Upon receiving Spanish nationality, when asked where he wanted to place his origin, the Argentine actor Ricardo Darín said, because he liked the name, “Jaén.” Now, the municipality of that city launched a clever campaign to put up a plaque with the legend: “Here Ricardo Darín decided to be born.” In a video, some residents of Jaén tell invented stories — that’s the joke — to argue why the plaque should be placed where they suggest.
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The owner of a fabric store says it should go there because “we made him the bunny suit in his first play.” The owner of a flower shop says there is no better place than that, since “he was born here, in the next doorway.” The woman who runs a confectionery says that is the right spot because, as a child, “he spent all day here.” Fiction is at the origin of Darín’s story. When he was seven years old, his father took him to fly a glider and said: “Now you’re going to fly the plane by yourself. Turn right.” Darín moved the stick and the plane turned right. “Turn left,” and the plane turned left. Since he couldn’t see his father’s hands, he didn’t believe him: “Come on, dad, you’re the one flying it.” Then his father raised his hands and said: “And now?” Darín was amazed. Reality, lie, magic?
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A distortion creates a legend that repeats infinitely. The idea of the municipality of Jaén plays on the edge and exposes the invention. But since we have long started to not distinguish the joke from the fact, some future inhabitant might write, very convinced, something like: “Darín was born in Jaén, in the doorway next to Aguilera flower shop. He spent his days eating buns at Barranco confectionery and part of his theatrical success began with the bunny suit made for him at Tejidos El Carmen.” It wouldn’t be strange. We live in the age of forgetting. The past is barely a nuisance and, little by little, it begins to be an easy nuisance to modify.
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