The joy of being a foreigner

 

I have spent 11 days of August abroad, on the beach of Canyamel, by the caves of Artà, in Mallorca. A new and non-traumatising experience. After all, I always wished to put one of Elías Canetti´s ideas into practice in an aphorism: “Someone swears to live in his own country disguised as a stranger until he is recognised. He dies, deeply bitter, as a stranger”.

The trouble is that in Canyamel one cannot play at disguising oneself as a stranger; if you are Mallorcan, Catalan or from any place in La Mancha, you are a foreigner in Canyamel, by the caves of Artà, from the very moment you set foot in this place. I think that nothing of this nature happens not even if one enters the US air base in Torrejón de Ardoz, because the percentage of Spaniards there must be higher. In Canyamel more than 98% of the population is German. Canyamel is a bit like a pilot scheme of what the island of Mallorca would look like in the near future. Canyamel would delight those two German parliamentarians who suggested that the island become a region (land) of Germany. Some Mallorcans have had a good laugh at this, when in fact, it is no joke.

Desde la ciudad nerviosa (From the nervous city), 2000

Translated by Núria Cohen.

(Barcelona, 1948). Enrique Vila-Matas is a writer. He is the author of novels, essays and newspaper columns. With the publication of his first book in 1977 he embarked on a literary career that has continued with titles that include Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (1985), Bartleby y compañía (2000), Desde la ciudad nerviosa (2000), El mal de Montano (2002), París no se acaba nunca (2003), Doctor Pasavento (2005) or Dietario voluble (2008), which has earned him numerous literary awards.