the songwriter Giovanna Manuel Serrat inaugurated yesterday evening, Friday, in the city of Santa Fe di Rosario a walk that bears his name and that of his great Argentine friend, the late writer and cartoonist Roberto “Nero” Fontanarrosalocated at the corner of the mythical bar El Cairo where “two hearts that have always lived together” meet, he said.
“I never thought we could meet in an afternoon like today, in the midst of so many people and so much love, forming a corner with my dear friend Roberto Fontanarrosa, with whom I was lucky enough to share spaces of life, fantasies, joys , dream and above all have fun with him, “said Serrat, who will start his farewell tour of Argentina in Rosario tonight, entitled” The Vice of Singing “.
The deed was at the intersection of the streets Santa Fe and Sarmiento, in what is now called the Serrat-Fontanarrosa cornerright in front of the El Cairo bar, where the so-called “Mesa de los Gallants” had been meeting for years, an ironic name for Rosario’s group of friends led by Fontanarrosa, where Serrat once joined.
The words of the Nano
Naming that corner Paseo Serrat-Fontanarrosa was a decision by the Rosario City Council to honor the local writer and foreign singer, who met in Spain during the 1982 World Cup, according to Serrat.
The friendship between them began to grow the following year, when Joan Manuel visited him in Argentina on a tour of the country. They have since sealed a relationship that now leads to the inauguration of the walk that bears their surnames.
“El Negro was a person who barely conveyed his anxieties and pains, ate them a lot, and instead constantly conveyed his happiness of being alive, his curiosity about life, his desire to simply be what he liked to be : a man who wrote a lot and very well, who drew and who especially loved his city and Rosario Central “, said the Spanish composer.
Then he recalled a characteristic of Fontanarrosa, something like a phobia of homage and having to be a protagonist in public activities.
“If the Negro were to be here tonight, he would like to leave, he would suffer a lot, he would be distressed, he would have no interest in anything other than sitting around a table with the people he loves and with whom he has met the taste,” he explained.
Serrat added that Fontanarrosa “has given priority to those things that you too prioritize and for which you also love people”.
The act
The event took place on one side of the mythical El Cairo bar, which is no longer the same as the legendary Galanes Table meetings but a remodeled and modern one, which houses a statue of its most famous client inside.
A table was placed on the stage where Serrat, Fontanarrosa’s last wife, sat. Gabriela Mahyfriend of black Centurion Ricardothe local mayor Paul Javkin and the President of the City Council, Maria Eugenia Schmuck.
After recalling El Negro, Serrat joked: “I am very happy to be here this afternoon and at the same time I am also deeply saddened, because I assure you that I can’t wait to go to the hotel, have a drink, in peace.”
“However”, he added, “you don’t know how much I appreciate that all of you have come to share this wonderful fantasy of joining two hearts that have always lived together and will continue”.
Mahy, for his part, said that “it is a very special tribute, because it is a tribute to the life, the streets, the bars and the friends so much appreciated by Black and also by Juan, as Black called him”.
Even the widow of Fontanarrosa allowed herself a joke, assuring that “thinking of always wanting to get off the pedestal where they hosted him for the tributes, today she would have said: ‘That they put my name in this walk is justified because I am one of the Rosarinos who more happened, but to this guy, because Serrat came two or three times nothing else ‘”.
Centurión, a member of the Galanes Table and witness of the talks at the bar between the two winners, said that “what these two guys did was a tremendous, spectacular thing, which showed so much affection and respect”.
“I relieve from all the great affection these guys have for each other and I thank life for having been able to spend those moments with them”, he said, to conclude, too, with a joke: “Juan, I know that I love you very much, and I tell you Juan not because I am intimate, but because it gives me less work “.
source Telam
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Source: Clarin
