.
Gracias al aporte y autorización del
Poeta Javier Tafur González
y de la traductora
.
.
OF THE NOVEL’S LIFE OF JOVITA´S LIFE
By Javier Tafur González
Traductora Diana Herrera Bernal
To Gabriel Ruiz and María Isabel Casas, who suggested making this recount of the biographies of Jovita
and other motivations related to her
reign and her world of realities and fantasies
As I
have said many times, when I was studying ethnology at Paris, at Sorbonne
University, when in December of 1970, Frisco Gonzalez Reyes, my classmate at
Law School at Universidad Santiago de Cali, who was studying History at Leipzig
University, visited me. As usual, we spoke about our days in Europe and
discussed the last events of our country among all of them; the most important
was how impacting meant for him to be the witness of Jovita´s Feijóo funeral.
He narrated in such a vivid way, that I still remember his gesture of surprise,
which revealed the impression of what an incredible experience.
For
others, it could have passed as the story of a daily chronicle, belonging of a
typical character, but it was not so the double perspective of our studies: we
take up what happened as a sociological fact of unequaled transcendence.
Sometimes Jovita was thought like crazy; then it was possible a question, ¿what
kind of madness are we talking about? From her´s or the city? That was a
strange and disturbing question, which is why we decided to delve into the
elements that surrounded such a significant unprecedented demonstration, then,
without after fifty years, a collective expression of such magnitude has
occurred, despite the importance and value of many of our deceased fellow
citizens.
The
fingerprint of this conversation and its impression remained on me from that
moment, and applying research techniques typical of ethnology and social
anthropology, when I returned to Cali I decided to rebuild the exciting and
mysterious life of Jovita.
I
began by reaching her maternal family and, through this, her friends, her
acquaintances, and relatives, gathering a relevant corpus: handwriting letters
in which she uses a language from the Spanish Golden Age, calling Marco Tulio
Villalobos and other friends, her "shields"; pictures as a child and
teenager, and of special moments of her daily life with famous people, as well
as with her neighborhood, newspaper archives that recorded relevant participation
of her in the social events, most of them narrated picaresquely, as they
frequently ask questions in this regard, which I included in the prologue of
the first edition of 1976 and I considered it appropriate to return to the 2019
edition, to answer these concerns.
Before
the book's version, I had other options in mind, but when I realized that the
research made was a "Jovita's Soulgraphy", then I understood her, I
comprehend her and I got involved with her dreams and regrets, with her
illusions and sorrows, with her strength and loneliness, and I felt those
prevailing values that she had, and that I
could try to resume in authenticity, autonomy and a willingness to drive
the world her way.
Thus
I described her to Épocas Magazine (Edition No. 201, July 2020), paying Her
Majesty an admired tribute by the importance and appreciation she faced, on the
occasion of the 50th anniversary of her death and 110th of her birth:
Jovita
walked the blocks of Cali like the queen on the city's chessboard; she was not
going like the pawn, step by step; nor like the tired king, slow, slow; she was
faster than the horse jumps, the bishop diagonal, or the mighty rook. Jovita
with her queenly demeanor and her dresses, gloves, bracelets, and necklaces,
with her tropical hats, walked the streets and avenues, under the pergolas that
border the tutelary river, carried and brought by her dreams and chimeras.
Jovita
is one of the most beloved characters in Cali and Palmira's history, (she was
born in Bolo Alizal on June 6, 1910), and she was always recognized for the
courage and audacity to be herself since authenticity was her hallmark. During
his sixty (60) years (she died in Cali on July 15, 1970), she characterized by
his real and carefree, quixotic ways, participating in every tournament, fair,
or pageant. She was the sovereign of a thousand crowns, and there will be none
that looks as many as her lofty temples shone. When she died, on the eve of the
Panamerican Games, his journey completed the Cali Viejo cycle, which began in
1910 with the creation of the Department of Valle del Cauca and ended with the
beginnings of the Cali's modernization, with the construction of public and
private projects, assuming the challenges of their growing needs and future
projection.
No other
local character, natural or adopted, had received a bigger show of affection
than the people of Cali gave to Jovita on the occasion of her departure when
they took to the streets to accompany her remains to the Central Cemetery, as
was recorded by the radio and local and national newspapers. Already the new
generations, when they ask for her, the only woman in the regional statuary,
know that an answer full of magic and colorful awaits them that tells of a city
and identifies an era, incarnated in a simple woman that reached without a
doubt, her fantasy kingdom.
For
the first edition I had the collaboration of both the Occidente newspaper and
the Beneficencia del Valle, as their managers, Dr. Germán Villegas Villegas and
Dr. Pablo Rubén Vernaza, respectively, showed interest in the publication as
well as the solidarity of Arcesio Villa, Hernán Nicholls, Javier Villa, Fernell
Franco, Frisco González, Aníbal Arias, Phanor Terán, Hernando Tejada and the
kindness and advice of the doctor, musician and writer Alberto Dow, and of
Soledad Mangada Esteban.
In
the first edition release, the Liberia Nacional certified that it was the
best-selling book of that year. It was the demonstration of the affection that
the people of Cali and the Valle del Cauca had for Jovita, and that by the
effusion of the chroniclers, columnists, writers, historians, and people in
general, who were giving their opinion about the opportunity of her biography,
her image was revived as a second wave of affection, added to the curiosity to know
unpublished, dear, funny and picturesque details, with her achievements and her
singularities, and that local color that she always had since her first
youthful crown, in the stage of Radio Higueronia.
On
the occasion of the first edition and seduced by the adventures of the queen,
Rodolfo Salcedo Borrero, director of Cali Capers, made a first version for
theater following the plot of the novel. Later, other playwrights would come to
take care of it, privileging different passages to stage her life, beautifully
recreated in the popular imagination, as we will see later, in the course of
time and her vivid memory.
For
the commemoration of the 450 years of the founding of Santiago de Cali, Mayor
Julio Riascos Álvarez decided to give the gift of three thousand copies in the
neighborhoods of the city, especially in those near downtown, where most of her
admirers were, as the burgomaster considered:
"the exemplar allows a valid approximation to a period of our
social life, as in his time were El Alférez Real and other literary
works." Therefore, was born the second edition printed by Editorial XYZ,
in 1984, with the collaboration and support of León Octavio Osorno
"Balita", who except for the introduction, which was dispensed with
for this edition, the book remained the same.
The
third edition was made at Arte Color Impresores, with beautiful gouache by the
artist Antonio Patiño Santa, who, to get closer and discover the character,
walked the city accompanied by a professional photographer walking the streets
and places where the life of our beloved walker passed, to soak up her typical
environment. The rigorous fieldwork carried out by the artist Patiño Santa
allowed him, in addition, to identify her preferences, customs, and hobbies,
counting on very particular support, that of the secretary of the poet León de
Greiff, Gilma Camacho, who as an actress played Jovita and depending on the
locations, she wore the queen's wardrobe. A whole libretto of social
anthropology and sociology to capture her powerful personality in her
environment. A valuable anecdote in the endearing chain of surprises that the
impressive survival of his spirit offers us. This edition, which had a
circulation of a thousand copies, was printed at Arte Color Impresores, whose
owner, Francisco Vernaza intervened meticulously since he was a Jovita's
neighbor in the traditional neighborhood of San Nicolás, near to El Hoyo.
The
fourth edition, published in 2005 to celebrate 50 years of Coéxito, by Don
Ernesto Mejía Amaya, became the canonical narration of the Biography of
Illusions, with this beautiful note from its sponsor on the back cover: "This
costumbrist novel about our unparalleled Jovita Feijóo, and in which the city
is narrated, the Cali before the Pan American Games, was written years ago; now
it is taken up by the author as a painter takes up an old sketch from his
artist's notebook, to illuminate it with details that make it more beautiful
and colorful. In this version, the author reminds us once again the delightful
feats of the eternal queen of Cali's people with a refined, colloquial, clear
language, full of suggestions and beautiful poetry".
This
hard-cover edition, with a print run of 3000 copies, exhibited on the cover a
beautiful painting of the queen wearing a large crown, made by the artist Diego
Pombo, and on the back cover, three little portraits of Jovita crowned, made by
this same artist, the transcribed text and the logo of the company in
solidarity with the publication. It was printed by Imágenes Gráficas S.A.,
thanks to the valuable support of Carlos Juri.
In
November of that same year, a stunning portrait of Jovita, in acrylic on
canvas, made by the artist María Esperanza Londoño Jaramillo, illustrated the
cover of the fifth edition published by the Cali Chamber of Commerce with a
print run similar to the previous one, the which continued with the classic
photography of Fernell and the Chinese ink pens of the artist Hernando Tejada,
as well as with the paintings of the artist Diego Pombo and the manuscript of
the queen, addressed to Marco Tulio Villalobos.
Julián
Domínguez Rivera, manager of Cali's Chamber of Commerce, invited us to read the
novel to follow her adventures and misadventures, learn about her nobility and
helplessness and thrill us "by reading the soul of this exceptional
woman". When Mr. Dominguez
presented Jovita's biography to the members of the Cali's Chamber of Commerce,
he wondered: ¿What did this beloved character have to endure through
generations and be a spiritual reference in the region? And the answer was made
with this beautiful statement, which was printed on the back cover: "Undoubtedly
her charisma and the consistent defense of her ideals of authenticity and
freedom. Jovita did not give explanations but to herself, consistent with her
way of being and the goodness of her inevitable daily projects".
At
that time, the sixth edition of Jovita was already circulating on digital
avenues, and numerous photographs showed her tours of the different places
where her urban, dreamy, flourishing nomadism took her.
It
is pertinent to mention in this chronology related to Jovita, that the Fifth
Cali Theater Festival was publicized and promoted with a poster of Jovita
crowned, made from a painting by Diego Pombo. As well in those days, the writer
Fernando Vidal wrote his play "Jovita in front of the broken mirror"
and chose Gloria González as the main character, which was presented at the
Teatro La Concha. The artistic design for the play was elaborated by the artist
Carlos Alberto Zuluaga, as dreamy as his model and who bluntly mentioned that
he was "touched" by her halo; because of her influence, he became an
artist and found his destiny. And so
evident is this, that his own house turned it into the Jovita's museum where
you can see and admire clothes, objects, letters, paintings, collages,
caricatures, sculptures, newspapers, magazines, clippings, postcards, poems,
booklets, skirts, blouses, scarves, shawls, an assortment of shoes, ornaments,
necklaces from the time, which Carlos Alberto himself had already exhibited in
an exhibition at the La Merced Church Museum.
Is
to be seen in Gloria's performance in the role of Jovita, with the stage
direction of Fernando Vidal, the understanding with her dreams and fears, with
her gait and dresses, because it embodies
her in such a way that the new generations can identify her in the skin of the
actress.
In
2006, in the workshops of Impresora Feriva, the book "In Praise of
Insanity, The Queen in Check" was published by Ivan Barlahan Montoya,
winner of the National Playwriting Award at the Cali Theater Festival. The back
cover carries the following note from the jury: "The author reveals
historical knowledge of the city of Cali and the characters recalled, which are
contextualized with success and creativity. Jovita Feijóo is recognizable, her
interventions in the work embody the symbolic values she represented. The fable
creates interesting and amusing situations, while at the same time it is
socially critical. A remarkable transformation takes place: that historical and
helpless being, who was a typical caricatured character, now deceased, does not
succumb, and by transcending her existence in art, she fulfills a sublimated
role; a certain triumph of madness over the labeling and stigmatization of the
dominant values" (Jurors Germán Espinosa, Manuel José Sierra, and
Javier Tafur).
In
the case of Ivan Montoya, it is essential to mention his devotion to Jovita,
and who after the death of the queen (if she ever died) always represented her
in the parades of Cali Viejo, wearing her crown and scepter, her notorious
royalty and genuine courtly greetings, with her face painted with overflowing
joy to see her subjects applauding her and throwing confetti and colored
streamers that gave a warm festive tone to the passage of the typical float.
Ivan
told me when he was very young and arrived to Cali, he joined the TEC and that
he served as props for the first play in which he was involved, which was none
other than the Madwoman of Chaillot, the beautiful work of Jean
Giraudoux, who, like our dear Jovita, was carried away by her fantasies. In
such a way that his disposition to interpret it had this precedent of the
master Enrique Buenaventura.
For
2008 for the seventh edition, the famous and iconic Fernell's photo, and
Hernando Tejada's pencil illustrated the cover. El Bando Creativo was in charge
of the edition, from the publicist and printer Roberto Caro, who together with
the artist Carlos Alberto Zuluaga, had won the contest for the poster of the
Cali's Fair, being Jovita the motif, which appears on the back cover,
strikingly prominent, along with another of his motifs in which it appears
crowned, by the artist Diego Pombo.
In
2010 the eighth edition was published, a special commemorative edition of the
100th anniversary of the birth of the singer from Higueronia, printed by Bando
Creativo, which followed the format of the fifth edition, with a new and
colorful cover, designed by this publishing house; the ninth edition reproduces
the canonical version that was published by Coéxito but it is digital and can
be consulted on the web page www.tafurgonzalezasociados.org
The
tenth was published by Artecolor Impresores S.A.S. although it was written in
2008 and corresponds to the conversion of each chapter of the novel into a
sonnet ending with a Ballad of Love for the Queen. The shirt pocket format was
used; on the cover was printed a photograph taken by William Arias from
Infocus, of a sculpture of Jovita made by the artist Oscar Estaban Martínez, in
which the queen has the victorious pose of La Libertad by Eugene
Delacroix. This edition was published on
the occasion of the uprising of the statue of Her Majesty made by Diego Pombo,
in El Parque de Los Estudiantes, next to Santa Librada.
The
eleventh version follows this version, with the same content, but with a
different format, printed by Artecolor Impresores SAS, in a medium-sized
folding sheet, with the same cover, but framed with borders made with numerous
illustrations related to Jovita made by different artists.
Around
this same period, I wrote a version for the theater (twelfth) entitled:
"Breaking of residence" which is still unpublished, where I describe
a scene from the 1976 version, in which the girls of the Manrique family, at
the Belalcázar neighborhood, taking advantage of the fact that Jovita had gone
out to do her inevitable "twists and turns" they enter her
room to look around: they see their packages of newspapers, open and scatter
them, take out their things, put on their dresses, kettles, hats, gloves, and
necklaces, her shoes, have fun imitating her glamorous ways, making fun of her,
but they are finely surprised to see her arrive unexpectedly.
In
2016, the Biography of Illusions (thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth) was
offered to the public with three beautiful covers: on the cover, the sculpture
of Oscar Esteban Martínez in the Infocus photograph by William Arias; in the
interior ink illustrations by master Hernando Tejada; paintings by the masters
Diego Pombo and Carlos Alberto Zuluaga, and the authentic manuscript, loaned by
the primitivist painter and goalkeeper of América de Cali, Marco Tulio
Villalobos.
By
the invitation of Nicolás Ramos Gómez, President of the Society of Public
Improvements of Cali, on August 5, 2017, I presented the Minimal Biography of
the Queen, a genre desired by other types of readers and that facilitates the
story of her life. This text, sixteenth, appears published in small format,
with the sonnets and the ballad. The cover presents a Jovita with an umbrella,
remembering the Freedom of Eugene Delacroix, a sculpture made by the master
Oscar Esteban Martínez; the photograph is from Infocus, taken by William Arias;
Darlyn Vanessa Medina Valencia, layout artist, did the interior composition.
This edition brings the inevitable photo of Fernell, the ink illustrations of
the master Hernando Tejada, paintings of the master Diego Pombo, gouache of the
master Antonio Patiño and a photograph of the author together with another
sculpture of the master Oscar Esteban Martínez, taken by the master Andrés
Giovanny Rozo Samera.
In
July of 2019, the seventeenth edition was published in Litocolor Impresores
S.A.S., directed by Francisco Vernaza. One of the most beautiful paintings by
the master Diego Pombo illustrates the cover of this book: the stunning and
mythical ascent of Jovita to the heavens of collective memory to the surprise
of the people of Cali, floating on a cloud, covered with stars, with a diadem
and a flower on the right side of her hair, well made up and her gaze
flirtatious, wearing on the lap of her imperial yellow dress a set of
colourful chontaduros,
in the background the tropical palm trees, San Antonio and the rolling hills,
the Farallones mountains, and that tone blue sky, while below, a staircase,
figures from history, carnival and entertainment; the bizarre people meeting
with the religious, civil and military authorities; the people of the different
levels, professions, jobs and conditions, scrambled, contemplating in amazement
the event, which our inspired artist beautifully paints. The back cover is a
mosaic made with some of the covers from previous editions.
This
latest edition closes a cycle of fifty years and starts a new journey for the
diffusion of Jovita's extraordinary life: the audiobook, the table book, the
comic, the children's book, the documentary, the short film, and the film.
Indeed, a pleasant recording of the minimal biography is already circulating,
in the Cali's accent of Paola Caro (2020), which can be listened at
https://www.facebook.com/JovitaFeijoo.Monarca/videos/743903409684313
and
at https://youtu.be/oRVTvyi62RE
Jovita
for children will be directed by Sacha Tafur Mangada and Irene Tafur Mangada.
And the Jovita’s coffee table book, under the direction of Raúl Fernández de Soto,
with the layout and illuminations of Luis Meza, in which, while reading his
quixotic adventures and misadventures, you can see the streets of Cali Viejo
that Jovita was walking through, for which the city itself narrates its
history, making this book in a family album of the town.
Throughout
these years this unique Jovita stopped being a typical character, a source of
laughter and outrage on some occasions, to fill a favorite place in the
feelings of Cali’s people. The new generations understand her actions and
highlight her authenticity and courage to pursue her illusions, just as she
defended her independent, kind, vain, and beautiful way of living.
This
retelling of the history of Jovita makes it possible to record the irresistible
attraction that it has had on artists, painters, composers, sculptors,
storytellers, playwrights, actors, journalists, designers, printers,
historians, psychologists, sociologists, and hundreds of people from different
occupations and professions because, in one way or another they have expressed
interest in knowing everything related to this character, among which, to name
a few, we can mention: José Pardo Llada,
Álvaro Bejarano Moncayo, Raúl Silva Holguín, Helena Benítez de Zapata, Félix
Orejuela Rivera, Andrés Caicedo Estella, Frisco González (father and son),
Álvaro Calero, Jorge Caro Copete, Héctor León Mina, Ana Milena Masso, Gustavo
Álvarez Gardeazábal, Umberto Valverde, presbyter Alfonso Hurtado Galvis, etc.
Mrs.
Amparo Sinisterra de Carvajal said of her: "Her existence was
undoubtedly a beautiful lesson of life and wisdom"; and José Edier
Gómez noted that the young, jovial Jovita eternally returns, with her kind soul
and her penetrating gaze, for the evocation we make of her, "who
touched the hand of the powerful in the same way she embraced their paper
flowers."
Jovita
is unforgettable. Her life always wants to be known and the interest in her
grows every day, occupying governmental, cultural, academic, and journalistic
spaces, as well as advertising and show business and in the university
community. That is why the television had been interested in her, in the 110
years of its birth and 50 years of its transcendence and especially on the
occasion of the celebration of the 484 years of the founding of Cali. Likewise,
the Secretaries of Culture of Cali and Palmira arranged panel discussions . The Universidad Libre,
Seccional Cali, scheduled conferences. The city's newspapers published her
photographs and recorded her achievements, including the chronicles of Santiago
Cruz for El País
(http://santiagocruzhoyos.blogspot.com/2010/07/jovita-cuarenta-anos-tanmuerta)
and Manuel Vicente Guevara for El Espectador. She has also been the subject of
several degree thesis.
Here
I must mention Épocas Magazine, of Raúl Fernández de Soto, continuer of a
family saga that started Occidental Magazine, founded by his uncle Jaime
Fernández de Soto Sanclemente, whose pages have recorded the being, happening
and events of the city and the protagonists of its history. This brief
chronicle allows an overall view and shows the transcendence of Jovita's life,
her endearing validity in the heart of the people of Valle del Cauca, the
validity of her values of authenticity, independence, and freedom, which she
represents and survives in the imaginary, which is collected by the youth and
described by the master Pombo, in the painting of the queen ascending to the
skies of the collective memory.
In
the digital avenues, we find on the Internet a presentation of the characters
of Cali Viejo, where Jovita keeps a notable place (2011); a biography: "Infinity
Queen - The story of Jovita Feijóo" by María José Gómez (2013); "Jovita,
eternal Queen" (2014); "Jovita, Master of life" a
program directed by Adalgiza Charria, which takes a close look at her value
among minority groups, her efforts to make their rights visible, followed by a
beautiful poem by Adalgiza dedicated to the queen (2014).
Continuing
through the streets, avenues, and twists and turns that the memory of Jovita's
life has traveled, we must mention the thesis of Laura Ramirez Leon, to opt the
title of Social Communicator and journalist, which made it of "The
socio-cultural construction on the character of Jovita Feijóo from stories of
Cali artists in the context of the cultural memory of the city" in
2014.
In
his methodical and well-founded thesis, with a pertinent theoretical framework
and a corpus of work made up of interviews with Maestro Diego Pombo, the actor
and playwright Iván Barlahan Montoya and myself, complemented with research in
journalistic, photographic, and library archives and other auxiliary means, it
shows the factors that influenced the maintenance and continuity of the
sociocultural construction of such a beloved character.
Unquestionably,
the sculpture of Master Diego Pombo, as a daily reference, has contributed to her
popularity, without forgetting that it was this same popularity that motivated
the elaboration of the statue, which was erected on December 31, 2007. The sculpture has a height of 4.10 meters and
is built in polyester resin and fiberglass. This milestone in the history of
female statuary in our region, which raises the illusions of this simple and
beloved woman to a symbolic value, interprets the idiosyncrasy of the people of
Valle del Cauca, open, receptive, informal, and participatory, was achieved
thanks to the Secretary of Culture and Tourism Municipal of Cali, the Chamber
of Commerce of Cali and, decisively, the support of Mariana Garcés Córdoba,
when she was Minister of Culture, who enthusiastically promoted this
significant identity project of Cali.
Master
Diego Pombo, explained to the journalists about his sculpture, that first, he
molded the head in clay, then he made a plaster mold; that when the three large
bodies of the sculpture were already built, he installed them in the front
garden of his house, in San Fernando, and took on the final task of painting
and decorating Jovita. The sculptor indicated that he accentuated certain
personal features for the characterization of the queen (her big nose, her
intense gaze), at the same time that he highlighted in her the body of the
woman from Cali. (These data can be consulted www.elpais.com.co/ Thursday,
January 3, 2008).
The
interest of the university community about Jovita has been permanent throughout
these fifty years; if in life she called the attention of journalists and
attracted chroniclers, after her passing she has been the subject not only of
artists, but also of students of sociology, psychology, communication (see
Laura Ramirez), literature and arts, and that is how we find another approach
in "Jovita is Cali, 3 looks about Jovita Feijóo", audiovisual
of 7:03 minutes, made by Daniela Rabaza, Fabio Lopera, Paola Caro (who made the
audiobook of the Minimal Biography of Jovita, written by me for the Sociedad de
Mejoras Públicas from Cali, as previously mentioned). In this video, made on
March 15, 2013, Professor Pablo Van Wong also participated and can be accessed
on the Internet, through the following link: https://vimeo.com/63186094. The
new-look in this approach is that of Carlos Alberto Zuluaga, now deceased, but
who fortunately had the opportunity to account for the power of Jovita's
influence, which determined his life project, a subject subjugated by her
irresistible vital force, as we have already mentioned.
The
scope of this seduction and yoke of Carlos Alberto for Jovita is increased and
appreciated on all its importance, in the interview in "Master of
Life" (Jovita Feijóo, Youtube, January 3, 2014), a television program
directed by the writer Adalgiza Charria, in which he confesses his spell, and
makes one of the most beautiful reflections on the eternal queen: he describes
her ageless, highlights her self-love, self-acceptance and the particular
beauty of her being, and he philosophically interprets her world view,
respectfully observing how each one has difficulty in defining existence: "
Nor
even ourselves do not know what reality we are in".
Carlos Alberto claims her legendary efforts as a spokesperson for the
dispossessed of the neighborhoods of Cali, against the administrators of
bureaucratic, political, and administrative power, such as giants or mills,
insensitive and indolent to their needs, and the struggle she gave to solve her
deficiencies, but, to conclude, that she always came out strengthened and
optimistic about all her causes, thanking her Shields. On her side, Adalgiza
writes the poem "Jovita in flames", a beautiful composition
that exalts the meaning that the queen gave to her exemplary journey. The
curatorship of the Jovita Museum continues under the affectionate
responsibility and care of Jorge Zabaraín, at the headquarters of the La Concha
Theater, in Carrera 4 No. 10-48, in the San Antonio neighborhood.
There
is an English version, by Elke Alegría H: " A Brief story of Jovita
Feijóo", in the Magazine Mi Gente (2016); and another, made by Jairo
Moldón Rossi, "Jovita, eternal queen" (2017). Cali yesterday and
today, constantly adds new photos (www.facebook.com), and the enumeration
continues: in Biography Cali TV, another biography of the infinite queen is
presented in January, as if in the solar calendar, year after year our beloved
character should be enthroned in the hearts of the people, in an endless
greeting of love, recognition, and admiration. Jovita is unquestionably the
symbol of the city, and in Cali she meets again and expresses her sympathy for
its quixotic, colorful adventures and misadventures, recalling its sorrows and
glories, and that voice that José Edier Gómez reminds us: "Hey, my son,
excuse me, see" ...
And
the "spell" reached to "Delirio." This group of salsa,
circus, and orchestra from Cali, dedicated several presentations to the queen,
interpreted by the artist Brando Pérez (www.facebook.com), giving the work a
national diffusion and inviting the author of his biography to his
representation, with a kind gesture of appreciation for the work done for the
durability of the incomparable Jovita.
Last
but not least, I would like to thank María Isabel Casas and Gabriel Ruiz for
their suggestions and motivation to write this retell; Roberto Caro and
Francisco Vernaza for welcoming Jovita in their publishing houses; Darlin
Vanessa Medina Valencia for her beautiful compositions; Luis Meza for the
drawings, lighting and layout of Jovita's book, in large format; Clara Luz
Roldán, Governor of the Department of Valle; María Leonor Cabal, Secretary of
Economic Development and Competitiveness of the departmental government; to
Jorge Iván Ospina, Mayor of Cali; to José Darwin Lenis Mejía, Secretary of
Culture of the Municipality; to Leonardo Medina Patiño, Subsecretary of
Heritage, Libraries and Cultural Infrastructure; to Juan Pablo Molina
Echeverri, President of Propal; to Raúl Fernández de Soto, for his jovitesc
enthusiasm as the new shield of the Queen's causes; to my children Sacha and
Irene Tafur Mangada; and to Norma Myriam Bejarano Guzmán, for her accompaniment
in this new stage of life and the revision of the novel of Jovita's life, and
to each and every one of those who have contributed to the monumental
construction of her memory and the rescue of her illusions.
It
is pertinent to reiterate that the meticulous investigation of Jovita's life
allowed us to know in detail aspects of her existence during her journey
through this valley, and that, although the novel is based on the documents,
testimonies and data collected, The Biogrpahy of the Illusions corresponds to a
literary work, consequently there are narrative licenses, descriptions,
vicissitudes, and circumstances, typical of this type of creations, with which
the author considered pertinent to set the suggestive flow of her daily life.
This
account, including the digressions, proves the extraordinary attraction that
she awakened, her magic and, in my particular case, the impact that Frisco's
story of her burial had, which awakened in me the obsessive desire to
reconstruct her life and divulge it so that the adventures and adversities
Jovitescas would remain in people's hearts.
----
* Documento
fuente, en español
* NTC … 19 de agosto de 2020
DE LA VIDA DE LA NOVELA DE LA VIDA DE JOVITA. 1970 – 2020
/ 1910 – 1970 - 2020. Por Javier Tafur González. A Noviembre 8 de 2020
http://ntc-narrativa.blogspot.com/2020_08_19_archive.html
Gracias al aporte y autorización del
Poeta Javier Tafur González
y de la traductora
.
