“I like to name the streets, give clues to the reader about the times in which the events take place. I like stories with real coordinates.”
Alberto Rivera
The life of this group of friends will never be the same again. After the demolition of the Junín theater, in Medellín, and the commissioning of the Coltejer building, dreams seem to go to unexpected places.
As if it were a story of Italian neorealism, this novel by Juan Diego Mejía, published for the first time more than twenty years ago, invites us to discover a city, a world that was to change forever at the end of the seventies. , and the love that runs through the hearts of youth. If the city seems to change forever, Camila, the protagonist of this beautiful story of formation, seems to revive them forever. Work of Tusquets Editores.
Camila, the protagonist, is carried away by the wind that drags the motorcycle and promises to be brave in life and in death. How is that delivery to her friends?
Camila is a girl who has learned to face life alone. She lives in a very popular neighborhood of Medellín, she works in a flower shop, she has a high sense of honor and dignity. These are hectic times. Young boys from wealthy families play at being worthy of the love of whoever they choose. Camila knows that she is the one who decides and she doesn’t want to be anyone’s trophy. At the final moment, she gives them a lesson in courage, without fear, without hope.
It is Medellín in the seventies, with protagonists who live the night as if the world was going to end…
It is the seventies, when the city begins to transform. Entire families come from all over the country in search of job opportunities in textile companies such as Coltejer and others. The Junín Theater fell, which had been the cultural symbol of 20th century Medellín, and in its place the building representing the new industry was built. The protagonists also live a moment of transition in their lives. They stop being children and find a world full of adventures in front of their eyes.
How do these young people who are beginning to awaken the world live in the city?
They have the expectation for what comes for them after leaving school. They know that life will be different and they savor the freedom of walking the streets, appropriating public places where they and only they can be. They dream of women who will love them. They do not know the darkness of death.
The book was published 20 years ago… would anything change it?
In the book review we only update some spelling signs that have evolved in recent years. The story is told the same, with no changes to the characters, no alterations to the plot. I think Camila Todoslosfuegos is still valid for young people today, just as it was for young people before. The heart beats the same. The dreams remain.
He has published stories and novels about Medellín, so he is the holder of the city’s secrets…
I like to think that I am a writer from Medellín. It is a way of understanding that in this city there are enough stories and dramas that interest us contemporary human beings. I like to name the streets, give clues to the reader about the times in which the events take place. I like stories with real coordinates.
In 1996 he won the Colcultura national novel prize. What book allowed you to open that door? What is it about?
In 1996 my novel El cine era mejor que la vida won the Colcultura prize, perhaps the last before becoming the Ministry of Culture. It is a story about Medellín in the sixties. A boy sees how his father gets drunk and to overcome his sadness he clings to cowboy movies, his characters, and falls in love with actresses.
Do you like any of your six books the most? Which?
I have published nine narrative books, including two short story books. Now Editorial Planeta is going to reissue them and that makes me wonder if there would be a favorite one. Now I know that I only have distance with a novel written thirty-five years ago that won a contest and was published by Planeta. I see her fragile. I don’t want to expose her anymore. The other books don’t give me as many nightmares. I can live with them equally.
Any advice for writers starting out on the road?
There are more and more names of authors, more books that are published. So one wonders, how to enter this world that seems inaccessible? I only have one idea, and I have practiced it: attentive ears to listen to the voices that speak within one. The voices that come from outside do not allow one to be heard. From outside they say to one: be famous, sell many books. But inside they speak differently. They speak the stories that shook us and stayed forever in our hearts.
Do you have any new work to interest your readers?
I am writing about a soldier in the Colombian national army who lost his leg to an antipersonnel mine. I am interested in his father’s love for the soldier.
Who is Juan Diego Mejia?
A man who at seventy is under construction.