Too bad Zapatero didn’t travel to BA. Borges coralled his guests into reading for him.
Given that his grandfather lost his life for taking a stand during the Civil War, it is understandable that he is obsessed by the Civil War. It is sad that he is, because 1) it clouds his judgment and 2) most Spaniards have probably moved beyond it.
At the same time, we have to look at our own country and the problem of Civil Wars. My southern mother told me that she was tired of her grandparents and parents rehashing the Civil War in the 1930s, and she vowed not to fight the Civil War again. Not until Jim Crow was destroyed in the 1960s could it be said that the South had put aside the Civil War- a century after its end.
We should cut Zapatero some slack,and hope that he doesn’t get reelected. He would make a better Borges scholar than he has a leader of his country.
