The works that define Espido Freire’s career are born from the stimuli of his environment and his inner world. They describe them as “little flames” that can be lost if there is no job or connection. Although he has occasionally had moments of inspiration, he believes that this is a “somewhat overrated” creative element and that it can be quickly lost if not caught. By traveling she has been able to rediscover herself as a person and be surprised with new facets, thoughts and emotions of herself that she was unaware of. She says that through travel she adds years of life to her existence; knowledge to ignorance of it; and experiences to her daily life.
With the project ‘Are you inspired to travel?’, Renfe aims to talk about those trips that leave their mark on us. Both long and short trips because, on many occasions, it is the most routine journeys that take us the furthest. This is the case of our protagonist, who remembers at the Miraguano Bookstore (Madrid) his train rides to the university and the music conservatory as his most beloved ones. She was accompanied by her friends and they talked about books and dreams. In fact, she wrote her second novel in those carriages.
With the excuse of exploring the settings of the novels that interest him most, Espido Freire organizes literary trips to places that inspired authors like Jane Austen. He shares them with readers as curious as her and confesses that only in this way, by getting closer to the origin of her work and sharing everything he knows, can he close the circle.
Why you writing? Why did you choose this profession?
It is not easy to answer the question of why I write. Possibly there have been different answers throughout my life. I started like many other girls, because I did well, because I was praised, because I wanted to imitate those books I read, because I wanted to win a contest and I won the first one. But from then on, from adolescence, things began to change because she became aware that she wanted to create a work with her own voice. And, once that is achieved, an active component is generated that is very difficult to get out of and that, in fact, is common to most of the authors that I know, whether they have readers or not.
What does success mean to you, as a writer?
Success is a mirage. As William Shakespeare would say, it is a little mirror to blind larks. It has no relevance whatsoever. It is a way to stand out from other authors or to lose a little in the middle of this sea of books that is now surrounding us.
But, apart from that, the history of literature forces us to be very humble and forces us to remember that any turn of fashion, any turn of the publishing market can completely relegate you to oblivion. And it doesn’t matter how much you have sold, it doesn’t matter how loved you have been because, in the end, the relationship with readers has much more to do with the communion of souls, with going one by one. With having transformed a state of mind or a thought at a certain moment.
Your name has appeared on the lists of the 100 most influential people in Spain on more than one occasion. What does this recognition transform into?
It is always a source of pride to be included in the lists of the most influential people in Spain, regardless of whether it is because you are a woman, because you are a writer or for any other reason. The thing is that there is a risk of taking this type of numbering too seriously.
Most of the time they have a subjective component and no matter how flattering it may be, the following year there will be another list in which you may or may not be. For me, each of those mentions has to do with pointing out that I am in the right direction. That what started 25 years ago and what I intended to get closer to, is being carried out in a more or less correct way.
Where do you find inspiration?
Inspiration is a somewhat overrated element. I have always believed that there is a stimulus or many stimuli that surround us or that come from within me, but that they remain lost, as if they were little flames, if there is no work, if there is no emotional connection and if it is not developed. I believe more in work and inherited tradition than in a nineteenth-century inspiration that passes through you, that drives you crazy. There are moments of those, but they are quickly lost if not caught. They are very capricious butterflies.
“To date, the place I have turned to has been myself. Not so much because I am me, but because it is the axis around which I process everything that surrounds me.”
How do you solve a day of low creativity?
Luckily, I have never felt either an emotional block or a literary block that was extensive or deep enough to require mind games, taking refuge somewhere different, or having to take a trip or having to deeply isolate myself. Yes, at some point in my life, which coincided with depression, I had some concentration problems and also memory problems. But writing was precisely what I did was focus and recover that self that was being lost, that was being diluted.
It’s a bit pretentious to say that, to date, my go-to place has been myself. It has been my emotion, my brain or what I have read. It has been like this not so much because I am me, but because it is the axis around which I process everything that surrounds me. Therefore, rather than looking outside, I try to look inside.
It’s been almost 25 years since you were the youngest author to win the Frozen Peaches Planet Award. As this anniversary approaches and looking back, what has the novelist learned since then?
Although many people point out that it will be almost 25 years since I won the Planeta Prize, for me it was more important to have started a year and a half ago. With that I have already completed my silver anniversary as an author, because the award was important, it was relevant on a media level but it was not so relevant on a literary level.
Literary work is done in secret, alone and precedes publication, therefore what I had done in Frozen Peaches had been conceived a few years before, what I had done with Ireland had been conceived a few years before, what I am doing Now it will see the light in a few years.
25 years is a long time in the history of any person and since I started at a very young age, it has also coincided with a decisive maturity process. Going from my early twenties to the almost 50 that I am now means that the readings, the way of understanding the world and the experiences are completely different.
You claim that writing and sometimes literature can serve as catharsis. Is there a particular novel or essay where you have experienced this purification?
I have never been a big friend of autofiction or autobiographical elements in my work. However, the way of expressing experiences or emotions is inevitable. In some of the essays, particularly those that have to do with eating disorders, they are born from a personal experience and are actually born from my attempt to ensure that no one goes through or suffers what I went through and suffered as a teenager at that time.
Espido Freire with his latest work ‘The history of women in 100 objects’.ELENA BUENAVISTA
You say that to create a work you often need to distance yourself, in what sense has that distance become so that the stories project the emotions you are looking for and are not contaminated by previous stories?
To write, it is highly recommended to distance yourself. Not only about the previous stories but also about what you are reading and, many times, even about the emotion that what he writes awakens in you. For me it is not difficult and it is not complicated because it has already become an almost daily exercise, it happens even when I read the newspaper. It has become a kind of professional training through which I see stories that can be told and how they can be told.
What are your next projects? Will we soon see another work with your signature in bookstores?
This past year has been very fruitful in several aspects. On the one hand, for the essay on The History of Women in 100 Objects, which was an enormous effort. And, on the other hand, because the Madame Thermidor sound series was released. Additionally, I am directing two teachers who have taken up much of the time; I am studying a doctorate in History, so I am not only a teacher, but also a student.
Next year my intention is to dedicate less time to literary creation for others and return to the creative part for myself. I would like one or two books for kids aged 12-16 to appear and, possibly, a novel.
The history of women in 100 objects is your latest work, why have you decided to give a voice to the female figure through your belongings? What can be hidden behind them?
It is not new that I dedicate a book to female figures, but in this case I wanted to do it from a different perspective: from the historiography of the objects.
We meet many anonymous women who did not leave a mark with a name, surname or genealogy, but they did leave objects. They left behind habits, items of clothing, inventions, recipes… A testimony of how cruel and hard life was on some occasions, and how sweet and luxurious it could be on other occasions.
“Traveling is one of the elements that I am not willing to give up”
Among all those objects that you narrated, which one do you feel most identified with or has particularly caught your attention?
There are many elements of the hundred that I have chosen that I like. One of them is tipex, which allows us to correct errors and was the invention of a secretariat; Another of them is the disposable diaper, so useful and which ran into problems because the investors did not see it as profitable… they had not changed the diaper in their lives and, therefore, it was obvious that they did not see that need. There is also another one that is particularly nice and close to me, which is the travel guide.
What does traveling mean to you?
For me, traveling means that it added years of life to my existence; knowledge to my ignorance; and experiences to my daily life. That is, it is one of the elements that I am not willing to give up. I’ve been doing it since I was a teenager and I hope to do it until my grave stops. I discover different facets, thoughts and emotions of a person that I wanted to have already studied very well, which is me.
Take literary trips to places that have been the setting for books by authors such as Jane Austen, Karen Blixen or the Brontë sisters. Are you preparing a new itinerary based on another novelist?
For years now I have been organizing literary trips with the excuse of visiting the places or novels that have interested me the most and that I also believe may interest a more or less large group of travelers. I love sharing what I learn, what I know… If not, I get the impression that the circle is not closed; and a trip is a perfect place to do it.
The one that has had the most success so far is the one that allows us to follow in the footsteps of Jane Austen. The writer still exerts a particular fascination among readers for her era, her clothing… The journey will remain fixed but, for me, the horizon also narrows if I only talk about the same things and make the same trips. This year, my intention would be to get closer to Emily Dickinson and Elisabeth from Austria, the popular Sissi. All of them share that feeling that, if we understand the environment, we will know the person, the work and the protagonists better.
Espido Freire before the interview at the Miraguano Bookstore.ELENA BUENAVISTA
Is there any mode of transportation that you find most stimulating for writing?
The medium in which I feel most comfortable and in which I can read, write and think is the train. Maybe because I don’t drive and, therefore, when I travel I don’t worry and tend to fall asleep. On the train, however, I have to be alert. Plus, this is the mode of transportation I spend the most time on.
A story that will mark you on a train.
For many years, at least twice a day, I went to Bilbao from the place where I lived and hate to study music at the conservatory or to study, later, at the university. On those trips I wrote my second novel, on those trips was when I read and also when I talked with my friends. Some of them also wrote, we told each other what we were reading, what we were writing about, our dreams… They were very short trips, half an hour, but because they were so constant it became a kind of space that we took for granted on a Saturday. I think that is my fondest memory. Over time they even ended up paying me a small tribute at the Abando station in Bilbao, and they allowed me to depart one of the trains.
And at the most luxurious end, my trip with the Orient Express, specifically the route between Venice and Paris. It is another different memory, with a different style, but one that I also have absolutely associated with trains.
Some trip that you will always remember.
There are several trips that have marked me and that I will remember fondly, but, in particular, one that I repeated twice to Chilean Patagonia. This is, of course, an absolutely special trip. There is no type of connection, there is no telephone, there is no wifi, there is nothing. There are books, nature, oneself, water, penguins, ice and that’s it.
Is the journey the journey or the destination?
The trip for me is the preparation of the trip, it is the journey, it is the destination and it is the memory.
Discover here all the interviews from ‘Are you inspired to travel?’
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