Since 1989, when Ayatollah Rullolah Khomeini put a price on his head for the publication of the novel The Satanic Verses, the story of Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie has been a story of tireless struggle for freedom of expression.
The controversial book fictionalized the life of the Prophet Muhammad and an interpretation of the Koran that the Iranian regime considered blasphemous, so it issued a fatwa calling for his assassination, with a reward for whoever carried it out.
Rushdie spent nearly 10 years in hiding, living under the pseudonym Joseph Anton. In fact, the novel that bears that title deals with that dark period. He went into exile in the United States in 2000, but even in this country he remained under protection and surveillance until, little by little, he began to relax security measures. He even traveled to Mexico in 2014 to participate in the Hay Festival Xalapa that year, and in 2018 for a discussion organized by the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, in Monterrey.
About that presentation at the Hay Festival Xalapa 2014, I wrote:
«He wears an impeccably cut suit, silver like the hair left at his temples and in his goatee. He walks calmly. Sir Salman Rushdie now walks around without bodyguards everywhere. Gone are the days when Ayatollah Khomeini put a price on his head for having written The Satanic Verses, although the fatwa did not die with the leader who imposed it.
But he has chosen to live without fear. Perhaps the only thing left from those days is a persistent tic that makes his nose twitch constantly, causing a peculiar movement of his upper lip as well. Or perhaps he was born with this.
On that occasion, Rushdie spoke about his relationship with Latin American literature, from Carlos Fuentes to García Márquez and Juan Rulfo, of course:
«Thanks to his love of good food, Salman Rushdie met Carlos Fuentes in Tequila, at a luncheon that the Guadalajara International Book Fair entertained its special guests with a couple of decades ago. And it was Fuentes, whom he describes as a great friend, who once put him on the phone with the author of One Hundred Years of Solitude. “I had an extraordinary conversation with García Márquez because he really didn’t like to speak English, although he understood more than he gave himself credit for, and my Spanish is terrible but I understand a little. So we had a little French in common. So we conversed in three languages, but in my memory there were no language problems, we just talked. It was a conversation of about 25 minutes.”
An avid reader of Italo Calvino, Milan Kundera, Gunter Grass and Gabo, Rushdie confesses that the first time he read Pedro Páramo he did not find it exceptional. He blames this disappointment on the first English translation of Juan Rulfo’s work. “But 20 or 25 years later there was another, much better translation. I read it again and was impressed. In Pedro Páramo you can see the beginnings of Macondo. You can see that it is not such a long journey from Comala to Macondo.”
It seems a cruel joke of fate that this morning, when Rushdie went to the Chautauqua Institution, an educational institution in New York State, to take part in a conversation on the subject of the United States as a safe haven for exiled writers and other artists under threat of persecution, he was the victim of a cowardly attack.
Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed (once in the neck) while being introduced by Henry Reese, co-founder of the nonprofit City of Asylum, which is a residency program for exiled writers.
As I write this, Salman Rushdie is undergoing surgery. The former president of PEN USA, an organization that provides asylum to writers and journalists who are victims of political and/or religious persecution, is now fighting for his life.
From Peninsula 360 Press, this space for freedom of expression, we wish you a full and speedy recovery.
Irma Gallo She is a reporter and writer. In addition to Península 360 Press, she has collaborated with Letras Libres, the University of Mexico Magazine, Lee Más Gandhi Magazine, Gatopardo, Este País Magazine, Sin Embargo, El Universal, and Newsweek in Spanish. Her most recent book is When the Sky Turns Orange. Being a Woman in Mexico (UANL/VF Agencia Literaria, 2020). Twitter: @irmagallo IG: @irmaevangelinagallo.
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