Since her debut novel, Mejor la ausencia (2017), which explores the consequences of ETA violence through the eyes of a girl in a Basque Country shattered after industrial transformation, Edurne Portela has been building a solid narrative structure that elevates her to an upper class. A place of recognition and prestige in Spanish novels, with titles such as Ways to Be Away or Los ojos cerrados.
Investigating the violence that people face, sometimes dark and hidden, sometimes overtly brutal and violent, is a key element in Portela’s stories, which always seek to explore its genesis and consequences.
Also, although focused on the last pages, in her new novel Maddi y las fronteras is the story of a woman’s last years (Material) by María Josefa Sansberro, without having to know or abide by feminist or empowerment laws. She had the courage to live the life she wanted, knowing clearly that no man had the right to decide about her life, to tell her what she could and couldn’t do. All this in very difficult years and in one scenario due to the violence created by the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War, the French Basque border defining Bidasoa; Despite its beauty, it is a region hostile to many as it is its own transit point for the smuggling of goods and people.
Based on historical documents provided by Edurne Portela, Izarraitz Villaluce, and Joxemari Mitxlena, he novelizes Maddi’s final years, and there are many blank spots that Portela fills with her coherent fiction. Where the documents don’t, Portela’s imagination reaches with terrifying force, and from there comes Maddi’s first-person voice.
He, Maddi, always knew that his destiny was not to live in poverty in his family’s humble farmhouse. Therefore, she decides to divorce Nico and runs a hotel at the foot of Mount Larrún, a rising tourist attraction for the French thanks to the railroad that goes up the hill. He will do this with Louis, the town barber, who, unlike himself, who maintains his fervent Catholic faith amid his contradictions, is a good man who does not believe in God but believes in men. Maddi, who is quite ugly, masculine and has a wonderful character, also made it clear that he did not want to depend on a man’s life or submit to his desires and whims.
One night, a young woman who is about to give birth appears at her door, helps the child be born, and the girl disappears. She decides to have the baby. It is Lucien, whom he will always take care of like a son.
He starts trading on the black market by taking advantage of the border. Food, socks and other goods, but he refuses to do so with a condom; Catholic morality rejects him, his morality which is unshakable despite the fact that every Sunday mass the priest rejects his communion for divorce.
Edurne Portela’s monologue in front of the corpse of Louis when he died of leukemia is strengthened by Edurne Portela’s harsh but magnificent prose. With the air of Carmen (Menchu) Sotillo in Five Hours with Mario, self-talk is full of reproaches and compassion; accusations and compliments, as well as confessions in which he thanked her for his friendship, his generosity, for being the best thing that ever happened to him. But he openly expresses to her the philosophy on which he builds his living space and does not give up: “I am not interested in men, I am not interested in love. All this makes women vulnerable, subjugated, stupid. The biggest deception is to stop acting and think for ourselves.
World War II comes, the occupation of the country and the hotel by the Nazis. Even then, for years it has been a mainstay in the crossing of goods, information, and people across the border. They used everyday customs to warn of danger, such as sheets to indicate if there was danger or police around, depending on how they dried; also with animals, such as leaving a yellow cow alone or taking a sheep to another pasture.
Finally, getting arrested by the Gestapo. According to what is recorded in the Resistance archive, he passed through several concentration camps until Sachsenhausen, where he died and disappeared.
Thanks to his son Lucien’s subsequent investigations, we know that he worked for the French Resistance and was considered “dead to his country” and posthumously awarded the highest rank of second lieutenant and P2 agent. loyalty. he was also recognized with a medal of appreciation for services rendered for bravery and a letter of appreciation from US President Eisenhower.
Edurne Portela doesn’t make Maddi a heroine or a feminist, but rather as an exceptional woman because she made “decisions that didn’t fit her gender, class, or education” at a time when there were expectations of women. least. She, on the other hand, did what she thought she should do, took risks and wanted to live life unbound, in harmony with her desires and ideas.
She is a very strong, stubborn, tough, demanding woman, but behind that she hides a vulnerability that makes her vulnerable, so she hid it even from herself. There were many unnamed Materials yet to be discovered.