Beto Noy looks fixed. Her greenish-brown eyes water and she raises her freckle-speckled hand to cover her emotion. She remembered Jaime, his younger brother, the one who “left a week ago, because in the end the cancer won.” Before, in the clinic, the two talked about the rainbow again that, as children, crossed them. And then shared that anecdote.
“We were in Merlo, that poor district northwest of the Buenos Aires suburbs, sitting on the curb. We would have been 10 years old. It had rained. Behind there was a huge ligustrina, and beyond that were the tracks. There were three of us, Jaime, a friend whom we called ‘Bonavena’ (because he was big like Ringo, the boxer) and me. AND the rainbow appeared. He passed from one side of the ligustrina to the other. I told my little brother “come, get in,” and we forced ourselves to sneak through the leaves. Then the rainbow passed through us. We looked at our hands, our arms, and saw the lights of all colors, painting our bodies.. We stayed like that for a while, playing, laughing, until she disappeared. Only over the years did that come back to me memory. I thought she had dreamed it, but no. ‘Bonavena’ and Jaime remembered it, like me.”
That was the last thing he said to his brother. “Skinny, do you remember the rainbow? And he smiled at me. After, when did he die and we said goodbye, I returned to the hotel and took a shower. The light from the street entered through a small window, and opened in different colors. For me it was a sign from Jaimeand I knew it was fine” he concluded, with a small voice.
Today, that rainbow that has accompanied him since he was a child is a “Grutyseñal”. The thing is in the story he put together and its setting is Las Grutas, Its characters are escorted by that magical combination of colors that is also present in Grutópolys, the city that, in a parallel dimension, rises on the beaches of Las Grutas.
The Grutynos in Grutópolys, the city that, in the fiction created by Noy, is in a parallel dimension
They live in it those magical beings, which are 7. The patriarch is King Gruzyque or “lord of the bottomless bay.” He has the power of water, that is why “rivers and seas surrender at his feet.” He Prince Gruto is a poethas the power of the earth and telepathy. His wife is Princess Grutyna. When she sings, she heals and makes people good. Her children are Pulpyta (who has the power of fire and is the one who warms the waters of the spa) and Pulpyno, a musician who commands the wind. While Yno, the sea sprite, is the most powerful of all the Grutynos. That’s why he is loved and feared in equal parts.
From left to right, Gruto, Gruzyque, Grutyna and Yno. Below, Pulpyno and Pulpyta
Yno is Noy, a mix of letters that lead to the family name. Hence that affable but feared elf, who has a childish face despite being the oldest of all (every 700 human years one ages) He is the most similar to all the men in his family who, like him, lived more than one life.
Because Beto Now he is determined to take his characters to the top, and to put together a space made of recycled material in Las Grutas, Let it become a village where the kids play. But He is, above all, a ‘seeker’, just as his father, Teodoro, was. That tailor, huckster and inveterate player who taught him the basics: to manage without an employer, and make that autonomy a tool for growth.
“I’m still working in the textile industry. I am a manufacturer and I have the Las Grutas business and some others, in Buenos Aires. The one here – by the spa – is managed by Laureano, one of my sons. I I’m 64 and I decided to dedicate myself fully to the Grutynos. I don’t make money with this, for now it’s all investment. In stories, comics, costumes… I want to offer something nice, and that takes a coin. But my head changed. For years I enjoyed selling. I loved commerce. Now I want to do everything the other way around. Win 10, and offer 90. This is how I imagine it would be in that recycled village that I want to build, so that the kids can visit my characters. That all neighbors who want to have a stand to offer “grutycomidas” or “grutybebidas” can do so, almost for nothing. That’s one of my dreams” he shared.
Alberto ‘Beto’ Noy and his characters
Its story began in Yuquiche, a rural area that is 35 kilometers southwest of Ingeniero Jacobacci. His father arrived there, selling fabrics and merchandise. Before that he met Elia, a dressmaker who he became his wife. They had 5 children. Fernando, the eldest, is the famous one in the family, a mythical figure from the Buenos Aires underground who is a poet, actor and represented artists of the stature of Leda Valladares and Egle Martin.
The Noy clan had a nomadic life. San Antonio and Las Grutas were part of that course, before settling in Buenos Aires. But the beaches, which always attracted Jaime like a magnet, made him return. And that younger brother, who was Beto’s weakness, convinced him to try his luck with a clothing business (which they called Noy Noy), which was finally a success.
At first they had a store in San Antonio and another in Las Grutas. Hoy, the one that persists is this last one, in the Casablanca gallery of the third descent.
“That’s why I ended up back here,” said the merchant, who recalled that His life changed once again when he separated from the mother of his three children.. “I got depressed. I lost interest in everything, I missed my boys,” she said. Her luck returned one afternoon. She was selling clothes and Three people came to ask for t-shirts of ‘Los Peques’, those Patagonian elves created by Christian Olmos that were seen on Cable Vision of Comahue. “I asked who they were because I didn’t know the series. AND “That inspired me to think about characters for this area, a family of marine beings.” he remembered.
The first drawings were made by an employee of his store, who was skilled with a pencil and put Noy’s fantasy to paper. After That sketch was mutated by the hand of the cartoonist Ramón Gil, who today gives life to those stories, which were born in 2005. Gil worked for Disney and at Patagonik Film Group he helped shape Dibu, the cartoon for the series broadcast by Telefé. The initial scripts were by José Massaroli, which, between 2006 and 2008, he wrote for the strip published by the Viedma newspaper Noticias de la Costa.
One of the Grutynos comics
“In those years I was full-time, but then my ex-wife got sick and I abandoned the project for a long time. Now I took it back with everything, and I want to get to Netflix, because I have a contact. With Salvador Cambarieri, a local filmmaker, we are going to film short films to send to them, and see what happens,” Noy enthused.
Meanwhile, with his play every night he brings fantasy to the kids who visit Las Grutas. “What the kids give back is wonderful. That’s the only gain I think about today.” he finished, with enthusiasm.
Noy’s work can be seen from Wednesday to Sunday, on the second descent
In that little work, which From Wednesday to Sunday at 9pm it is presented at the Second Descent House of Culture (with entrance to the cap) Beto invites viewers to contribute to ecology, and asks to collaborate with plastic covers for the Garrahan hospital in Buenos Aires.
“We want to generate environmental awareness, because the mission of the Grutynos is to care for and protect nature,” noted Noy. The Holy Grail is also in the story. It appeared later, when the characters already had shape, and that gave a twist to the central plot.
In the typography of the name the Y was turned into a chalice
“I read a note where they developed the theory that the Knights Templar, in charge of guarding that chalice, had arrived in Patagonia. Specifically to Fuerte Argentino, that enormous plateau that is south of our beaches. That ended up inspiring me. The Grutynos became assistants to the Templars and in custodians of that light. In fact The “Y” that is in the name of almost all of them – and in my last name itself – in the graph became a chalice “dfood.
However, Before they were baptized that way, the characters were going to be called ‘gruteños’. “Like a mix of Las Grutas and locals, but then it was changed to the current form because it sounded better, and The Y closed just with the theme of the holy grail”Beto contributed.
Those who joined, furthermore, were the bad ones. “That It was a suggestion from Fernando, my artist brother. He told me that miscreants couldn’t be missing from a story to generate conflicts. The thing is, I had thought of a plot in which everything was love, and he was right. The villains just appeared there” he laughed.
In those stories The queen of darkness is Malizia, the mistress of evil. She has seven helpers (the seven deadly sins): Xira is anger, Abricia is greed, Tereza is laziness, Lula is gluttony, Servia is pride, Lidia is envy and Luria is lust..
Malizia in action. She is the “mistress of evil” and leads Xira, Abricia, Tereza, Lula, Servia, Lidia and Lula
“Like the goodness of the Grutynos, they also live within us, and Sometimes they take over what we do. That’s why we have to defeat them, and let the light side win.” he shared, reflective.
“That’s a nice message too. of improvement for the boys” he concluded, smiling.