From house we can do a virtual visit to one of the big masterpieces that are in the Prado Museum of Madrid.

José Miguel Travieso across its blog offers us its detailed comment and puts at our disposal a few beautiful and excellent photos. From here our most sincere congratulations and the fortitude so that it keeps on offering us these beautiful articles.

 To enter the links (to the right) of Domus Pucelae or in the following linkage.

http://domuspucelae.blogspot.com/2009/11/visita-virtual-el-descendimiento.html

I am useful to remind to you that we keep on waiting for your histories on The table football and your photos until December 12 you have time.

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Camilla Claudel and its work mature age

He has written himself very much on the tortured relations of some of the big geniuses of the art. For putting some example. There are very well-known the stormy relations that Picasso had with the women, many of them went on from the study to the bed and hence to the linen, or the other way round. Also there have been a study object the relations that Amadeo Modigliani and Diego Rivera maintained with Jeanne Hebuterne y Frida Kahlo, respectively. I have turned to run into a big love story and hate, of passion and of scorn. It is a question of the relation between two big sculptors of the ends of the XIXth century and the beginning of the XXth century: Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. Today I would like centring on the figure of the artist, a big sculptress ununderstood in its time (when the intellectuality was a prerogative of the man) and that only after more than thirty years of its death reached the unanimous recognition. Son muy conocidas las relaciones tormentosas que Picasso tuvo con las mujeres, muchas de ellas pasaron del estudio a la cama y de ahí al lienzo, o al revés. También han sido objeto de estudio las relaciones que mantuvieron Amadeo Modigliani y Diego Rivera con Jeanne Hebuterne y Frida Kahlo, respectivamente. Me he vuelto a topar con una gran historia de amor y odio, de pasión y de desdén. Se trata de la relación entre dos grandes escultores de finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX: Auguste Rodin y Camille Claudel. Hoy me gustaría centrarme en la figura de la artista, una gran escultora incomprendida en su tiempo (cuando la intelectualidad era un prerrogativa del hombre) y que solo después de más de treinta años de su muerte alcanzó el reconocimiento unánime.

Camille Claudel (1864 - 1943) was a French sculptress who lived in the shade of one of the big main nineteenth-century sculptors: Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917). A beyond the common woman. It had to face to its epoch and to its own family to be able to devote itself to the sculpture and power live along with its big love, Rodin. Everything had it to triumph: beauty, talent, intelligence and courage. Una mujer fuera de lo común. Tuvo que enfrentarse a su época y a su propia familia para poder dedicarse a la escultura y poder vivir junto a su gran amor, Rodin. Lo tenía todo para triunfar: belleza, talento, inteligencia y coraje.

 He was born in Villeneuve-sur-Fère (region of Aquitaine). He wanted to be an artist and had predisposition for the handling of the clay. With the support of its parents (slightly habitual circumstance in the epoch) young Camille presented before himself in Paris in 1881. He lived in Montparnasse being present at the academy Colarossi. Con el apoyo de sus padres (circunstancia poco habitual en la época) una joven Camille se presentó en París en 1881. Vivió en Montparnasse asistiendo  a la academia Colarossi.

 In 1883 it had its first meeting with Auguste Rodin. On the following year he began to study in its workshop and turned, in the course of time, into collaborator and lover. From very quickly Rodin it discovers the intensity of its passion opposite to the reservation and distance dominated by Camille. Desde muy pronto Rodin descubre la intensidad de su pasión frente a la reserva y distancia dominada por Camille.

Rodin was a mature man (43 years) when it met Camille Claudel (18 years). From hacía more than twenty years he was living with Rose Beuret. As fruit of this relation they had a son. Opposite to Rose, Camille was representing the youth, the intelligence. It was beautiful, anxious and refined. And he was an artist. And this supposed a big attraction for Rodin. This admiration was translated in a violent passion. At first Camille treated the teacher with certain scorn. It was young and the sweet talk of a mature and admired man did of Camille an arrogant person. The Rodin passion came to the limit up to the point that like an in love madman I neglect its work. In 1886 it did not present any work for the Lounge (he had confessed in a letter to Camille who was in England that was ready to resign to everything safe one to her). In September, 1886 Camille, finally, seemed to yield to the desires of the teacher. They signed a curious contract that only seems to obey a prank between both. Scarcely they expired with someone in the agreements. The most significant of them was the promise of marriage that Rodin did, between other things because the teacher was falling in love with almost all its pupils and models. Como fruto de esa relación tuvieron un hijo. Frente a Rose, Camille representaba la juventud, la inteligencia. Era hermosa, inquieta y culta. Y era artista. Y esto supuso una gran atracción para Rodin. Esta admiración se tradujo en una pasión violenta. Al principio Camille trató al maestro con cierto desdén. Era joven y los halagos de un hombre maduro y admirado hicieron de Camille una persona arrogante. La pasión de Rodin llegó al límite hasta el punto que como un loco enamorado descuido su trabajo. En 1886 no presentó ninguna obra para el Salón (había confesado en una carta a Camille que se encontraba en Inglaterra que estaba dispuesto a renunciar a todo salvo a ella). En septiembre de 1886 Camille, por fin, pareció rendirse a los deseos del maestro. Firmaron un curioso contrato que solo parece obedecer a una broma entre ambos. Apenas cumplieron con alguno de los acuerdos. El más significativo de ellos fue la promesa de matrimonio que hizo Rodin, entre otras cosas porque el maestro se enamoraba de casi todas sus alumnas y modelos.

 Until 1892 they lived through relatively happy years sharing love and trips. The rupture took place in the first months of 1893. But the sporadic meetings were supported until 1898. Camille drifted apart not only from Rodin but also from its family. The isolation and the incomprehension did notch in its iron will. It had the first madness sprouts. On March 3, 1913 there was dying its father, Louis-Prosper Claudel. Its father was one of few persons who him understood. One week after the death its mother signed the roles for the internment in a psychiatric one in Ville-Evrard being extracted to trails of their own house. Under the diagnosis of persecution complex and delusions of grandeur, it was shut up, without going out again, despite the favorable reports of some of the doctors who attended to him. Its brother Paul did not also move a finger for helping it. Mother and son did not gain access to that were visiting him not to that it was maintaining mail with nobody. In 1917 Rodín was dying, one more nail on its coffin. It is not known if he wanted or not to be present at its funeral but the true thing is that it did not go out of the institution. Pero los encuentros esporádicos se mantuvieron hasta 1898. Camille se distanció no solo de Rodin sino también de su familia. El aislamiento y la incomprensión hicieron mella en su férrea voluntad. Tuvo los primeros brotes de locura. El 3 de marzo de 1913 moría su padre, Louis-Prosper Claudel. Su padre fue una de las pocas personas que le comprendió. Una semana después del fallecimiento su madre firmó los papeles para el internamiento en un psiquiátrico en Ville-Evrard siendo sacada a rastras de su propia casa. Bajo el diagnóstico de manía persecutoria y delirios de grandeza, fue encerrada, no volviendo a salir jamás, pese a los informes favorables de alguno de lo médicos que le atendieron. Su hermano Paul tampoco movió un dedo por ayudarla. Madre e hijo no accedieron a que le visitaran ni a que mantuviera correspondencia con nadie. En 1917 moría Rodín, un clavo más sobre su ataúd. No se sabe si quiso o no asistir a su funeral pero lo cierto es que no salió de la institución.

On October 19, 1943, alone, in entire abandonment, forgotten by all and with most of its works destroyed by his own desperation he died in the sanatorium of Montdeverguer (they moved it there in 1914). It left writing: "I have not done everything what I have done to finish my life in a sanatorium, it was deserving something more”.

If last years of its life were tragic actors, the colophon put its burial. Not even his own brother (diplomat, playwright and poet) came to the funeral. It was buried in a grave without name, with such only an inscription: 1943 nº 392. But Camille's spirit was fluttering in the Parisian ambience. The death of Paul Claudel in 1955 raised the veto that existed in the family on Camille Cludel and its progeny wanted to give a worthy grave. They got in touch with the Montdeverguer leaders to claim the mortal remains. The institution answered that there was waste of the coffin, deposited in a small cemetery, because they needed the space for an enlargement of the hospital. Negligence, death and, sadly, disappearance. Fue enterrada en una tumba sin nombre, con tal solo una inscripción: 1943 nº 392. Pero el espíritu de Camille revoloteaba en el ambiente parisino. La muerte de Paul Claudel en 1955 levantó el veto que había en la familia sobre Camille Cludel y sus descendientes quisieron dar una sepultura digna. Se pusieron en contacto con los dirigentes de Montdeverguer para reclamar los restos mortales. La institución contestó que se había desecho del féretro, depositado en un pequeño cementerio, porque necesitaban el espacio para una ampliación del hospital. Olvido, muerte y, tristemente, desaparición.

The first Claudel creations are marked by the influence of its mentor, Rodin, although with a personal and feminine touch. But later it will be opposed frontalmente to him. Prompt Auguste Rodin is extolled and, on the contrary, Camille, she will turn out to be put into a hell that will lead him to moving back in life and plunged in not alone negligence of the proper Rodin but of its family. Auguste Rodin pronto es ensalzado y, por el contrario, Camille, se verá metida en un infierno que le llevará a retirarse en vida y sumida en el olvido no solo del propio Rodin sino de su familia.

 Camille exhibited in a regular way and in 1895 it received an official order of the French state. Namely that its art was valuing independently of the collaboration that he tackled with Rodin. In spite of the love between both artists, its relation turns out to be complicated, difficult and full of ups and downs, with continuous comings and goings. A pesar del amor entre ambos artistas, su relación resulta complicada, conflictiva y llena de altibajos, con continuas idas y venidas.

L'Âge mûr or The mature age

Camilla Claudel received its first big order, on the part of the French state, in 1895. To expire with him, it materialized the work: L'Âge mûr known also by The mature age.L’Âge mûr, conocida también por La edad madura.

 Its relation with Rodin had already finished (the rupture took place in 1892, although they maintained sporadic meetings until 1898). It is very possible that the influence of the teacher was decisive so that the order was relapsing into Claudel well for its intersection or for mediation of another person before Fine arts.

 The work mature age is inspired in its own life, in the vision that she had of its relation with Rodin.

 It is an original, open work, with a line compositiva in strong diagonal marked by the look of the young woman the adult was doing and underlined by the arms of both. For the artist he supposed a technical challenge to confront the composition of three figures moving away from the concept promulgated by the Department of Fine arts. It rejects an essential part to expand its composition in horizontal. Also it leaves the relation sculpture and pedestal. In L'âge mûr the proper base fulfills a function. It makes alike to a curled wave but also it makes alike to a ship image that remains underlined by the fluttering of the cloak of the figure of the old age. This allegory has put itself traditionally as regards the Destination. Desecha un eje central para expandir su composición en horizontal. También abandona la relación escultura y pedestal. En L’âge mûr la propia base cumple una función. Asemeja a una ola encrespada pero también asemeja a un barco imagen que queda subrayada por el revoloteo del manto de la figura de la vejez. Esta alegoría se ha puesto tradicionalmente en relación con el Destino.

It is a sculptural set formed by three pieces. It alludes clearly to the affectionate triangle. On the one hand Rodin (ripeness) seems to walk, thoughtfully, with lack of appetite. It advances its body but it leaves its hand behind where there is weakened of knees Camille (youth) that it begs and tries to retain the mature man, the love of its life, the teacher, the artist, the partner. While a figure flutters on Rodin accompanying with an affectionate gesture. It is proper Rose (Old age) that seems to whisper to the ear do not worry I am with you, leave it. Por un lado Rodin (madurez) parece caminar, pensativo, con desgana. Avanza su cuerpo pero deja su mano atrás donde se encuentra postrada de rodillas Camille (juventud) que implora y trata de retener al hombre maduro, al amor de su vida, al maestro, al artista, al compañero. Mientras una figura revolotea sobre Rodin acompañando con un gesto cariñoso. Es la propia Rose (Vejez) que parece susurrarle al oído no te preocupes yo estoy contigo, déjala.

 The body of the ripeness reflects the aging process. The face with wrinkles, the bald head, the muscles have lost the steadfastness, the hands accuse certain distortion for the rheumatism and the meat has lost the polish forming creases.

The old age shows of clear form the traces of the passage of time on its body: the skeleton is marked under the skin, in the hands there outcrop the symptoms of the rheumatism, the sunken eyes and a penetrating look.

 The youth is the counterpoint of the two previous figures. The efforts of the artist concentrated on the face of the young woman. The way of opening the eyes, the concentration of the woman in the look, the inclination of the head, the tension in the muscles, all this is realized to accentuate the look of the young woman. It is the only meeting point with the group of the left. The artist underlines it with the language of the body, extended ahead, and the elongated arms it was doing the figure of the ripeness. La forma de abrir los ojos, la concentración de la mujer en la mirada, la inclinación de la cabeza, la tensión en los músculos, todo ello está realizado para acentuar la mirada de la joven. Es el único punto de encuentro con el grupo de la izquierda. La artista lo subraya con el lenguaje del cuerpo, extendido hacia delante, y los brazos alargados hacía la figura de la madurez.

 Claudel goes further away. More than its personal history what he wanted is to reflect the human relations. He wanted to invent an expressive configuration of the idea of the Destination represented by three ages of the Man. It realizes a symbolic work. Reached the ripeness the man feels attracted by the youth to which it stretches a hand. On the one hand he does not want to leave the youth and on the other hand he does not want to disdain the love of a young woman. The old age receives in its bosom to the ripeness like a refuge opposite to the impetuous love of the youth, placed in one of the ends. You represent it they turn out to be naked. It dresses nothing to the joyful youth of its body without wrinkles. Scarcely the body of the ripeness is covered although if that it seems that the old age wraps it with its own cloak that flutters about both figures. The drapeado of this cloak serves to give the advance sensation in the march that they tackle towards the Destination, in this line of life that goes from the youth to the ripeness and in the end, the old age. Quiso inventar una configuración expresiva de la idea del Destino representada por las tres edades del Hombre. Realiza una obra simbólica. Alcanzada la madurez el hombre se siente atraído por la juventud a la que tiende una mano. Por un lado no quiere abandonar la juventud y por otro lado no quiere desdeñar el amor de una joven. La vejez acoge en su seno a la madurez como un refugio frente al amor impetuoso de la juventud, situado en uno de los extremos. La figuras aparecen desnudas. Nada viste a la juventud gozosa de su cuerpo sin arrugas. Apenas está cubierto el cuerpo de la madurez aunque si que parece que la vejez lo envuelve con su propio manto que revolotea alrededor de ambas figuras. El drapeado de ese manto sirve para dar la sensación de avance en la marcha que emprenden hacia el Destino, en esa línea de vida que va de la juventud a la madurez y al final, la vejez.

 L'âge mûr was the masterpiece of Camille Claudel. It was its work. It presented it to the Lounge of 1899, not without earlier having worked for many years overturning all its knowledge and mastery in search of the professional recognition. La presentó al Salón de 1899, no sin antes haber trabajado durante muchos años volcando todo su conocimiento y maestría en busca del reconocimiento profesional.

Finally, on having seen the work, its brother Paul Claudel showed:

“My sister, imploring, humiliated of knees, is haughty, is proud, and knows what gets rid of it, in the same moment, in front of its look, its soul”.

 Luis José Cuadrado Gutiérrez

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I always remember on those evenings of Sunday, when I was staying with the friends after eating and we were going away all together to the "recreational ones", where we were buying a five-peseta coin of chuches or pips and at once we were avoiding the teams to play the table football.

That evening, I remember like a more many others that we spend there, but what then we did not know is that it was going to be special. Antonio, dark-haired person, high place, with bushy eyebrows, at once stood firm next to the table football, and with its voice of down deeply, said: - come, we are going to draw lots. -Venga, vamos a sortear.

Juan, disheveled, with its bush of rebellious hair leaving for any side, I smile at half a side.

- Already?, that hurries to lose, sees that it even you stings of last Sunday.

- that is not true, if you won us it was because the "Owl" cut us.

The "Owl", he was the manager of the room of games, always with a gray dust cover and a few glasses of thick glazing, for which the boys' clientele, it had nicknamed him this way.

- if, because you got into debt in raising the table football, so that the ball was slipping in for our goal.

- this is a lie, the only thing that happens, is that this table football is older than Matusalén, and the balls get stuck.

- very well, - it was me who said. Already leave the discussion and we are going to draw lots, that to this step gives us the hour of going away to house.

- it is well, I choose Paco, said Manolo.

- you do not choose anybody, because it was we who choose, amazed.

Manolo, was the absent-minded person of the group, always in the clouds, going out with the most peculiar things when less you were waiting to yourself for them.

- I choose Paco, because again he played with you, Juan.

- it costs, then I ask the "Potato". This was a small and with bushy eyebrows boy, who for hormonal motives of the adolescence, took the face as a paella, and also a nose regordeta that was arising from the same one like a pepper. For all this he had had left this nickname. Por todo ello se le había quedado ese mote.

Then, it is well, the thing remains like that, the "Potato" and Manolo with me, you go with Juan and Paco. Does it cost?

- it is well, but we are going to put ourselves that they are going to give us the grapes.

We distribute ourselves, on both sides of the table football, I took charge of the doorman, prepared not to allow me to strain not one.

Antonio, extracted a shining five-peseta coin of its pocket, with determined gesture, introduced it in the groove and pulled the knob that was driving the stamp of the balls, and this, obedient, they fell down resounding in the loophole.

It closed another hand, I look at Juan who was waiting for him with his for the back, and he asked.

- Pairs or odd numbers?

- you give birth.

- one, two, three. The hands arose, swift like guns of behind the back. The fingers were counted and Juan won. Se contaron los dedos y gano Juan.

This one took the ball carefully, looking at its rough surface as if it was going to reveal the secret to win. It placed it carefully between two players' lines closer to theirs skylight is and concentrating it threw a direct trallazo to my door. Paco, like defense, did not let through the shell returning it to him with a doll draft up to the same goal, where “Potato“ scarcely had time to see where the shot was coming to him and they slipped in it. Paco, como defensa, no dejó pasar el obús devolviéndosela con un giro de muñeca hasta la misma portería, donde “Patata” apenas tuvo tiempo de ver por donde le venía el tiro y se la colaron.

Row, on the part of Manolo, and extracted rapid of Antonio, that one spent it to Manolo backwards in a move of theirs, which if it was going out for him well, as this way it happened, were straining them to you without seeing, because you do not wait to yourself for it.

This time the row fell down to me, for my absent-mindedness. During a time we were in this plan, once it was they who were putting, and the following one we, until finally, in the last ball, we were equalled to a point who was putting now, it was gaining the game.

It was having us to extract us, Juan, it was prepared carefully, placing the ball in front of its players' line, spat in the bar and moved to give more ease. He smiled and with a strong blow I throw the ball against the goal.

Antonio, the shot cut him putting its player ahead, and ordering crusade to another side. It bounced against the corner and Paco returned it to himself, but it cut it again. This time, it amused itself spending it up and down of its players, centring the shot, while I was moving my doorman also. Esta vez, se entretuvo en pasarla de un lado a otro de sus jugadores, centrando el tiro, mientras yo movía mi portero también.

Then, with a sudden clapping, it made to turn its bar like a small mill, throwing a gunshot against my doorman.

The blow was so tremendous, that the head of the poor doorman, went out shot off, breaking the glasses and above, the "Owl", doing honor to its name, one accounted for the breakage and us done to all to the street.

Whole, that we could not break the deadlock and above my mother gave me a row of those who do epoch.

The week happened, and we stayed again, to throw the tiebreak. But which was our surprise, when, on having entered the "recreational ones" instead of our old table football, we meet a machine of “Martians kill” that also it was more expensive, five five-peseta coins the game and it could only play one every time.

I asked the "Owl", which had happened, and he answered me, that the table football was already very old, and it had changed it into this new machine.

We leave the recreational ones with a sensation of having lost something important, a little that would not be already equal again. For many lights and musiquíllas that it had, the new machine might never replace those Sundays parties in the evening, with the friends, while we were imagining to be Madrid or the Barsa, or the Real Valladolid, although the players, already old and taken the paint off, often it was not differing well that team they were representing. That more was giving, there were our teams and that no machine could replace it. Que más daba, eran nuestros equipos y eso ninguna maquina lo pudo sustituir.

Mogo

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No child can be working.

Children of the whole world are used for the enrichment of the adults. They are victims of the sexual traffic, of the labor abuse and, often, like cannon fodder in the armed conflicts.

In many countries the bands of delinquents control the business and pay between ten and forty euros away from the families for "buying" its children with the promise (often false) of providing a roof and a meal to them.

But these children are used like cheap labor and, often, they are also victims of networks of prostitution.

It treats her as children it is very related to the demand of cheap, docile and easily malleable labor. They violate its most elementary human rights be already because they are employed at a few deplorable conditions (mines, unhealthy exhibitions, working risks for lack of safety, etc) or because the children realize dangerous works for its health and development. A child should be in the school, learning, being related to fellow men and playing. The work is neither a game nor a way of developing. It is already enough of so much abuse, of looking for another side and from that here nothing goes on. The infantile development is a form of slavery in the full XXIst century. Un niño debería de estar en el colegio, aprendiendo, relacionándose con sus semejantes y jugando. El trabajo no es un juego ni un modo de desarrollarse. Basta ya de tanto abuso, de mirar para otro lado y de que aquí no pasa nada. La explotación infantil es una forma de esclavitud en pleno siglo XXI.

 Today on November 20 the World Day of the Rights of the child is celebrated it is convenient to throw a revision to which they are so that we them bear the rest of the year very in mind.

 From the promulgation of the Convention of 1989 the internal legislation has been adapted to the beginning contemplated in the Declaration. Although the legislation and the juridical system of every country is different usually, almost the totality of the countries they have been dedicating special measurements for its protection, at legislative and enclosed level constitutional rights. Between the Rights of the child we have: Entre los Derechos del niño tenemos:

1. The children have a right to the game.
2. The children have a right to the freedom of association and to to share its points of view with others.
3. The children have a right to announce its opinions.
4. All the children have a right to a family.
5. The children have a right to the protection during the armed conflicts.
6. All the children have a right to the conscience freedom.
7. The children have a right to the protection from the oversight or negligent dealing.
8. The children have a Right To The Protection From The Infantile Work.
9. The children have right to information adapted.
10. The children have a Right To The Freedom of expression.
11. The children have a Right To The Protection From The Trata Y Sequestration.
12. The children have a right to know and enjoy our culture.
13. The children have a right to the protection from the land mines.
14. The children have a right to the protection from all the forms of development and sexual abuse.
15. The children have a right to the intimacy
16. The children have a right to grow in a family that gives them affection and love.
17. All the children have a right to a name and a nationality.
18. All the children have right to food and the nutrition.
19. All the children have a right to live in harmony.

Luisjo

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There was a time in which I was feeling bundle and not without reason, since it was practically linked. The true thing is that at first I did not realize. I imagine that because I was feeling accompanied, being part of a team … and it has never been a big idea to allow to annul for the mass. With the horizon limited by four walls, without much ado targets to play game after game. The smell of the tobacco impregnated in my clothes, music of the 80s accompanying every day, those beers that sometimes were escaping of the glasses and were watering the field of play. Precisely in the middle of one of these incidents I met Alice. That song was sounding chorra of the Men G, that of “Suffers small baby”: do you remember it? Since Alice entered the bar humming it, princess with a retinue of three subjects, who in the beginning were doing what she wanted, until she was fitted by the crystal zapatito that offered him Nacho, and the roles changed: she began doing everything what he was arranging. To the first second its ingenuousness won the love of me, it is as if under its feet it was putting out the shell of the egg of which he was trying to go out airy. Something similar to the birth of Venus de Botticelli but in version farm. Because along with the shell also they were blunting some pens of the age of the turkey … but she was Alice similar to a fifteen-year-old goddess. Imagino que porque me sentía acompañado, formando parte de un equipo… y nunca ha sido una gran idea dejarse anular por la masa. Con el horizonte limitado por cuatro paredes, sin más objetivos que jugar partida tras partida. El olor del tabaco impregnado en mi ropa, música de los años 80 acompañando cada jornada, aquellas cervezas que a veces escapaban de los vasos y regaban el terreno de juego. Precisamente en medio de uno de estos incidentes conocí a Alicia. Sonaba aquella canción chorra de los Hombres G, la de “Sufre mamón”, ¿la recordáis? Pues Alicia entró en el bar tarareándola, princesa con un séquito de tres súbditos, que en un principio hacían lo que ella quería, hasta que a ella le encajó el zapatito de cristal que le ofreció Nacho, y se cambiaron los papeles: ella empezó a hacer todo lo que él ordenaba. Al primer segundo me enamoró su ingenuidad, es como si bajo sus pies asomara el cascarón del huevo del que pretendía salir airosa. Algo parecido al nacimiento de Venus de Botticelli pero en versión granja. Porque junto al cascarón también despuntaban algunas plumas de la edad del pavo… pero era Alicia semejante a una diosa de quince años.

The girl entered direct and rested on the table football, to prevent another group from going forward them. They were provided with the time of the playtime to throw some fleeting game. Nacho and its companions were direct to the bar to ask for a few beers. Beers! There must be the malotes of the class, since they were studying in a school pijo nearby. Alice shouted to them that she preferred a Coca-Cola. In this moment it lowered the look and crossed with mine. She did not notice anything, I know it, but to me they began the legs trembling, the air became dense, almost poisonous. I prayed because someone was opening the door of the bar and there was slipping in the autumnal wind that was making dance the sheets in the courtyard of the school of Alice. Alice the fingernails being nibbled, Alice dreaming of Nacho and its white Vespino, Alice caressing the glass of frozen refreshment. And the glass that stumbles over the beer of a lad, and both liquids spill under my feet. Then the laugh of Alice with berretes of brave potatoes breaks the tension with the humiliating phrase: "Here Nacho, seems as if the soccer players had done pee to themselves!”. And I looking under my soccer boots at the accusing charquito. And doubting for a moment if really pee would not have done to me for the nerves. What disgust. Nacho with the perfect excuse to laugh along with her, embraces it for the back, they prolong the contact a few seconds more necessary thing. No, horror, because now they undo the hug but there remain fixed of hand. Fortunately the bartender gives them a dishcloth and that of the glasses initiates the game. Impossible to play the table football with the interlaced hands. Nacho y sus colegas fueron directos a la barra a pedir unas cervezas. ¡Cervezas! Debían de ser los malotes de la clase, pues estudiaban en un colegio pijo cercano. Alicia les gritó que ella prefería una Coca Cola. En ese instante bajó la mirada y se cruzó con la mía. Ella no notó nada, lo sé, pero a mí me empezaron a temblar las piernas, el aire se volvió denso, casi tóxico. Recé porque alguien abriera la puerta del bar y se colara el viento otoñal que hacía bailar las hojas en el patio del colegio de Alicia. Alicia mordisqueándose las uñas, Alicia soñando con Nacho y su Vespino blanco, Alicia acariciando el vaso de refresco helado. Y el vaso que tropieza con la cerveza de un chaval, y ambos líquidos se derraman bajo mis pies. Entonces la risa de Alicia con berretes de patatas bravas rompe la tensión con la humillante frase: “¡Mira, Nacho, parece como si los futbolistas se hubieran hecho pis!”. Y yo mirando bajo mis botas de fútbol el charquito acusador. Y dudando por un momento si realmente no me habría hecho pis por los nervios. Qué asco. Nacho con la excusa perfecta para reír junto a ella, la abraza por la espalda, prolongan el contacto unos segundos más de lo necesario. No, horror, porque ahora deshacen el abrazo pero se quedan cogidos de la mano. Por suerte el camarero les presta una bayeta y el de las gafas inicia la partida. Imposible jugar al futbolín con las manos entrelazadas.

This way there were happening the stations and the evaluations of Alice. Like good student, I saw her celebrating many passes, although its brilliant records were darkened a little by the bad influence of Nacho, its cousin, and that of the glasses.

One day Alice and its friends decided to prolong the playtime more of the account. They had been stung concerning the table football with a few boys of the institute. In the play off Alice chose me: "I of doorman!”, he announced. And together we fight against giants, knock down walls, conquer new worlds … anyway, that we stop the goal that might have taken us to the defeat. Then it happened. Alice inclined its beautiful adolescent cuerpecito towards me, and crowned my small head with a triumphal kiss. And you are not going to believe it, but when the bar remained desert, before the astonished look of my team-mates and also of my rivals, I came alive it humanizes. En el partido de desempate Alicia me eligió a mí: “¡Yo de portero!”, anunció. Y juntos luchamos contra gigantes, derribamos murallas, conquistamos nuevos mundos… en fin, que paramos el gol que podría habernos llevado a la derrota. Entonces sucedió. Alicia inclinó su hermoso cuerpecito adolescente hacia mí, y coronó mi pequeña cabeza con un triunfal beso. Y no os lo vais a creer, pero cuando el bar quedó desierto, ante la atónita mirada de mis compañeros de equipo y también de mis rivales, cobré vida humana.

I revealed myself like a big promise of the soccer, several clubs of the first were disputing my interplanetary signing. I initiated a meteoric career, I was thrown to the stardom. And now when I am galactic and that the yellow press photographs me with models, whenever I persist in the flights lulled to sleep by the Argentine accent of some partner, I cannot avoid to study my reflex in the window of the plane, and I say to myself that it would change several zeros of my checking account, and up to my freedom, into that kiss with which Alice changed my destination. Y ahora que soy galáctico y que la prensa rosa me fotografía con modelos, cada vez que me adormezco en los vuelos arrullado por el acento argentino de algún compañero, no puedo evitar estudiar mi reflejo en la ventana del avión, y me digo a mí mismo que cambiaría varios ceros de mi cuenta corriente, y hasta mi libertad, por aquel beso con el que Alicia cambió mi destino.

Berta Cuadrado Mayoral

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