Julio YPF

The very true voyage of discovery is that you take to old places with new eyes, says the saying, and it is never too late, I guess, to come to appreciate, and know, old people. It was already a shocking and pleasant discovery to unveil Julio Iglesias singing Charles Trenet's La Mer, as part of the soundtrack of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And it is a nice surprise to hear him in El Club de la Tarde, in Radio Mitre, Argentina, talking about work, women and expressing openly his opinion about the YPF expropriation plans by the Argentinian authorities.

It took me a while to find the audio. Several sources deliver the news, "Julio Iglesias defends Repsol", but they did not link to the original track or are mere copies of secondary sources. The information of Libertad Digital, for example, is not original in this case, and poor to my view. Besides, I don't think Julio Iglesias got upset at all because of the question: only when Ernesto Tenembaum is pushing him to answer: "have you being faithful to your wife during this 22 years?", Julio sounds a little more uncomfortable.

The brief portrait of Julio Iglesias from the audio is that of a gentleman, that of a Don Juan, more faithful and less frivolous with age. Perhaps, the lesson to extract from the audio is that of learning to say what you think like a gentleman, precisely but rude-less, cordially and politely, a skill to learn. Lo cordial no quita lo valiente, our grandpas used to say.

Fernando Diaz Plaja wrote The Spanish and the Seven Capital Sins, and underlined Envy as the prominent pitfall. Perhaps it is not an unique feature of the Spanish people, but it shines brilliantly in the case of Julio Iglesias and us, his fellow countrymen, I am afraid. He is completely successful, to the point of obscenity, speaks languages, have had more women that all James Bonds together, have traveled almost as much as John Paul did, has been everywhere, man, with everyone, man, and is loved worldwide... . But not that much in Spain. The contrast with South America, for example, is appalling. Years ago, a guy of my age from Ecuador -who liked Julio Iglesias songs- used to tell the story of corrupted Abdala Bucaram returning to the polical scene after his run-away to Panama with millions of dollars in garbage bags. Bucaram showed up in a helicopter, leaning forward and holding a mic in one hand and singing a Julio Iglesias' song: "y volveraaaaa".

Julio Iglesias: a courageous old Spaniard.