Alejandro Arribas Jimeno, Intellectual from Laredo
More than 40 years ago I met Alejandro Arribas Jimeno, Janín. Trained pharmacist. At the beginning of the 1960s, he met a French woman, Denise, and went with her to Paris where he found his job as an expert translator at the 'Cour d'appel' in Paris, and professor at the Higher School of Interpreters and Translators of the University from Paris Dauphine.
Alejandro Arribas was a committed man, 'engagé'. He collaborated in the opposition to Francoism that he did from hiding by joining the 'Felipe' (Popular Liberation Front). He participated intensely in the now mythical events of May 68. During the fatal death throes of the Regime, with the execution of the anarchist Salvador Puig Antich (1974), Janín was thoroughly involved in his defense. United with the anarchists, he became editor of the Libertarian Front, the historic anarcho-syndicalist newspaper.
With the Transition underway, Janín collaborated as a correspondent from Paris with the leading alternative magazine at the time, 'Ajoblanco'.
He will also remain with us for the works he edited: 'The Labyrinth of the Diner: the dark symbols of diners', 'Sabores que Saben', 'Bésame mucho' (all in Alianza editorial); or already in French 'Une petite histoire du baiser', among others. Also his foray into amateur cinema with the film we made 'Fuego en las Banderas' (1991).
From the friendship, the memory of Janín will be that of a jovial, joking, carnivalesquely cheerful, Rabelaisian and above all convivial man, as he liked to say and inquire so much. It is not without its thing that the Crématorium du Père Lachaise has been determined for your last goodbye, a cemetery that has become the most literary of earthly destinations and also loaded with a strong libertarian symbolism, it was there where -as frequently you remembered– the last 'communards' entrenched themselves, the comrades of the Paris Commune in 1871, who had risen up against the Prussian occupation, activating the first known self-management revolution and who, after being first massacred by Franco-Prussian artillery, all the survivors were ruthlessly shot on their walls.
-November 14, 2022
Written by Mariano Gomez de Vallejo, El Diario Montañés
https://www.eldiariomontanes.es/obituarios/adieu-janin-elultimo-2022111…
Comments
Père Lachaise cemetary is
anon (not verified) Sun, 11/20/2022 - 21:37
Père Lachaise cemetary is loaded with strong libertarian symbolism? I visited it in the flesh, and there's huge capitalists who got buried there... The guy who wrote this sure is loaded with strong ideology!
No dumpster poutine for you,
anon (not verified) Sun, 11/20/2022 - 22:12
In reply to Père Lachaise cemetary is by anon (not verified)
No dumpster poutine for you, brah!
Again?
anon (not verified) Mon, 11/21/2022 - 09:55
In reply to No dumpster poutine for you, by anon (not verified)
https://imgur.com/a/ogfFbjv
pnwed.
A trained pharmacist, hmm.
anon (not verified) Sun, 11/20/2022 - 22:57
A trained pharmacist, hmm. wonder if his rev was fuelled by meth?
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