Nothing has really happened to me during these 16 years: I've not lost anybody, any relative or friend; one or two friends are now living outside the country, but that's all. I never suffered anything; I've not been persecuted, nothing. Only once, I was under arrest for eight hours. Those eight hours were because I was visiting a friend who had been taken to gaol and I was held there for a little interrogation - quite cordial and friendly and respectful. So nothing happened to me. And yet I don't think there is anything in my life that is half as important to me as the coup. The rest is nothing compared to that. Up to that point I was interested only in Medieval Spanish literature. Now I can't understand it: how could I?

LRB 26 July 1990 | PDF Download