I was very fortunate having been a friend of Fernández Mazas. I met him in Madrid. Had just arrived from France, their friendship was a vital jackpot lottery, which is enough to feel proud of my time on earth. Many times I crossed my pension in Madrid from Atocha to List where Mazas lived in studying Arbós, that when he left in the summer Mazas continued occupying during the first months of the war.
I suppose critics influences of great artists. So heavy burden not given me see it. I am sure, without the slightest doubt, I owe it to my friends painters and poets of the early days: Mazas, Arbos Ballesté, Leiva, Laxeiro, Camilo Diaz, Carlos Maside, Arturo Souto, Rodríguez Luna and my brother Mario. A Picasso exhibition which we saw in Madrid Arbós and I would not exclude it.
Mazas, painter and writer, encouraged me greatly. We agree on the coterie of Dieste brothers and another, also of Granja el Henar, formed by students from various disciplines. I was studying music and music criticism in the journal P.A.N.In which Mazas took care of painting.
The real influences are those that are kept alive over time, within universes conjoined personal behavior, memory, imagination and enthusiasm that ignites the primer of what makes each. The influences are constellations of flares and flashes.
Mazas era un iluminado excepcional en los cielos altísimos de la poesía escrita o pintada, y n el reino de la magia verbal. Era un oráculo de la especie invocada por Rimbaud. Al hablar incendiaba el campo estrellado que le era tan propio: lastimosa pérdida fue la de su vida, demasiado breve; robo escandaloso del tiempo necesario para que su enorme talento desplegase el tesoro de su grandiosidad.
Mazas no estaba siempre absorto. Con frecuencia dejaba que su espíritu descendiera a la esférica joroba terrenal de las cosas y los aconteceres de la vida cotidiana. Lo cual puedo ejemplificar. Yo iba a cortarme el pelo a una enorme peluquería del edificio de la Prensa. Un día, el peluquero se negó a ponerme el espejo en la nuca. Me dijo que eso suponía desconfianza a su oficio. Como días más tarde llevaba yo mucha melena, le expliqué a Mazas el por qué. “No importa”, me dijo. Y agregó. “Yo me lo corto yo mismo”. Se llevó la mano a la nuca, y enrolló el mechón más largo con los dedos índice, cordial y pulgar, y de un tijeretazo cortó lo que sobraba. Así hice desde entonces, y aún lo hago.
He taught me to make a speech gray very severe, mixing yellow, white and black. From him I received the first lesson of pointillism. He recited several couplets alluding to the colors, which greatly amused art students: "If you want to get shine, put a little yellow". He also explained how Cezanne painted.
At the beginning of the war he offered to draw on "Red Fighter" of the P.O.U.M. I ran from the fronts of Sigüenza and Guadalajara. His drawings were admirable. That of a militiaman, I always had for a self-designed with an almost calligraphic continuous spiral line was published on a full page. It was a display of poetic skill. I kept it to myself before printing devour him. It finished devouring chance.
As the newspaper that was first destroyed by the Stalinists and then by the fascists, there are few examples with drawings of Mazas. Theirs drawings I have, not original, but published in "Red Fighter"I gave them César Antonio Molina, who played the Municipal Hemeroteca.
Mazas, genuine artist. I always enjoyed the glow that protects against fading, inherited his sensitivity. Never let it be extinguished in my spirit the torch lit the warmth of his great friendship.
Madrid June 28, 1993
