Ramón Ayala: "Some poets do not have that tremble that has the word that gives it the musical criterion"

Ramón Ayala (multiple artist, born Ramón Cidade in Posadas, Misiones, March 10, 1927) is late for the interview. Although the appointment is in his own house, the first floor of the Buenos Aires district of Balvanera, with large windows of mattresses and painted walls painted by him. The folkloric seaside has a good reason: he has fallen recently and this has affected his walk. The one who opens the door is his wife, Maria Teresa, the muse and subject of love poems with which she begins her sixth book, Poems, stories and stories of the road, recently published by the Universidad Nacional del Sur, which includes illustrations by the author, and which he presents at CCK this Sunday at 19, where the author will also play some songs from his musical repertoire. The previous one was Paraguay's trays, popular songs about the Great War (2015), in an edition of the Ministry of Culture of the Nation, which reveals in the verses of the Triple War Alliances of different voices, including the mother of the author, María Morel, or Dominguito, the son of Sarmiento who died in the Battle of Curupayty, illustrated by Ayala himself.

Trousers and slack shirt, brown hair and mustache somewhat lighter than in his photos Marcos López, director of the documentary Ramón Ayala (2013), which illustrates this note. Ayala is the author of more than 300 songs, some of them installed some time ago in the popular Argentine song such as Cute Posadeña or Harvester. songs with history like menstrual. that, according to her own Ayala in the story that closes her book, Che Guevara he sang in the camps of the Sierra Maestra; or Cachapecero, who immortalized Mercedes Sosa. He meets, finds himself with difficulty and answers questions in his own way, with some inevitable gaps in his memory, interfering with his answers with the songs a chapel, rhythms marked with clicks to illustrate, rhymes or words invented at that time, jokes, childhood memories. As if the artist (and a certain artist like Ayala, who always acted as a gaucho) never stopped to represent. Although it is in a fantasy scenario.

–He is the creator of a rhythm, gualambao. Can you explain how it is? It's like champs?

– The opposite of the Latin rhythms, there are two of four, such as tango or carnival, this is very sensual, it is a rhythm of love. It's not even close to the chameleon, because what's important in the invention is that it's originality. If we go into the chamam, we are lost, because we will always be subject to something. Here we are kings. Because who wants to play gualambao He has to come to us. From a technical point of view, there are three steps and a "paradise" is twelve to eight. Four ternary times. It's a broad spectrum rhythm. They asked me: How did you reach this rhythm that has so much connection between things? Where did you reach, Ramon, those channels that go up there? And well, I said, there are things that go beyond one. It seems that everything is thought. Not. It's over. We took advantage of being there, I took it. And here it is.

Then he prepares his voice and tones his first stanzas Singing on the Uruguay River (Gualambao).

–Musician, poet, writer, painter and redaction. If I had to choose the best word, what would it be?

– I think it would be sensitivity. Or better: ultrasensitivity. Without wanting to make me altruistic (laughs).

–In addition to gualambao's invention, he introduced a ten-string guitar. Did it as a means to reveal the new rhythm?

– Yeah, because the guitar was something exotic, it was a person strange. And I could not break it. So, all of a sudden I was going to play it too gualambao. We took advantage of all these emanations and we launched. Because you have to pay attention to the body. If you do not listen to the body, you will lose yourself.

–Some of his songs have been hit, overtaken, and have ceased to belong to them in some way.

Yes. They even changed my mind and did what they wanted. Because I am generous with my work and since my work has a lot to offer, they are waiting for their feathers and flying. Because one is part of the planet Earth and when someone loves this planet and being born here, I do not know whether it is a coincidence or causality. Like someone said: there, in that corner, you need a language to say things on earth. We do not intend to generate or regenerate what is being done, but there are works on the Seashore that cause regret, which are not realized, which have, for example, beautiful music and a terrible letter.

–The opposite example would be someone like Horacio Quiroga, also a missionary. In your book, dedicate a poem. He captured the things on earth.

Yes. He lived there. He died in Buenos Aires, but his life did in Misiones. What a character he was. Yes, that was the "maximum master".

–Speaking of another "maxim," the first story of his book, The other one, refers to the story of Borges, Other. Thus, their texts could be inscribed in that dual tradition: Quiroga and the jungle, Borges, the city and the suburbs. Because you are missionaries and have lived most of your life in Buenos Aires.

– There are human beings who have come to this region and have been astonished and some have returned without being able to tame the region. I think the jungle is part of one and one is part of it. And there we escape and we think we are citizens, that we are long-distance citizens, kate, as they call it, "category". But no, what will we be? We are just part of this wonderful land.

–The first poems in his book look at love and are dedicated to his wife, Maria Teresa.

– These poems have long been formed. And as everything that transits into one or around one is marked or attached to love, when love is true and is maintained. They are things that nature commands. And when it's good, it's about to end, it looks at me bad, it's going well, something weird happens. From this, you have to achieve, if not, you will achieve another (laughs).

–Is that aspect, that of humor, a part of his personality?

Yes. It's this life humorous. As you can see, I like to invent words. For one day were words invented or not?

–Another invention of his are the dozens of "ayalianas". Stanzas of ten verses …

– Some verses with 8 syllables. Some, hencefable. The most important thing is that it sounds good. He searched for the music for words. Sometimes I notice this in Some poets do not have that trembling word that gives them the musical criterion. Because the music was born with the man. You have to be with her. Music and the word have to make couples because they are feminine. And the woman is the most beautiful event on the planet.

–And when did that taste of the story come about? In his book Confessions from an amazing house, talks about a childhood home in Misiones, full of mysteries. Is the origin?

Yes. I was with my father and I did not even know he was dying. The guy was lying down. He had a disease called "squalor" there. It was jaundice. I will be seven years old and suddenly I realized she was dying. I grabbed my hand and said, "Dear old man." At this moment, I realize what his image is. Now that I have a few unspeakable years (laughs), I see his image on the wall and say: "They called him the Patriarch rightly." He was young, very attractive and friendly. It would be no more than fifty years. My mother was 30 years old when she died. And we were five kids. And my mom sang the guitar and sang. He liked to compose. She had a beautiful voice. There was no one to doubt it. And there it happens: "And somebody is going to sing with bell sounds." It's a Neruda. I was surprised. This old lady must be discovered, I thought. But how our lives are so poorly adjusted sometimes. Because the area you traveled says something else, she has always gone through these parallel ways of creation. Finally, I decided to record for her next album a song of her that says (Ramón Ayala plays): "The white house of the glorious years awakened the dawn and the love I gave you, the white house of the old coquero, the fire of the earth …"After my father died, we moved, and when I was looking for a new home, his women came out, a blonde and a brunette, tell my mother:" Maria, depending on how you behave, you will be treated. "I was afraid, but the woman says," Do not worry, the house has its character, and you can get very important here because you do not pay the rent, borrow your house. "And the house began to move. "There, something started to shine in that house, what incredible is the Earth with the hidden joys.

–The earth is very present in its paintings and drawings, another facet of it as a creator.

-This is an intuitive part. I realized that I was able to draw, he did well and I always hit him. In school, he was already amazed by the teachers.

–One of his brothers, José Vicente Cidade, is also a musician. And he's the father of Walas, the massacre singer.

– Yes, Vicente is the author of the lyrics menstrual. Walas suddenly appeared or suddenly appeared in his life. It's something in the family. My sister Juliet was also a singer. I played very tango. He died about 40 years. Poor girl I was so naked of what a loving guy in his house, his family should be, and take care of him. I was a boy who suddenly entered that singing and guitar life and I beat him up. I had this almost mortal vocation, I totally gave up. Maybe we have neglected other things.

–And you have a daughter.

– There have always been significant things that have suddenly occurred. And many are moving to art. My daughter, the boyfriend of the song, got a contract to go to Chile. And suddenly he stopped writing and never sent me a letter. She is free. I never forbid him.

–What is his daughter's name?

– Her name is Amanda, like the song.

Ayala starts singing: "I remember Amanda wet street …"And he thinks, maybe he can remember.

* Ramon Ayala It is presented on November 25 at 19 o'clock at the top of the CCK. Free tickets can be withdrawn personally in Sarmiento 151 until the capacity of the room is exhausted or reserved by www.cck.gob.ar