Aristocrat María de la Luz del Prado confesses Beatriz Cortázar how she faced her cancer diagnosis: “I had a horrible fear”

A novel, a music festival, flamenco nights, two daughters, a husband of several decades … María de la Luz del Prado It is that and much more. Now he debuts with his first novel The good shadow and enjoy as a girl remembering every moment of this “Literary delivery“Married to Paul of an hohenlohe For 24 years, he knows what he means from falling from falling into love but also what happens to you when at 32 they tell you that you have cancer. Everything has learned a lot and we talked about as long as we have coffee on the Trocadero terrace, a local to which it has been linked for several seasons. Not surprisingly, she invented the Sotogrande summer festival and the flamenco nights of Madrid.

Can you explain where this literary vein has come from to debut with a novel full of emotions and experiences?

I have always liked to write short stories and I have even presented some poetry competitions to regional competitions. Four years ago I started collaborating the magazine “Hola Living“, Where I write about everyday issues and I confess that what I like most about the world is writing. I started to sketch my first novel and they just called me from the Espasa publishing house to propose a book because they followed me for my collaborations.

I told them that I was already with a novel on the way and they ended up publishing it. I confess that it has been one of the happiest times of my life. For me writing has never been an obligation. It is true that I have a lot of work but writing means going to recess. Therefore, I don’t think I have any merit. It is my relief, a pleasure, magic. I wish I could only write. It is true that I have done it without pressures or deadlines and maybe that’s why it has been so rewarding.

Describes a world that is full of things that they like: his passion for flamenco, the halls where he moves, scenes that could be part of his life

I recognize that I am somewhat lazy, since I do not like to dedicate myself to investigating a topic. Therefore, I found it easier to write about what I know. Perhaps, in the future I have to investigate but, for this novel, I have recreated in the world of artists than handling the festival. I go with the gypsies everywhere and there are also scenes from my surroundings, such as everything related to drug trafficking that I know well because I work in the Gibraltar field.

In this aspect, I was also interested It has many other outings. It is good to know the story of why there are those who dedicate themselves to drug trafficking and confess that I wanted to make a social complaint.

I treat two times, one in the 80s when it was tobacco traffic and its evolution to hashish or cocaine. The artists of my book are inspired by the gypsies who deal, their customs, their way of living, how they respect their elders, as each other welcomed, women … I do not understand when they talk about machismo because it is the culture that we have all had until a few years ago. Like so many others from my generation, I have also had to break molds of ideas that had instilled us and, therefore, I have educated my daughters in another way. I insist that it is a general cultural issue. I wanted to pull the thread of these women, their way of thinking and living and, therefore, there is a part that I have written in Caló.

It shows that it moves like a fish in the water among the gypsies

My right hand is gypsy that is as part of my family. My daughters and my husband worship him and make a lot of life in common.

To the point that its protagonist falls in love with a gypsy artist

Indeed. A very traditional artist who has allowed me to reflect what artists feel before acting, when they travel, nerves … It is a love story between a pija and a gypsy.

Has it happened to you?

No, already these heights of my life, I assure you that I could not lead the life of an artist. Obviously, I have novel many things because you have to put pepper on the pages and needed such a story.

This week we have lived the controversy generated

Something I have heard and I know that the gypsies are very angry, but the boyfriend has spoiled it more. Anyway, I don’t think it’s the fault of Agatha And yes in a way of speaking that we have inherited and you have to change. They are phrases made, Carmen Lomana He also said something similar once, but I’m sure without bad intention.

In addition, it does not correspond to reality because I have never seen anyone who takes more care of their clothes, houses and perfumes than the gypsies. There is an erroneous idea that must be when they emulate the nomads who were traveling around the world because I assure you that the houses of the gypsies I know are super clean and bright and the image matters greatly. Obviously, those comments bother them, but I think they should not get angry with Agatha because he was surely not aware of what he said and there was no evil.

There is a lot of you in your novel and, above all, of the places where you move. As he told me, it is the result of the comfort of talking about what he already knows

I mix my scenarios above all with artists. The Retiro neighborhood, which is where I grew up on Alfonso XII street; The neighborhood of Las Letters, where we now have a house since I live on horseback between Madrid and Marbella. Obviously, everything from Marbella, Seville and the house of Pilate, which is part of the foundation of my husband Pablo’s family, the festival that organizes the summers in the Trocadero de Sotogrande … They are my places and also all the characters have something they have something Of me because I ended up putting on the role of each one and, although I have set a structure, you end up feeling new things and that character is taking his own path. There are emotions, vulnerability, uncertainty, losses … I think it is a deeper book than a simple love story between a paya and a gypsy.

History you have when at 32 you announce that you have breast cancer and your life staggers

I changed my whole life because I was very young for such a big milk. My daughters were very small and I tried to manage it as I could. I had a horrible fear. For me to run out of hair affected me a lot and that was not the most important thing but everything was very hard. In a few years too many happened to me. My parents had very bad diseases and died and, therefore, today when I look back I give a lot of tenderness because I was very young for so many sticks.

It is also true that today it would be another person of not having gone through all this. He thinks I married a man who was older and a whole playboy of the time. There was a lot of move, good and bad things. I think that if today I dedicate myself to music or write my articles is also thanks to everything lived. I do not go with a positive roll because it seems very false and I simply think that life is what it is, with its high and low, and it is about accepting what comes to you and understanding that you cannot change everything. If you accept it at the end, the pieces usually fit.

In those years I studied many therapies. I had a breast cancer without a family history and six months of treatment plus a radical mastectomy. It is true that then they rebuild you very well but you have to go through that trauma. The pain with acceptance gives a lot of peace and the worst thing is to resist what touches you because it is when you suffer. This gave me tables of life and I understood that this is seen and not seen and you have to do what each one likes.

He has been union for 24 years with Pablo Hohenlohe with whom he has two daughters. How do you get over the decades?

I confess that everything was more difficult for newly married than now. Youth, children, plans … I was more complex. At this time we are friendly, we make many plans. I love being on home porch while I write and Pablo designs their country houses. Our daughters no longer live with us (Cecilia studies in St. Andrews, Scotland, and rejoices in the IE Demadrid) and we have a house that is a paradise on the top of the mountain from where we see the narrow. We went for a walk with our dog, we go to the cinema … We are very friends. The good thing is that Paul has never stopped me in my projects and has even encouraged me to do a lot of things and be very happy to see me like that.

I think Paul is very involved in the Medinaceli Foundation

He is an attached vice president and makes him very excited because he is a legacy of his family who feels very proud. It is very generous on your part to assume that the entire legacy is part of a foundation with what that means giving up many things. But he loves to recover and restore family heritage. His grandmother’s desire was that everything was together in that foundation and respects that decision.

In a year they will celebrate their silver weddings. Are they still with the same illusion?

You have to know how to differentiate the falling in love. The first is an alteration of the cerebral cortex. You are drunk with dopamine but it is not real and lasts a time that at most is 3 years. Then there is real love and that is what you learn. Loving despite the routine, the defects of each one, really wanting. I am very proud to take so many years married at a time where relationships do not last so much. Proud and more in love than ever even another type of love.

She is Flamenco’s author in Madrid and that has brought her back to the capital

We are phenomenal in Trocadero on Thursdays. We are breaking it. I told Paul that we had to buy an apartment in Madrid because the girls had grown up and in Marbella, although we lived in a paradise, they needed another environment different from the one they had. When I saw that his friends from school went with Dolce & Gabbana bags I understood that it had to be changed.

I love that they have educated in an international environment, but we decided to send them to a boarding school in England and now with our Floor Alegra was installed in Madrid and Cecilia goes and goes from Scotland. We already had a foot in Madrid and as I have been doing the Sotogrande festival for five years, it occurred to us to encourage Thursdays with Flamenco Nights in Trocadero, where we have created a great atmosphere that seems to be in the living room of your house. Do not see the ones we ride and how everyone is encouraged to sing. I am passionate to create and excite. Either writing or with music. I am in a very creative phase and at a time of life that I have time and desire.