Since 1989, when Ayatollah Rullolah Khomeini put a price on his head for the publication of the novel Satanic versesThe story of the Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie has been one of tireless struggle for freedom of expression.
The controversial book narrated, from fiction, the life of the prophet Mohammed 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 executed it.
Rushdie spent nearly 10 years in hiding and living under the pseudonym Joseph Anton. In fact, the novel with that title deals with that dark period. He went into exile in the United States since 2000, but even in this country he remained under protection and surveillance until, little by little, he began to relax the security measures. He even traveled to Mexico in 2014 to participate in the Hay Festival Xalapa that year, and in 2018 for a talk organized by the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, in Monterrey.
About this presentation at Hay Festival Xalapa 2014, I wrote:
"He wears an impeccably cut suit, silver-colored like the hair left at his temples and in his padlock beard. He walks calmly. Sir Salman Rushdie already walks 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 that remains from those days is an insistent tic that makes his nose twist constantly, causing a singular movement also in his upper lip. Or maybe he was born with it".
On that occasion, Rushdie spoke of his relationship with Latin American literature, from Carlos Fuentes to GarcÃa Márquez and Juan Rulfo, of course:
"Thanks to his love of good food, Salman Rushdie met Carlos Fuentes in Tequila, at a luncheon with which the Guadalajara International Book Fair entertained its special guests 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 GarcÃa Márquez because he really didn't like to speak English, although he understood more than he recognized, and my Spanish is terrible but I understand a little bit. So we had French a little bit in common. So we conversed in three languages, but in my recollection there were no language problems, we just talked. It was about a 25-minute conversation.
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 disenchantment 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 there is not such a long journey from Comala to Macondo...".
It seems a cruel joke of fate that today morning, when Rushdie came to the Chautauqua Institution, an educational facility in New York State to participate 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 stabbed repeatedly (once, in the neck), when he was being introduced by Henry Reese, co-founder of the non-profit City of Asylum, which is a residency program for exiled writers.
At the time of writing, 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 today fighting for his life.
From Peninsula 360 PressIn this space for freedom of expression, we wish him a full and speedy recovery.
Irma Gallo is a reporter and writer. In addition to PenÃnsula 360 Press, she has collaborated with Letras Libres, Revista de la Universidad de México, Revista Lee Más Gandhi, Gatopardo, Revista Este PaÃs, Sin Embargo, El Universal, Newsweek en Español. Her most recent book is Cuando el cielo se pinta de anaranjado. Being a Woman in Mexico (UANL/VF Agencia Literaria, 2020). Twitter: @irmagallo IG: @irmaevangelinagallo.
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