M?
Pebble, river stone.
This means?
Yes, in Arabic. My name is Marwán Abu-Tahoun Recio.
Strong.
My mother is Soriana, Nieves Recio.
And his father?
From Palestine.
is he palestinian
Many generations. And in 1948 they suffered the nakba.
¿ Nakba ?
“Disaster”: the State of Israel was founded, the Palestinian exodus began… and his father was expelled from his home and land.
Where did his grandfather go?
In the West Bank, in a refugee camp, Tulkarem: my father was born there.
What does his father tell him?
Their childish games… happy but feeling humiliated. Same today: Palestinian children jailed in Israel for defending their mother from being humiliated by an Israeli soldier… or for throwing a rock at the soldiers.
And what did the father do with his life?
Study with grants from UNRWA, from the UN. At the age of 16, in 1967, he was an English translator in Arafat’s PLO. And they recruited him to go to the Six Day War…
Great Arab defeat.
Israeli settlers broke in and my father’s family fled to Jordan. In 1969 the father came to Madrid, to study at the university. And he met Nieves.
How did your parents meet?
In Puerta del Sol, he asked her for a street, she answered, he liked it, he followed her, asked for her phone number and she gave it to him.
He was brave and got his reward.
And she too. They got married and ten years later I was born.
Madrilenian and Arab: did he suffer racism?
I suffered from racism, I was a child and I didn’t understand what was going on. A teacher used to beat me: he was racist. And that’s why I’m an artist.
What is the relationship?
The artist feels different from the majority. You become sensitized and your intimate emotional world explodes inside.
An indoor volcano?
I was unable to manage my emotions. And then… the music appeared: Silvio Rodríguez, Serrat, Pedro Guerra, Ismael Serrano… They saved my life!
As much as this?
I had no self-esteem, I isolated myself, I was insecure, I had a wounded animal inside… At 18, that music made me feel part of something: “They are singing my life!”, I felt when I listened to him.
Do you still like them?
His lyrics are transformative: that’s what I’m still looking for today. The true artist opens in channel.
do you do it
I do it in my poems and song lyrics: shamelessly, I expose myself naked.
Unlimited?
Without harming third parties.
“It’s too hard for me to decide between loneliness and commitment.”
It’s a letter of mine: this happens to me. I’m in a relationship…and I fantasize about my loneliness…or about sneaking into a hotel with another woman.
How sincere
It happens to a lot of us, right?
…
With everything you gain something and with everything you lose something. And yes, I am sincere, but I am not a sincere killer.
What is being sincere?
Hurt the other by listing his faults. I follow Bioy Casares: “I tell myself the truth to be at peace with myself, I don’t tell it to others to be at peace with everyone”.
“I need a country”, he also writes…
I need a country that uproots sadness, a country that pushes you to fulfill your dreams, without lords who think they are our masters…
What do you think of politicians?
Politicians are giving us more emotions than solutions.
What does his father think when he sees what is happening in Palestine on TV?
sadness And, at the same time, a resigned fatalism: his resource for not dying of grief.
Do you do anything for the Palestinians?
I participate in charity concerts and I have composed and sing Nana urgente para Palestina, and I am an ambassador for UNRWA.
What is poetry?
Poetry is putting new words to the old. Radiate beauty.
What is beauty?
Beauty is what captures and excites you… and incidentally reconciles you with the world.
What’s the nicest thing you’ve been told?
“If I listen to you or read you I feel accompanied”. Knowing that I am a mirror for other people… is the greatest thing there is.
