Planet Award 2022 | Luz Gabás: “I find it hard to accept that romantic love between the sexes is fascist”

Far from Louisiana Novel written by writer from Huesca Luz Gabás just won PlanetHe particularly emphasizes writing the name of the American country in Spanish. Louisiana instead of Louisiana. Because very few remember that at the end of the eighteenth century and for only 40 years those lands belonged to the Spanish crown. In those great horizons, the author of “Palmeras en la nieve” creates a novel full of adventures, betrayals, battles against Indians, and, obligatory, a complex love story between a French Creole and a native Indian.

This time it has outdone itself, if made into a movie, it could be a huge movie with thousands of extras.

Yes, it took a long time to write it. I don’t know if I’d ever do something like that again, because honestly, this guy almost killed me.

Spanish domination of Louisiana is not something widely known.

At the end of the Seven Years’ War, between 1756 and 1963, France lost its territory in the lands of North America, which ended up in Spain as compensation for the aid given to England. What he obtained was an area difficult to govern due to the opposition of the French creoles who remained in those lands, rebelled and ended up being tried and executed by the Spanish crown.

I wonder how this period of adventure has not yet turned into literary material.

That’s right, it was “our westernmost”. Suddenly those lands were filled with Andalusians and Canaries who wanted to reap their wealth. They arrived in wagons laden with chicken, seeds and farming tools. And what they found was not the Promised Land, but a place periodically flooded, where they faced terrible famines and unknown diseases and where they lived in constant fear of attack by Indian tribes.

Do you admit that you mainly write love novels?

Not only that, but my novels should always contain an emotional story.

Isn’t it difficult to write love novels in a twenty-first century where there is a certain mistrust of romantic love?

I still think that traditional love has a journey. This captivating passion that lasts for decades and ensures its perpetuation not until death separates the lovers, but even beyond, as was imagined in the nineteenth century.

Wouldn’t these stories be a kind of escape?

Everyone escapes as best they can. Romance novels are for that, for escape, just like science fiction novels are. It cannot be said that the romance is over, it still sells a lot. I still read it myself. But I think my accounts are a little different.

By what logic?

The romance novel has a very specific narrative plot. Already from the first chapter you know who he is, who she is, what relationships will be created. Like, for example, loves disturbed by social differences. There is also a high sexual content. On this aspect I will stop a little earlier.

Then a little sex in their stories.

I don’t charge the inks to get more attention, the erotic scenes should flow naturally. But anyway, for me, and as I emphasize “for me,” I find it hard to fathom that idea that’s been heard so much lately: that classic heterosexual love is fascism. I know that there are those who see it this way and that everyone is free to interpret things as they want. I find it a bit exaggerated.

Their love story is experienced by a French woman and an indigenous man. Isn’t that hard to imagine?

It is reasonable. He is an Indian who grew up between the two worlds and was educated by French missionaries. The difference between the two is not that bad.

He does not frequent the literary collections of Madrid nor the Catalans. Having chosen a country life, or better to say new country, in Benasque, has that provided you with the solitude needed to write?

We live in villages very similar to city life. My friends in my city get angry when we complain about stress. The work is the same for everyone. But it’s true that we feel instant relief from being able to walk in a wonderful landscape.

Isn’t that good for the writer?

It will sound horrible, but when you are writing you are not aware of the world around you. I was in Benasque when I was writing, but in Louisiana and in that ecstasy, many times you don’t know whether it’s cold or hot. Now, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy living there.

For a while he devoted himself heavily to politics. She was the mayor of the People’s Party of Benasque.

Being a mayor is just managing resources, a purely public service. I have never participated in high-level meetings. Also, it runs in my family. My aunt was one of the first mayors in Spain. My other uncles were advisors. It’s not unusual in cities.

What did this service bring to writing?

Knowing human nature and discovering the interests that motivate people. It is mine for the writer.

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