The emblematic headquarters of the bicentennial Ateneo de Madrid was the setting chosen by the Planeta publishing house to present the book at the end of the hot afternoon on Wednesday. Memory of silence: the world from the hillwhich pays homage to Jesus Quintero when there are just four days left until the first anniversary of his death, October 3, 2022.
They were waiting in the audience for the start of the event. Isabel Gemioin green and very affectionate with the daughters of ‘Loco’; Pedro Ruizin chapel before reset The open night with the RTVE of their hated socialists; the producer Jose Manuel Lorenzo, which does not lose an iota of dandy with the passage of time; either Vicky Martin Berrocalimpressive and recently launched as a podcaster.
On the tables they waited Andrea y Lola Quinterodaughters of the honoree and authors of the epilogue of a book stitched together from rehashes of interviews, reflections from old programs and letters from friends such as Raúl del Pozo or one of the ex-wives of the ‘King of silence’, the journalist Joana Bonetalso present at the event.
And finally the presenter of the event arrived, Jordi Évoleeternal image of the clueless/disheveled, who as soon as he got on stage ironically commented on the presence of Felipe Gonzalez y Alfonso Guerra in the same scenario a few days ago, or about the darts he received for interviewing, “whitewash” they spat at him, Josu Ternera in a documentary recently released at the Zinemaldia in San Sebastian, Don’t call me Veal.
Évole, to begin with, denied that he was Quintero’s last interviewer, the real one was Jesus Fernandez Ubedawhich told the interior details of the courtship of the ‘Fool’ in the final section of the book presentation.
The laSexta star, with his usual irony, asked Andrea and Lola about the more worldly Quintero, about the family man Quintero. And they explained that he was “an absent father” and very picturesque.
Lola revealed that when she was little she was embarrassed to walk around Quintero in Seville, shirt open and hat at the ready, that she also drove a customized Hummer and, not trusting credit cards, she carried a wad of bills in her pocket that from time to time from time to time they fell off.
Quintero, portrayed as “genius”, “generous”, “bad businessman” and somewhat “macho”, received a beautiful tribute from his daughters, who read the love letters with which this book closes, which contributes to restoring the legendary interviewer. stained so many times in recent years.
Stains
The main ‘Quinterian’ stains have to do with the audios that were uncovered when the UDEF followed in the footsteps of Luis Pineda, leader of Ausbanc and later imprisoned. In 2014, the ‘Mad’ begged him by telephone: “They are going to execute me in Cádiz, they are going to execute me in Huelva, please Luis, fix this now, please I ask you! (…) But don’t say “No week, no week, no week… the impression I have, Luis, is that they want to finish me off, they are going to execute me, from now on I pay 9,000 euros every month.”
Pineda then contacted La Caixa: “Jaume, a Jesús Quintero company in which I would have control – or the person I designate that I trust – would request a sponsorship for a total amount of 1,200,000 euros distributed in 120,000 per program with the opportunity that if the forecasts are not met in the fifth, the sponsorship of the last five can be cancelled. With this money Jesús returns to the ring, with enthusiasm, ambition and sufficient means to succeed.”
“I ensure that there is control, organization and method so that the money is spent correctly and that what it generates and even part of it serves to meet payment obligations contracted for the loans with mortgage guarantee that La Caixa granted it in its day,” he explained.
Pineda helped him, but Quintero did not believe him and ended up threatening to tell Carlos Herrera, The world and FACUA that Ausbanc bought a director of Canal Sur through false invoices paid to the restaurant of the daughter of the member of the Andalusian regional leadership.
Pineda found out and got angry, as he told a third party: “Scary, scary. Man, it’s shit, it’s shit. So, we have to have a meeting with witnesses and say: but we’re going to see who you are.” He said that I have to pay your debts, explain it to me, who told you that I have to pay them, why? About what. If the one who owes me money is you, right?”
More venial are his sins with the screenwriter Jesús Salvago, who revealed the secret of his best resource: “Sometimes they are a silence of not knowing what to say when someone has told you what they have just told you. We have studied silence.”
“The silence of a weapon is a very important weapon, because if you ask someone a question and that person remains silent, you immediately come up with another question. You screw up, because you have to pressure so that person, by remaining silent, , is forced to say what he does not want to say,” he added.
Quintero and mental health
Évole highlighted yesterday that Quintero was an avant-garde when publicly speaking about his problems with stigmatized mental health. The ‘Crazy’ said that he fell into depression when he was working as a regular journalist: “I was tired of being the parrot announcer and I decided to look for originality, critical thinking, independence, beauty, culture…transmitting truth. And that “It means transmitting according to my mood. Sometimes madness and other times drift.”
“I have lived in boarding houses with fleas and in 5-star hotels and life has taken me to the hills, to tour Spain in a caravan full of travel books and frying pans, to asylums, convents, brothels and prisons. To interview 80 prisoners in 40 prisons, even to interview La Pasionaria and General Líster,” said the Huelva native.
That he never retired and until his last days he was behind Pope Francis, whom he wanted to interview. But he did not achieve it while the audiovisual industry turned its back on him and he became angry at the tone of the sector.
That is why he denounced that “today everything is copied. Now everything is full of mediocrity, stupidity, nothingness, saying stupid things and doing all the stupid things that are usually done when there is nothing important to say. What saves us from mediocrity, routine, misery, are moments; moments of creativity, of dedication, of heroism, of passion, of emotion, of struggle, of happiness.”