Antón Reixa: "In the verses of Saint John of the Cross I only see romantic love"

He has survived a stroke, a traffic accident, depression, Covid and the presidency of the SGAE. The year in which he released his first studio album in almost 30 years with his band, 'Organización Nautilus', he brought together the Breaking Poetic Communication Group, active between 1975 and 1983, with whom he published a new book and began the year with its brand new Gold Medal for Fine Arts.

QUESTION.- Gold Medal for Fine Arts, a good way to end 2021 and start 2022!

ANSWER.- Curiously, the first of these medals was received by Salvador Dalí, in 1971, and it caused me a great surprise, because you neither show up nor expect it. But the truth is that as the Council of Ministers decided on April Fools' Day... I almost didn't believe it (laughs). (…)

Q.- How is the coma?

A.- It was an 18-day coma. Except for the last three days when my sedation was reduced, the rest of the time I didn't hear anyone, and I had to argue with myself all the time, a horror! Locked in with myself. Then I had a post-coma excitement that left me with a tremendous acceleration, I imagined that I had fought a battle with death... In short, a horror.

fear of death

Q.- Does the fear of death go away after such an experience?

A.- Especially if you didn't previously have it. What worries me is the bad death, but culturally I don't think much about it. Although Galicians attribute funerary thoughts such as La Santa Compaña, that is nothing more than a humanization of death. All shoes, walking after the light. In fact, when my grandmother was going to die she wanted to put on her shoes so she could walk…

Q.- Is he a spiritual man?

A.- No, I am a guy who militates in the absurd, which is a key to interpreting life. Mysticisms, to me, do not attract me much. In fact, when I read Saint John of the Cross I only see the part of romantic love in his verses, not the mystic.