Twenty years of Chueca in illustrations
Bustling squares, silent alleys, party nights, forgotten corners, vermouth on the terrace, solitary shadows, chaotic architecture of traditional and gentrified houses, the degradation of a not-so-past history, vignettes of lives imagined from an elevated view behind a balcony or a window… The drawings, published by the Kingdom of Cordelia publishing house in a book, are exhibited until August 31 in the bookstore Panta Rhei _(7 Hernán Cortés Street) _.
"The architecture of the square seems amazing to me, but I think they reformed it very badly. It is no longer the typical Madrid square," reflects Navia. There are no banks, no fountain, no land. "In the film Tie Me Up!, by Almodóvar, you can see what he was like very well, in the part where Antonio Banderas comes to Chueca to buy drugs." This custom of the eighties...
Chueca Square
At that time Chueca "It was the most dodgy area of Madrid: if you wanted a horse, a car or a stolen television, you could find it here. There were shootings and stabbings under my house, but the fights were between ghettos; They never messed with the neighbors. I felt safe; my home was like an oasis of art and books. He lived above a brothel, where today is the Why Not? , in a recently rehabilitated bargain to which his parents, the photographer José Manuel Navia and the painter Carmen Martín de la Concha, moved when he was five years old. "With my mother we used to play counting syringes from the gate to the car» One... Two... Three... Four... "There were times we could count to twenty! But what struck me the most was seeing transvestites hooked on heroin..." Thin, haggard, pale bodies... "The carelessness was such that they let their beards grow." Dented, putrefied… "Until from one day to the next they disappeared… A whole generation beat it up with the Chinese. That's why the neighborhood was cleaned up so quickly."
The ravages of the drug during the 80s
FREEDOM WAS BREATHED
"Here the word gay began to be heard very late. Until the mid-nineties, there had always been talk of fagots and hustlers. But they were not treated badly. Since everyone was marginal, they marginalized themselves less... That is why more and more came and began to open their own premises, mythical bars like the Black and White..." It closed a few months ago. "The Figueroa..." It changed patrons. "Or the LL". Let the queer party continue, with strippers and drag queens. "The woman who wore the kiosk was a transvestite, I remember her because my mother bought her the newspaper every morning".
"I have not breathed so much freedom anywhere else: kids who kiss in the middle of the street with total anonymity, without anyone turning to look at them; beautiful girls who hold hands... I find this very nice". Homologize homosexual love. "Now it may seem normal, but until recently it was a rarity in any part of Spain except Chueca."
"I haven't breathed so much freedom anywhere else"
THE CAPTIVATING POWER OF SIMPLE THINGS
"My favorite street is the Queen." Just behind Gran Vía. "Many facades are the backs of shops. They have a stately air, but with a touch of decadence." Without that bombast that the main artery requires. "I love it because the architecture is all packed together" . Arches, cornices and niches with air conditioning... and a cat. "What happens is that there is nothing: a narrow sidewalk is enough."
Sketches of solitude. "I feel very identified with the lonely characters." People who do not know where they are going. Elusive lights that accuse the lantern of resistance to darkness, with the aggravating factor of treachery and nocturnality. "Night is a magical moment for all of us who draw, especially weeknights, when there is no party and everyone sleeps" . The kings of glam abdicate their throne until Friday. "I walk down the street and record sensations." He draws wandering suspicions, undocumented shadows that exercise their right not to testify behind every corner. "When I enjoy the neighborhood the most is at these moments, when you can almost hear the silence."
"As much as you know the streets of Chueca, I have always felt lost in them. During the day they run out quickly, but at night they are endless. You walk, you walk, you walk, and without realizing it you are in the Plaza de España. You look up…" Windows. "And the space continues as if the buildings did not end". Insomniac bedrooms. An “undulatingly uncertain” body stretched out on the bed. Renée Viviane divines his beloved woman in him. A fan lulls him to sleep on going. You have been promised that dreams can come true, but nightmares are also dreams; she knows by Oscar Wilde.
"I feel very identified with the lonely characters"
THE ATTRACTION OF A GOOD BOOK
"For me to like a neighborhood, it has to have bookstores." The ** Pérez Galdós ** has been on Hortaleza street since 1942. "I still haven't been paid because I'm leaving my money in books! I pass by a shop window and my eyes go wide…" Towards the Russians, towards Oscar Esquivias , towards Alejandro Gallo, towards Juan Eduardo Zúñiga… "They opened a very nice bookstore on Pelayo Street…" ** La Nakama . "** Panta Rhei, for art books, it's wonderful... Unfortunately, there is less and less temptation, because there are many that have closed" . Berkana was on point, saved thanks to a crowdfunding campaign. "That makes me angry, I want to be tempted! With books and with record stores , which have also become extinct. The Bohemians left. "Before there were painters' studios, but now it's complicated by prices."
"For me to like a neighborhood, it has to have bookstores"
LEADING RESTAURANTS
"Many of the establishments that I drew in my book no longer exist." And that hasn't been more than five years... "The capitalist machinery has killed small businesses and groceries. There are some greengrocers, but they are the kind where you have to ask for a loan to buy an organic apple. Everything is big chains and bars of plasticized design, designed for you to consume quickly and go away".
But there are still cozy restaurants like the Bazaar. "I like it because it's glazed, and I spend my time stunned watching people go by." Menu of the day 11.95 euros. On Liberty Street. "But the best place to eat in the neighborhood is in El Bierzo" . Home cooking at a good price. "The owner is always there." On Calle Barbieri, 16. "The woman from Verdoy has also been in the Plaza de Chueca all her life, or those from the ** Taberna Ángel Sierra **. And I've been going to the Vesuvius pizzeria since I can remember . Of the new places I like the ** Golden Sushi ** and ** La Revoltosa **, a very traditional tavern like that». Specialized in chulapas hamburgers.
"I spend time stunned watching people go by"
THE NIGHT IN EVERYTHING
"A few months ago, Ignacio del Valle, a friend…" And a writer. "... very partying and very naughty, **he took me to a rooftop that is on Víctor Hugo street with Gran Vía". The one from Vincci The Mint **. "It would never have occurred to me to go upstairs. First of all because when I see the bellman at the door I already think it must be very expensive, but what a great place! **The view is a flash. The Oscar terrace is also very nice * * ". Canicular shelter in the eighth heaven of Madrid.
"The city, in summer, is like a movie that fascinates me by John Huston, The Asphalt Jungle" . Not because of the robberies, because of the chiaroscuros. "The contrast of lights is brutally bestial." At 7:00 p.m., the sun burns the odd numbers of Hernán Cortés street. The eyes hurt. It is urgent to change the sidewalk before they disintegrate. Sudden blackness. The pupils, still sealed, wobble disoriented. Blinded in the glare, blinded in the shadow. There is no escape.
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Canicular shelter in the eighth heaven of Madrid