it always finds its way. That comforts me, takes away my fear and makes me relativize things.
