Pablo Berthely: " Vil·la Joana is a space that encourages creativity"

Pablo Berthely Araiza (Veracruz, Mexico, 1990) is a narrator and writer, winner of the Jorge Ibargüengoitia National Prize with his first novel, Enemigos Imaginarios. Last July he was one of the authors in residence at MUHBA Vil·la Joana. His project during the stay: to investigate the trail of the Mexican writer Sergio Pitol when he was in Barcelona in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Also, to draw a (comparative) parallelism between the relationship between the literary world of Barcelona and Latin America, in those years and nowadays.

He is enthusiastic about the results of the literary residence: “Vil·la Joana is a space that encourages creativity. Its location favours a state of calm in contact with nature but with an ageing proximity to the city of Barcelona. The property has first-class facilities to be able to stay there and work very comfortably”. With these conditions, “the quiet mornings at the residence were very productive spaces for my writing, while the afternoons in the streets of Barcelona and Vallvidrera, or sharing conversations with my fellow residents, were very stimulating moments”. He explains that he was able to visit many of the city’s bookshops, museums, libraries, historical sites and attend plays and concerts. “I’ve been to Barcelona before, as a student at Pompeu Fabra University, and it’s a city I hold in great esteem,” he says.

For all these reasons, he would encourage any author to take up a literary residency, especially in the Catalan capital: “Travelling is a good balsam for writing. And travelling to Barcelona is a good balm for life”.

For more information about the literary residencies in Vil·la Joana, click this link.