'Love Story'

I met Guillermo Gutierrez in Tokyo. It was in May of 67. It was like John Wayne : ugly, strong and formal (this was described by the woman of the actor to protect him from the marabunta of his admirers). He painted tiny pictures and read like a possessed man. He was born in Sama de Langreo. His family was humble. He fled to Paris, went fishing for sardines in Iceland and ended up in Japan. He didn't have a boy, but he was rich, like Ulises de Cavafis , in knowing, in love and in life. Our friendship was instantaneous. The day I coincided with him at the end of an academy of bad death where he taught Spanish we spent forty hours in a row talk that he talks to you. We were both Japanese and globetrotters. We met again in Spain, he came with me to Soria again and again, to Montsegur, to cross the Sahara, to live in Senegal, to take acids in the company of Úrculo and Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio, among others, and to visit prehistoric caves of the Cantabrian cornice in search of Gargoris and Habidis. He rented a house in Cudillero and there he undressed while pulling a table with a rope. That happened in the Holy Week of 79. A few years later a municipal police officer from Sama knocked on the door of one of Guillermo's best friends. It was since childhood. He had a letter sent from Japan by an old girlfriend. In the envelope he only put the name of his beloved, without any address, and another name on the back: that of the girl in question, who had sent his letter to the City Council. Inside her, in a clumsy English, Kiyoko Masuzaki said she had not heard from her boyfriend for a long time and was worried. The childhood friend responded by making her aware of his death. A few days later someone called from Oviedo station. It was Kiyoko, who had planted there. The old friend went to Oviedo, saw a girl with oriental features sitting on a suitcase and took her home. I was alone and did not know a single word of Spanish. I wanted to visit Guillermo's grave. They took her. He left some flowers, prayed and cried for an hour. With him, with him, with him ... Then he returned to his country. Monica , the daughter of the old friend, sent me a few days ago an email telling me this love story . I had just read a book of mine in which I speak of Guillermo. She stopped seeing him when she was seven, but she still remembers the stories she told him and the songs she sang to him. He grew up and had a son. His name is Guillermo .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• Japan
• Soria
• Paris
• Spain
• theater
• Columnists

Open cityRead without order

LETTERS TO K. Two separate

GrandstandCatalans, Scots and Sir John Elliott