The
World and Art Seen by a Writer and Poet:
Aldo
Villagrossi Crotti
Interview
by
Maria
Teresa De Donato
Today I am happy to welcome again my friend
and colleague author Aldo Villagrossi Crotti, Writer and Poet, I had the honor
of interviewing some time ago (https://holistic-coaching-dedonato.blogspot.com/2018/05/listen-to-this-river-interview-with.html).
Aldo is a cultured, outgoing, and multitalented
person, engaged in various activities, not least and cultural included, and who
has a 360° view of the world and everything in it, as well as a depth of
thought and a sharp sense of humor like few others.
As I mentioned in the past, Aldo reminds me
– having known him and having read some of his writings – of Albert Einstein
and Woody Allen. Which is no small thing.
That being said, let's see how many and
what kind of surprises he has in store for us today.
MTDD: Hi Aldo. Happy to have you here and
thanks for taking the time also for this interview.
AVC:
Hi Teresa, thanks for giving me a second chance!
MTDD: I named our previous interview Listen
to this river after one of your works. Would
you, please, summarize for our readers who might have not had the opportunity
to read or remember that article, the publications you wrote until 2019, thus
including titles, contents and circumstances?
AVC:
Of course, I started with a youth publication in the early 90s. It was a
collection of short stories and poems that I titled "Notes, for the
note". Printed on my own and in the most literal sense: I took advantage
of a friend's copier, another's stapler, and I printed about 200 copies. I
distributed them all during a collective art exhibition. I did not feel the
need to publish a book, I did it because it seemed an original idea to me to
combine short stories and poems in a self-produced booklet and distribute it as
an artistic installation. This was quite successful, not because they were all
distributed (they were free) but because I had interesting feedback. The thing
that surprised me most was that many of those who read my book managed to grasp
the deeper meaning of what I had written. It scared me a little, I tell you the
truth. I discovered that I was decodable. Even one of the poems I had written,
a sort of cross-poem that crossed a text by Jimi Hendrix with my
interpretation, was in my opinion rather hermetic, although pleasant in terms
of metric. A guy came to compliment me on that poem, describing exactly the
mood I was in when I wrote it. From that moment on I began to think that
writing is a bit like handling a weapon: you have to be careful. Setting aside
my degree thesis and some technical publications, my editorial production,
although I continued to write almost incessantly, suffered a pause of about 10
years. In December 2008, my father and I discovered that we had been
unwittingly involved in a complicated international spy-story in the early
1970s. The (challenging) reconstruction of that event resulted in two books, a
first book published in 2012, "The False Truths" and a second book,
much more detailed and full of documentary references, published in 2019 "Fifteen
logical hypotheses on the Evita Peron case". Immediately afterwards, through
a series of coincidences, I discovered a book that spoke of a story related to
the deportation of a Jewish woman from the Sighet ghetto, in the then Romanian
territory annexed to Hungary. This woman had met one of my uncles, and she
devoted three pages to describe him. I decided to translate the three pages of
the book and sent them to my father for confirmation. Eventually I translated
the whole book, and sent it to an important Italian publishing house, frankly
without much hope that it could get published. They replied to me after a week
with an email saying: “Beautiful. We are going to publish it."
Thus was born "The Girl of
Sighet", a book that in the USA went undeservedly unnoticed, but that in
Italy in 2013 earned the title of "The Memorial Day Book". A great
satisfaction. In the meantime I had filled the drawer with my poems. As often
happens, when you re-read what you have written, you throw 90% of it. So I did,
but the remaining 10% was so interesting that I decided to share it with some
friends belonging to the American and South American poetic circle. The thing
was appreciated (always leaving me in a state of radical amazement) to the
point that I was asked to participate in what is today "The poetic
encyclopedia of the five continents", initially published in Colombia and
Argentina and today present pretty much worldwide. The first edition was called
"Oir Ese Rio", that is "Listen to this river", and
it had a specific function, which was to sensitize, through poetry, the peoples
of the world towards the pollution of river courses. Oir Ese Rio went out to
bookstores, and a few months later I received a contact request on Facebook
from a person residing in Colombia. I thought of a mistake but I accepted it,
nonetheless. A few hours later this person sent me a movie where a Colombian
high school student read my poem, the one published in "Oir Ese Rio".
Then other contacts came, one after the other. From Colombia, Venezuela,
Argentina, Chile, and so on. People who had bought the book and read my poem.
They had liked it to the point that they wanted to know more about me. They were
looking forward to meeting me. I knew that poetry in those latitudes is much
more important than it is in our country. They started asking me for more
poems, and it was starting to be a constant in my life. Last year, the request
to participate in the second edition of the Poetic Encyclopedia of the Five
Continents arrived, this time it would be dedicated to the vegetation, "Arbolarium".
This time the publisher asked me something a little more substantial: he didn't
want me to write just a poem, but rather the preface of the volume. We are
currently preparing the third volume of the Encyclopedia, this time entirely
dedicated to the Wind. As a reminder: all proceeds from the sale of this
encyclopedia were donated to the "Pibes" association, an Argentine
foundation that creates works related to the improvement of the living
conditions of children of indie populations in the rainforest in northern Argentina.
MTDD: Congratulations! I remember that in 2019 you also participated in some radio broadcasting transmitted by an Argentine station.
Would you like to tell us about your
experience?
AVC: The publisher of the Poetic Encyclopedia of the Five Continents, the
Argentine poet Esteban Charpentier, for more than 20 years has been conducting
a radio broadcast entirely dedicated to poetry, the "Denserio"
broadcast. Inevitably I was involved in one of these broadcasts, initially as an
occasional guest and then as an almost regular one.
MTDD: In our previous interview some pretty interesting aspects emerged
which, due to time and space limits, we were able only to scratch the surface
of. On this occasion, however, I would like to deepen those topics. I wish to
start with your statement when, speaking of art as a "free
expression", but also as a "manifestation of a social and political
commitment" and "therapeutic methodology, as a tool of
self-knowledge, self-analysis and self-criticism", you said you are
extremely critical of yourself but have a tendency to justify the rest of the
world and forgive it. Hitler included, should he come back to life and meet
you.
Many people who suffered unspeakable trials
and who directly or indirectly witnessed atrocities such as those carried out
in concentration camps are likely to have serious difficulties not only in
"justifying" such actions, but even more so in "forgiving"
the masterminds behind them.
Could you elaborate on your answer by
explaining if, in your case, you believe it is a matter of unconditional love, empathy or something
else, or what other explanation do you give to your tendency?
AVC: I deeply believe in the evolution of the human being. Change is
inevitable, but change can also be for the better, and often it is. A life spent
in righteousness and perfection is inevitably boring. There are people who are
radically evil, this is a fact. Among these there is someone who manages to
realize their wickedness even at extremely high levels, and the damage is
incalculable. What sustains them, however, is almost never their own
wickedness. The “specter head” style figures are almost cinematographic,
literary figures. The wicked powerful are always supported by the profiteers,
the opportunists, and by a mass of supporters who believe they can take
personal advantage of it. All this generates a dictatorship, a military regime,
a slave factory. These characters spend their whole life without ever
confronting anyone who can make them think about their own badness, often
losing their sensitivity until they are completely deprived of it. Hitler's
figure is an almost glaring example. Determination to exterminate the European
Jewish people was his only reason for living, apparently. He supported his
reasons on the basis of a series of fake news that still circulates incredibly
unchanged after so many years. He knew that racial hatred would unite the
peoples of Europe, and he used propaganda to foment something that had already
been in European DNA for many centuries. Diversity frightens. Nazism was only a
trigger, hatred was deeply rooted and waited to come out with an excuse. The
extermination was there for all to see, and all were silent witnesses in those
nations involved. So everyone was complicit. After the war, everything was
smoothed out and everyone was "forgiven", especially the nations that
made themselves protagonists of the most aberrant facts. Responsibilities must
be distributed, but the same must be true of forgiveness. The moment someone
retraces his steps, as has happened in the past, it is necessary to understand
all the reasons and try to improve together. I know, it is very Christian as a
message. I believe this is one of the many gospel messages, the resurrection
seen from a different perspective.
MTDD: Another aspect that emerged in our previous meeting, and which in my opinion deserves to be deepened, concerns the relationship that develops between writer and reader and that sometimes, even if there is no physical contact between the two – who maybe never get to know each other – it causes a sort of Universal Love to be born, a union of souls, a phenomenon that, from your point of view, is easier to happen with poetry than with other literary forms. In mentioning this aspect, you even referred to two types of 'intimacy', objective and subjective.
Would you like to elaborate this thought,
perhaps by giving us some examples?
AVC: It is fundamental. If there were no such connection, literature,
poetry would not exist. Sometimes I read authors or cold poets, or simply
fakes. Faking a feeling is relatively easy for some people. Many people love to
write poetry, and many of them are honest poets, but in poetry we are too often
faced with banality or the incomprehensible. In Italy we had an especially
important school that dates back to ancient times, perhaps the most important
in the world. We have had hundreds of extraordinary poets for each past
century, poets who have come down to the present day and who are still thrilled
by the ability to enter into symbiosis with the reader, just think of Dante
Alighieri. These were those who were fortunate enough to be able to publish
their works. We probably missed as many who have not been lucky enough to get
noticed. All the literary and poetic talents were expected to flourish with the
internet, but that did not seem to have happened. There are groups on Facebook
where more than 30,000 people participate and where there is no way you can
find a new Ungaretti or Quasimodo, not even close. Most of the poems are banal
or they are the ape in "difficulty" poets of much higher caliber.
Therefore, the internet has not solved anything in terms of the number of outstanding
poets and writers, it has only added a certain number of people who write and
remain at the lowest level. Those that stand out are always, and in any case, an
extremely limited number, and they are always those who "plug-in"
with the reader, never to disconnect from them again.
MTDD:
The world of each of us – authors, writers and poets included and who are
probably among the most sensitive and attentive observers of the reality around
us – is enriched by lived experiences and acquired knowledge. Thanks to your
secular work, I know that you have the opportunity to travel a lot abroad too.
Can you give us some examples of extreme
paradoxes you have come across, of unimaginable situations – positive or
negative – that you have witnessed and will remain forever carved in your mind,
but also and above all in your heart?
AVC:
Wow ... I need some TB of space ... let us say that I have traveled around the
world many times. I have seen the conditions homeless people in Manhattan are
facing and the incredible wealth of certain families of African oilmen. Dubai's
useless ostentation as opposed to Bangladesh's extraordinary and smiling
hospitality, in its simplicity. The whole world deserves to be discovered. In
every place I have always tried to come back home with a book in hand, a book
of poetry, written by a local poet. From Lebanon I returned with the complete
collection of Kalil Gibran's works. In this way I met extraordinary authors
such as Mois Benarroch in Israel, Esteban Charpentier and Hector Urruspuru in
Argentina, Robert Max in Colombia, Craig Czury in the USA.
MTDD: Aldo, in your opinion, where are the world and humanity heading to? Sometimes it looks like we should seriously be worrying and wonder if we have already passed the point of no return ...
AVC: I do not think so. The point of no return is extremely difficult to
locate. Maybe we passed it a long time ago and we never noticed it. Maybe we
are still far away from it. The important thing is that we are aware we have
crossed a threshold; today many of us do have this feeling and being aware is
the start of all the turning points.
MTDD: What stage do you think the world of
culture is right now? Do you believe that new technologies, socials and whatever
else that was not available until 30-40 years ago, in general, might have only
increased the circulation of information or even the culture per se?
AVC: I believe I might have already answered this question. However: the
circulation of information has greatly increased, while the ability to
interpret it has remained at exactly the same point.
MTDD: We reached the year 2020 and, Covid-19 aside, you surprised us with
your latest 'simple' – as you put it – but equally beautiful publication. I had
the privilege and the joy of reading your latest work entitled Aunt
Quintilla, which I highly appreciated and recommend.
Without revealing too many details to our readers,
can you tell us about it?
AVC: I had been trying for years to write a mystery that was not in the
least attributable to a canonical yellow book. I used a context that nobody has
ever used for a detective book, I used absolutely real characters, I described
their personalities and real physical features. I told about myself in a real
context, about my relatives, about a life really lived, but it is a mystery,
which is revealed only at the end. The first suspicions reach ¾ of the book,
approximately. But they are only suspicious. And besides, it is not even a
detective story. In short, I do not know how many books are on the market today
with the same contents as "Aunt Quintilla". I do not want to sound
presumptuous, but I have read many books and never found anything like it. So
writing Aunt Quintilla was a great pleasure because I was writing something new
and surreal at the same time.
MTDD: Who is Aunt Quintilla?
AVC: Quintilla is the surrogate for a sister who will never return.
Quintilla is the shadow of a woman who passed by the meat grinder in the
concentration camps. Quintilla is an empty chair, a recorded voice, an alien
personality, the symbol of acceptance. I was looking forward to writing this book,
but I could not find the right idea. Aunt Quintilla is, in part, what Primo
Levi describes in "The Submerged and the Saved". Yes, Primo Levi,
still him. It is a recurring element of my existence. Levi was the only one
able to recount imprisonment and extermination with a critical vision of the
facts, at least in "The Submerged and the Saved". That book is his
true masterpiece, and I wanted to pay homage to its contents in "Aunt
Quintilla", although they are two extremely different books both in
content and in context. Aunt Quintilla is a novel, it should be read like this.
There are things that happen in a family that go beyond normal. Quintilla is
one of these anomalies, an anomaly that lasted 40 years.
MTDD: What if our reader friends wished to
buy this book, other publications of yours or contact you, how could they do so?
AVC: For now, "Aunt Quintilla" is available in Italian on www.amazon.it; it will soon be in English on
the English-speaking Amazon platforms, and I know that they are also
translating it into Spanish.
MTDD: Thanks Aldo for participating in this
interview. It is always a pleasure to have you as my guest. Best wishes for all
your publications and especially for Aunt Quintilla. May it be a huge
success!
AVC: Once again I thank you for your attention in everything I write and
do. It is nice to have such attentive friends!
