Jorge Velasco Mackenzie: Tatuaje de náufragos is the Only Novel I’ve Had Fun Writing

Abstract

The author interviews Guayaquilean writer Jorge Velasco Mackenzie on the writer’s trade. Velasco claims he bears the suffering of his characters and endures their agony when they die. He sees Tatuaje de naúfragos as a tribute to a bar belonging to a generation, a time and a certain way of being an artist that no longer exist. It would be the autopsy of the city and of a generation. Velasco explains that poet Fernando Nieto, founder of Sicoseo, not only encouraged bohemian life at the Montreal Bar but was a wise and generous man, whose view of the world and literature he respects. Guayaquil is always found in the work of Velasco because it’s the city where he was born and the only place he could ever live in. It could be said that his aesthetic purpose is to write about Guayaquil. During his life, he has always thought of the Montreal as an open place, alive, with its regular characters next to its oldfashioned jukebox. His novel is an attempt to portray its old glory once again.