Manuel Escobar has just moved. At some point in the day, he released the parking brake, and the car descended the gentle slope of the Ses Variades dirt car park, until it was just a few meters from the sea. "For changing views," he explains. Now, on the windshield, the Conejera islet is drawn. The past thirty days, a clump of grass that climbed a dirt wall where he sometimes relieved himself.
Over there he left Mohamed, his confinement partner for 44 days, in this yellow lot the size of five soccer fields, in the heart of San Antonio, west of the island of Ibiza. The first thing to know about Mohamed is that he is probably not called Mohamed, who is Moroccan, who works on site, who speaks little, and who has a mobile phone with Wi-Fi. Manuel yells at him from time to time from his car: " But man, Mohamed, let's tell ourselves a joke ."
Manuel, 54, from Granada, has lived in a blue Ford Focus since December. In Ses Variades since the state of alarm was declared, "for being in the center of town and seeing people." But it is not so easy. "At first, the police, if they saw us two meters from the car, told us to go inside . Can you believe it? I told them, but man, a little humanity."
Among the nearly two hundred parked cars he says there are fifty that also serve as housing. However, the San Antonio Local Police do not believe that they exceed twenty. Manuel acts as a guide with his finger. He points to the front towards a caravan in which a couple has lived for twelve years. It is parked where, a few years ago, Manuel remembers, they planted a stage that Sting, Elton John and Lenny Kravitz got on . On the left, point to two cars. In each one lives a Moroccan who is also engaged in construction. There is a couple of furniture, a mattress, a bicycle and a small kitchen. To the right is the caravan of an Argentine couple, and to the right is the car of one who tells that he spent two and a half years in the prison of Mallorca.
- And what's worse?
- This is much worse, there are doctors there, here you can go crazy .
The worst of Manuel sits behind him. Because if you want, in the rear-view mirror, you can see the best of your past. A white building and a balcony, on the fourth floor, which stood for fifteen years next to a woman, the Rafi. "Until it was over because of me," and says no more. Nor from his childhood in Granada: "Very hard, you know, I did n't even dream of being an architect or an astronaut ."
A man in his 40s screams from a balcony on the first floor. She is wearing a flower shirt, her hair painted orange. He is accompanied by two white cats sitting on the railing, one on each side: "Do you have permission to be there talking? I'm going to call the police." Manuel doesn't even look.
- What is the first thing you are going to do as soon as you can get out of the car?
- Search for a job.
Manuel paints. Fat brush, but also "decorations". He explains it by leaving stains in the air with an invisible rag. "I have painted in Granada, in Malaga, in Ibiza, in Gran Canaria ...", and he spends a while listing cities as if they were bullrings . On the island he dedicated himself to painting luxurious mansions, "of English and German, the kind that you can run inside with a horse."
People tell him that he is not believed to live in a car. Look freshly shaved. He even flirted to get along with two basins and bottles of water that he buys at the supermarket with a monthly help from the Government of 430 euros . "It is that I do not know why we have entered Europe, or why we spent money on a rocket to go to the moon, but what we will have lost on the moon, " he reflects.
He wears blue loafers with holes, a white V-neck t-shirt, and jeans. Everything impeccable and perfectly ironed. Open the trunk and then two toiletry bags loaded with tiny cans of deodorant, fragrances and moisturizers: "Not something else but ...". There are also quite a few air fresheners, gloves and hand sanitizers for him and for the car. "Man, I also have to defend myself against the virus ", he justifies himself.
The seats are reclined, you see some blanket and a pink beach towel, wrinkled and with a dirty and smiling Minnie Mouse, like a mouse that would have fallen into drugs . Some bags are piled on the rear wheel. " It is that I recycle, " he explains. And then he shows another one next to the front wheel, full of leftover bread from the sandwiches that Caritas brings them from time to time to the parking lot: "I feed them to the seagulls, it gives me life."
A crowded van appears with three officers from the San Antonio Local Police. We chatted with the agents.
- Now without people on the street it should be a pleasure to work - comments the journalist.
- Come on, look at those floors - he says pointing to a building - they are fifty square meters and are full of people, that right now is a time bomb , when there are no fights it is a case of ill-treatment.
The agents seem to know Manuel well. "One day some civil guards brought me juices and cakes, and you remember those things all your life," he says, tearing up.
- You have moved - one of the policemen tells him.
- To change - he responds resignedly.
- Well - and they leave.
Manuel found out about the confinement in the bar of a friend who at night gave him "something hot" to eat, which he now greatly misses. " We saw the president come out on TV and I thought he was joking , that he was joking ." The first time he heard the applause and sirens at eight he called a friend to Granada to ask him, because he was afraid that the police would fine him for going to another car. " I thought it was the curfew, " he laughs.
The painter tries to exercise in front of the hood every morning at sunrise. Push-ups, sit-ups. " All my bones hurt ," he says. Then you have some old weekly that came with a newspaper. And listen to the radio a little. But the worst are the nights: "This is not life, it is very lonely, it is very depressing, and you are afraid of losing your mind ." He says that then he closes his eyes and talks to God, and that God answers him, or that he answers himself, that he is not clear, but that he will continue to do so.
A few days later we spoke on the phone. He says that he has moved back to Mohamed, who had started Ramadan, who did not eat anything until night and prayed with his back to the sea. Also that now she hides from him to eat the Caritas sandwich . "Man, it is that there are things that cannot be supported", it is explained.
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