The Bilingual Lover

In December 1970, Juan Marés attends a photographic exhibit where he meets Norma Valenti, the daughter of a wealthy Catalan family. He becomes involved with a group organizing a four-day hunger strike to protest the verdict of the 1969 Burgos show trials. This encounter sets the stage for a marriage across class lines.

Despite economic, social, and cultural differences, Juan and Norma marry. The union seems improbable given their backgrounds, but a personal connection overcomes the barriers between them. Their life together begins in Barcelona.

Norma works for the linguistics department of the Generalitat, and Juan is overwhelmed by the social status brought by the marriage. His ventriloquist act and accordion playing have little use in this refined life. He struggles with his sense of self as his world tightens around him.

Five years into the marriage, Norma's true character surfaces. Juan returns home to find Norma in bed with a xarnego shoe shiner. The revelation leads Norma to leave him, severing their marriage.

Juan retains their Walden 7 apartment, but without Norma's financial support he must make a living by playing the accordion and busking in the streets. He performs along La Rambla, sliding deeper into poverty. The city becomes his stage and his prison.

While performing on the streets, Juan is caught in a clash between pro-Catalan groups and Francoist thugs. He plays Els Segadors, the Catalan anthem, as a Molotov cocktail is thrown at him. The blast disfigures him and triggers a transformation in his personality.

Haunted by happiness lost and memories of his wife, Juan encounters Norma on the street, but she does not recognize him. The episode underscores the changes in his appearance and psyche. He remains drawn to her despite the estrangement.

In disguise, Marés speaks with Norma again during the Barcelona Carnival. Only at the end of the talk does he drop a clue to his true identity. The encounter plants the seed for future, more deliberate contact.

A few days after the carnival, he phones Norma, pretending he needs help translating words from Spanish into Catalan. The call marks a deliberate attempt to reconnect and test the possibility of reclaiming their relationship. It blurs lines between longing and deception.

Increasing hallucinations lead to a new identity: Juan Faneca, a xarnego from Murcia with a pencil mustache, dark complexion, sharp sideburns, and an eye patch. Faneca returns to Barcelona and forms a life as a distinct character in the city. The persona begins to supplant Marés in his own mind.

Disguised as Faneca, he seduces his lonely neighbor Griselda, an Andalusian widow embracing Catalan life. Their one-night stand leaves both disappointed and underscores the fragility of identity. The encounter advances Faneca's hold over the narrative.

By this point the Faneca persona has overtaken Marés completely, and he continues his life with Griselda. The original Juan Marés recedes as the invented identity dominates his existence. The relationship cements the new path he has chosen.