¡Pero qué bien yo moriría!

El mundo me está matando

No la vida.

La vida está en otra parte

El mundo no.

Y estoy triste

Porque no es la vida la que me mata

(como sería de esperar)

Sino el mundo

Del que no puedo escapar.

Si pudiera vivir...

¡Pero qué bien yo moriría!

Giambattista Vico

Filósofo, retórico, historiador, jurista, primer expositor de los fundamentos de las ciencias sociales y de la semiótica, interesado en la epistemología y la poética, intentó una organización sistemática de las humanidades:

La soledad que alumbró una ciencia nueva

Julie Taymor

Titiritera, guionista, diseñadora de vestuario, máscaras y títeres, escenógrafa, productora de cine, directora y escritora de  cine, teatro y ópera, realizadora:

CV in English

 

Daniel Héctor Scarfo

alfajoraltazor@gmail.com

Philopolymath and explorer of poetic lives and values

Tennis player, musician, singer, cosmopolitan tango dancer between the sciences and the humanities

with an extensive experience in different countries

EDUCATION

Yale University 1995-1999 Ph.D. M.Phil., M.A., Spanish & Portuguese

University of Lisbon 1996 Diploma, Portuguese Studies

University of Puerto Rico 1992-1993 M.A., Comparative Literature, 30 credits

University of Buenos Aires 1983-1988 Licenciatura and Profesorado, Sociology

LANGUAGES

Fluent in Spanish, English, Portuguese. Good French. Basic Italian and German.

SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, AND AWARDS

SECYT Scholarship Argentina 2005

University of British Columbia Merit Award 2001-2002

Yale University Post-Dissertation Lectorship 1999-2000

Yale University Fellowship 1998-1999

Yale University Scholarship 1995-1998

Lusoamerican Foundation Scholarship 1997

Instituto Camões Scholarship - Portugal 1996

University of Buenos Aires Scholarship 1987-1988

EMPLOYMENT RECORD

Ñ Magazine – Clarín 2004-2025 Free-lance writer

Ministry of Justice and Human Rights 2017-2024 Coordinator/Advisor

Austral University-International Program 2012-2018 Professor

University of Buenos Aires Law School 2016 Visiting Professor

Latin American Museum of Modern Art (MALBA) 2016 Visiting Professor

Museum of Rosario 2016 Visting Professor

Old Council Theatre-San Isidro 2016 Visiting Professor

Tigre Art Museum 2014-2015 Institutional Programs Director 

Sarmiento Museum, Delta-Tigre 2013-2014 Director

Plataforma Lavardén 2012-2013 Professor

Buenos Aires Province Educational Planning Office 2009-2011 Consulting Officer and Editor 

Torcuato Di Tella University 2010 Visiting Professor

Argentinian National Library 2009 Translator

Master in Social Communication (UBA) 2009 Professor

Ministry of Culture and Innovation (Santa Fe) 2009 Visiting Professor

Master in Social Research (UBA) 2004-2010 Professor

Rosario Town Hall 2006-2008 Analysis of Social Perception 

Rosario Town Hall 2007 Analysis of Urban Indicators

UNDP-Millennium Development Goals 2007 Analysis of NGOs in Rosario

Ph.D. in Social Sciences (UBA) 2007 Visiting Professor

Facultad Libre de Rosario 2005-2006 Academic Dean

International Master in Cultural Management-FLACSO 2004-2006 Professor

Ph.D. in Social Sciences (UBA) 2005 Professor

PAV-SECYT Project on Media and Violence - FLACSO 2004-2005 Researcher in charge

Latin American Museum of Modern Art (MALBA) 2004 Visiting Professor

Manuel de Falla National Music School 2004 Professor

University of Belgrano 2004 Professor

University of British Columbia 2000-2004 Assistant Professor

Yale University 1999-2000 Lector

Yale University 1997-1999 Teaching Assistant

San José School 1995 Teacher

Lenguas Vivas Superior Teaching Institute 1995 Visiting Professor

Saint Andrew's Scots School 1995 Librarian

Faculty of Social Sciencies (UBA) 1994-1995 Teaching Assistant

Ward College 1992-1995 Teacher and College Instructor

Buenos Aires Province Government 1994 Census Official

Lasalle College 1993-1994 Teacher

Belgrano Institute 1993 Teacher

University of Puerto Rico 1992-1993 Research Assistant

Saint Paul’s College 1991-1992 Teacher

Instituto Alte. Guillermo Brown 1991-1992 Teacher

Universidad Nacional del Centro 1989-1990 Professor

Social Sciences Latin American Council – Publishing Program 1989 Assistant

University of Buenos Aires 1985-1989 Teaching Assistant

Manuel de Falla City Music School 1983-1984 Administrative Officer

EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION

Citizenship Education 2018-2019 Coordinator, “Justo Vos” Program

Justicia Cotidiana Open Chair 2017-2018 Coordinator, “Justo Vos” Program 

Buenos Aires Province Educational Planning Office 2009-2011 Consulting Officer

Facultad Libre de Rosario 2005-2006 Academic Dean

Head Advisory Committee, Univ. of B. Columbia 2002-2003 Member

Latin American Studies Committee, UBC 2000-2003 Member

Comparative Literature Committee, UBC 2002-2003 Member

Student Awards and Prizes Committee, UBC 2001-2002 Chair

Graduate Studies Committee, UBC 2001-2002 Member

Head Search Committee, UBC 2001-2002 Member

Curriculum Development Committee, UBC 2000-2002 Member

Adolescence National Conference Committee, B.A. 1993 Member

Alte. Guillermo Brown Institute 1984 Administrative Assistant

Manuel de Falla Music School 1983 Administrative Assistant

OTHER IMPORTANT EXPERIENCES

Law Vacancy Program, Ministry of Justice, Argentina 2016 Jury

United Kingdom Museums Association Conference 2014 British Embassy Guest

Itaú Bank Literary Contest, Buenos Aires 2012 Jury

Facultad Libre de Rosario 2005 Founding member

Fernando Pessoa: Seventy Years of Disquietude Conference, MALBA 2005 Organizer

Fund. F. Ebert/FLACSO Report on Pubic Media 2004 Writer

Media in Argentina. FLACSO-PNUD Report 2004 Writer

Adolescence National Conference, Ward College 1993 Co-organizer

Pax Orbis Literary Contest, Ward College 1993 Jury

School n. 110, Villa Scasso, Buenos Aires 1985 Social Worker

FLACSO, UBA, UBC Jury for M.A. And Ph.D. theses in several occasions

PUBLICATIONS

Blog: proyectoaltazor.blogspot.com

Books

Formación en Ciudadanía. Buenos Aires: MJDH-DGCE. Buenos Aires Province, 2019 (e-book)

Educación para la inclusión. Determinación de áreas críticas. Un instrumento para la acción (coord.) La Plata. Dir. Gral. de Cultura y Educación de la Prov. de Bs. As, 2010 (e-book)

El Enigma Argentino (translation and introductory essay from Felix Weil, The Argentine Riddle), Buenos Aires: Biblioteca Nacional, 2010

Literaturas Imposibles. Rosario: Ciudad Gótica, 2007

Book Chapters and Articles

“La identidad en fragua: literatura, inmigración y sociedad en la belle époque (1880-1920)” en María José Herrera (ed.) Escenas del 1900. Buenos Aires: Museo de Arte Tigre, 2015.

“Siger de Brabantia, precursor de Borges” en Magdalena Cámpora y Javier R. González (eds.) Borges-Francia. Buenos Aires: Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UCA, 2011

“Debate” in No matar. Sobre la responsabilidad. Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba: 2007.

“Como leer y escribir en la Argentina”, Encuentro de la literatura argentina con el discurso crítico, Río Gallegos: Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral, 2005.

“Lo imposible en Borges” in Claudio Canaparo, Annick Louise and William Rowe (ed.) Jorge Luis Borges. Intervenciones sobre pensamiento y literatura. Buenos Aires: Paidós, 2000

"Fútbol y Multitudes" in Horacio González (ed.) Las Multitudes Argentinas. Buenos Aires: ATE, 1996

“Conocimiento y Acción” and “El paradigma posnewtoniano” in Alejandro Piscitelli, Ciencia en movimiento. La construcción social de los hechos científicos. Buenos Aires: CEDAL, 1993 (preliminary writing)

Articles and papers published in academic journals, magazines and newspapers (66)

"La otra casta". Filocam. Digital Magazine, Vol. LII, August 2024.

“Esa vieja costumbre”. Clarín Newspaper, Buenos Aires, 6-7-2025

“Del lamento al desafío”. Clarín Newspaper, Buenos Aires, 2-18-2025.

“El infierno de los días”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 1-21-2024

“De Borges a Milei: la política como frivolidad peligrosa”. ElDiarioAR, 12-28-2023

"El grotesco político entre la parodia y la sátira". Clarín Newspaper, 6-23-2023

“Trastornos de ansiedad”. Clarín Newspaper, Buenos Aires, 1-28-2023

“Arte o vida”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 11-10-2022

“Evitar la histeria, cultivar la historia”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 10-2-2022

“La erosión de las pasiones”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 8-20-2022

“La perversa relación entre conflictividad y delito”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 7-25-2022

“El secular auto-engaño argentino”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 5-28-2022

“El sentido poético de nuestras vidas, de cara a la pospandemia”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 8-13-2021

“La reforma cultural que sigue postergada. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 4-13-2019

“El tango, extractos de nuestra identidad”. Clarin Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 02-14-2019

“Casa Tomada: Ética, comunicación y cultura en tiempos de crisis e incertidumbre (First part). Revista Maestra, Santa Fe, AMSAFE, July 2018

“El cambio cultural no vendrá por generación espontánea. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 10-22-2018

“Feminismo: ¿se derrumba el amor romántico? Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 7-15-2018

“Casa Tomada: Ética, comunicación y cultura en tiempos de crisis e incertidumbre” (Second part). Revista Maestra. Santa Fe, AMSAFE, 2018.

“Tomar clases de danza neuronal”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 7-6-2017

“Rebeldías que dignifiquen la política”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 2-22-2017

“Todo lo deseamos, todo lo queremos experimentar”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 5-29-2016

“La herencia cultural y educativa”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 3-1-2016

“Tiempo sensibilidad y paciencia para ver al otro”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 12-13-2015

“La tentación del autoengaño”. Ñ Magazine. Buenos Aires, 11-28-2015

“Frente a frente, dos tradiciones argentinas”. Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 11-2-2015

“Potencia para la transformación”. Ñ Magazine. Buenos Aires, 10-31-2015

“¿Será éste el tiempo para políticos más clásicos?” Clarín Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 5-10-2015

“Recuperar la virtud de los silencios”. La Nación Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 2-20-2015

“¿Un modelo escolar se demuestra caduco?”. Ñ Magazine. Buenos Aires, 4-12-2014

“La literatura y el río”. Hoy sale Cultura. Tigre, november 2013

“Política, cultura y pasión”. Perfil Newspaper. Buenos Aires, 8-5-2013

“Lectura y encierro”. Revista Maestra n. 46. Santa Fe, AMSAFE, March 2013

“Inseguridad, impunidad y mucho mal vivir”, Clarín Newspaper, Buenos Aires, 1-28- 2013

“La primera y última receta: el Ulises”, translation of a John Berger’s original text, Revista Anales de la Educación Común, December 2012

“No tenía paredes. Ensayo sobre nuestra educación II”, Revista Maestra n.45. Santa Fe, AMSAFE, November 2012

“No tenía paredes. Ensayo sobre nuestra educación I”, Revista Maestra n.44. Santa Fe, AMSAFE, Semptember 2012

“La experiencia de la cooperación”, Ñ Magazine, Buenos Aires, August 2011

“La literatura argentina de comienzos de siglo”, Cuadrivium n. 7, Humacao, Puerto Rico: University of Puerto Rico, 2011

“Vivir con los otros”, NetWard (Ward College Magazine) n. 7, Ramos Mejía, November 2009

“Los cambios culturales de la sociedad y el perfil de los candidatos”, Buenos Aires Económico, Buenos Aires, 6-25- 2009

“El campo y la clase media”, Buenos Aires Económico. Buenos Aires, 3-7-2009

“Crítica moral al “hacer de la política”, Buenos Aires Económico. Buenos Aires, 6-4-2009

“La comunicación como bien público”, Buenos Aires Económico, Buenos Aires, 5-21-2009

“Una ética a la medida de las bestias”. Interviewing Peter Singer. Ñ Magazine. Buenos Aires, November 2008

“Hacete amigo del juez”, Rosario/12-Página12. Rosario, July 2008

“El patrón de la estancia”, La Capital Newspaper. Rosario: April 2008

“La vida con los otros”, La Capital Newspaper. Rosario: February 2008

“Sobre la tradición socialista”, La Capital Newspaper. Rosario: November 2007

“La moral como instinto”, Ñ Cultural Magazine, Buenos Aires: November 2007

“Del apocalipsis al amor”. Fanzín n. 2 Rosario, September 2007

“Debate”. La Intemperie n. 32. Córdoba, June 2006

“Representaciones, violencia delictiva y modelos de prevención. El rol de los medios de comunicación”. Buenos Aires: Flacso, 2006 (internal paper)

“Lo imposible en Fernando Pessoa”, Ñ Cultural Magazine. Buenos Aires, November 2005

“Como llevar la patria a cuestas” and “Las lenguas mueren en silencio” in Special Edition for the II Congreso Internacional de la Lengua, Ñ Cultural Magazine, Clarín, Buenos Aires, November 2004

“Ritmo musical y ritmo del pensar”, Ñ Cultural Magazine, Buenos Aires, October 2004

“Final repetido. Ezequiel Martínez Estrada” Revista Virtual elhilodeariadna.com, 81, Buenos Aires, April 2004

“La violencia en los medios”, Ñ Cultural Magazine, Buenos Aires, June 2004

“La batalla entre el tiempo y el espacio” in Lote Magazine, Venado Tuerto 2004

“Pen(o)samiento argentino”. Jornadas de Pensamiento Argentino, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, 20, 21 y 22-11-2003 en http://jornadas.tripod.com.ar/ponencia777scarfo.htm

“Que tal” . Lote Magazine, Santa Fe, Argentina, September 2001

“Fútbol y multitudes”, in Causas y Azares n. 3, Buenos Aires 1995

"Contra la ética", in El Ojo Mocho nº 5. Buenos Aires 1994

"Los movimientos barriales y de pobladores". Buenos Aires: PNUD-UNESCO-CLACSO, 1989

"Autoorganización y crisis", in Cuadernos de la Comuna nº 4. Santa Fe: Comuna Pto. Gral. San Martín, 1987

“El carácter coercitivo de la socialización científica”. Fahrenheit 450 n. 1. Buenos Aires: UBA, 1986

Literary Reviews (26)

“Antes que nada”, Review of Martín Caparrós' Antes que nada, in proyectoaltazor.blogspot.com, Bs. As., 9-2-2025

“Una buena amiga de Kafka”, Review of Margarete Buber-Neumann's Milena, in Ñ Magazine, Bs. As., 11-4-2017

“Para acabar de una vez con el maltrato a la cultura”. Review of Terry Eagleton´s Cultura in Ñ Magazine, Bs. As., 9-9- 2017

“Pensar a solas, vencer bien acompañado”. Review of Georges Bataille´s Suma Ateológica, in Ñ Magazine. Bs. As., 7- 1-2017

“Me dejaste, me mentiste, me engañaste”. Review of Diccionario de Separación, in Ñ Magazine. Bs. As., 3-24-2017

“El largo camino crítico de Todorov”. Review of Tzvetzan Todorov, ¡El arte o la vida!, in Ñ, Clarín Cultural Magazine, 2-11-2017

“Un Deleuze molecular”. Review of Cartas y otros textos, de Gilles Deleuze y de Los movimientos aberrantes, de David Lapoujade, en Revista Ñ, 3-1-2017

“Esplendor y ocaso de la editorial Abril”, Ñ Magazine. Buenos Aires, Bs. As., 11-8-2016

“Serafín, el perro de Lucía”. Review of Lucía Puenzo, El niño pez. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo, 2004, in Lote n.89, December 2004

“Cuando las palabras no alcanzan”. Review of Paolo Virno, Palabras con palabras. in Ñ, Clarín Cultural Magazine, 4- 17-2004

Review of Adriana J. Bergero, Haciendo camino: pactos de la escritura en la obra de Jorge Luis Borges, National University of Mexico, Mexico,1999, in Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, 2003

"Simpatía por el abismo. A raíz de la aparición de La pesquisa, de Juan José Saer", in El Ojo Mocho nº 6. Buenos Aires, 1995

“La novela del 68. A propósito de Nanina, de Germán García”, in El Ojo Mocho n. 5, Buenos Aires, 1994

Review of Adam Ferguson, Cuando muere el dinero. Buenos Aires: Alianza Editorial, 1989, in Babel n. 13, December 1989

Review of Eva Giberti/Ana María Fernández. La mujer y la violencia invisible. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1989, in Babel n. 13, December 1989

Review of V.V.A.A., Conversaciones sobre la ciudad del Tercer Mundo. Buenos Aires: Grupo Editor Latinoamericano/Instituto Internacional de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo-IIED-América Latina, 1989, in Babel n. 12, October 1989

Review of Hugo Biagini (comp.), Orígenes de la democracia argentina. El trasfondo krausista. Buenos Aires: Fund. Friedrich Ebert / Secr. De Cultura de la Nación, Legasa, 1989, in Babel n. 11, September 1989

Review of Mirta L. de Palomino, Tradición y poder: La Sociedad Rural Argentina (1955-1983), Buenos Aires: CISEA / Grupo Editor Latinoamericano, 1988, in Babel n. 9, June 1989

Review of Manuel M. Davenport, James B. Stockdale et al., Etica Militar. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1988, in Babel n. 9, June 1989

Review of Darcy Ribeiro, Indianidades y Venutopías. Buenos Aires: Ediciones del Sol-CEHASS, 1988, en Babel n. 7, February 1989

Review of Augusto Varas (coord..), La autonomía militar en A. Latina. Caracas: Nueva Sociedad, 1988, in Babel n. 6, January 1989

Review of Néstor Montenegro, La alternativa liberal en la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1988, in Babel n. 5, November 1988

Review of Raúl Larra, Palacios, el ultimo mosquetero. Buenos Aires: Leviatán, 1988, in Babel n. 4. Buenos Aires: Punto Sur, September 1988

Review of Jorge Greco and Gustavo González, Felices Pascuas. Los hechos inéditos de la rebelión militar. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana-Planeta, 1988, in Babel n. 2, May 1988

Review of Jacobo Timerman, Chile, el galope muerto. Buenos Aires: Planeta, 1988, in Babel n. 1, April 1988

"Homenaje a Foucault", review of Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, in Espacios, Magazine of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Buenos Aires, Nov.-Dec. 1988

L E C T U R I N G

85 courses taught and 56 conference presentations given on philosophy, justice, languages, literature, music, arts, education, science, culture, society, communication and media, politics, history and citizenship.

TEACHING RECORD

Citizenship Building 2019 Values Civic Service, Arg.

Everyday Justice (coord.) 2017-2019 Open Chair

Literature and Medicine 2018 Austral University

Literature of the Americas 2017-2018 Austral University

Passion for the Classics 2016 Teatro V. Concejo, San Isidro

From Apocalypse to Love: literature that heals 2016 MALBA

From Apocalypse to Love: literature that heals 2016 Museum of Rosario

Literature, Music, and Arts in Xxth Century Spanish America 2012-2016 Austral University

Borges and Monterroso: Irony, allusion, and synthesis 2013 Plataforma Lavardén

Literature and the River 2013 Plataforma Lavardén

Steps Towards a New Sentimental and Ecological Education 2012 Plataforma Lavardén

How should we live? 2011 Njambre

Sentimental Education Reloaded 2010 Private Seminar

Literature and Medicine 2010 Private Seminar

Literature: ¿Why and What for? 2010 University T. Di Tella

Society and Culture 2006-2010 University of Buenos Aires

Philosophy of Culture: Ethics and communication in uncertain times 2009 University of Buenos Aires

Ethics and Communication in Uncertain Times 2009 Lavardén Theatre

Humor and Literature 2008 B. Rivadavia Cultural Centre 

Media and Violence 2008 University of Buenos Aires

Animality, Literature and Social Life 2007 University of Buenos Aires 

How to Read 2007 House of Poetry, Rosario

From Apocalypse to Love 2007 B. Rivadavia Cultural Centre, Rosario 

Sentimental Education 2006 Facultad Libre de Rosario 

Culture 2006 University of Buenos Aires 

How does the country work? 2006 Facultad Libre de Rosario 

Cultural Differences and Inequalities 2004-2006 University of Buenos Aires 

Cultural Studies 2004-2005 FLACSO

Aporias, Rogues and Lovers in Kafka 2005 Shenkin Studio - AMIA

Aporias, Rogues and Lovers in Kafka 2005 MALBA

Language I 2004 University of Belgrano 

Argentinean and Latin American Political and Social History 2004 M. de Falla Music School

The Generation of 37 2004 MALBA

Impossible Literatures 2004 MALBA

Sociology and Anthropology of Culture 2004 FLACSO

Culture and Politics 2004 FLACSO

Coml 500B: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Theory Survey 2003 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 505B: Impossible Literatures in Latin America 2003 University of British Columbia 

Spanish 220: Introduction to Methods of Literary Analysis 2003 University of British Columbia 

Coml 500a: Introduction to Comp. Lit.: History and Methodology 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 490: Music and Dance in Latin American Literature 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 501/French 511: Seminar on Literary Theory (team-taught) 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Coml 500b: Introduction to Comparative Literature: Theory Survey 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 490: Impossible Literatures in Latin America 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 501/French 511: Seminar on Literary Theory (team-taught) 2002 Univ. of British Columbia 

Coml 500a: Introduction to Comp. Lit.: History and Methodology 2001 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 356a: Survey of Medieval and Golden Age Spanish Literature 2001 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 300: Advanced Grammar and Composition 2001 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 490: Twentieth Century Latin American Social Thought 2001 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 200: Second-Year Spanish 2000 Univ. of British Columbia 

Spanish 405: Books and pauses in Peninsular and L.A. Culture 2000 Univ. of British Columbia 

Portuguese 282: Popular Music and Poetry in Brazil 2000 Yale University

Spanish 130: Intermediate Spanish 2000 Yale University

Spanish 138: Advanced Conversational Spanish 2000 Yale University

Spanish 130: Intermediate Spanish 1999 Yale University

Spanish 138: Advanced Conversational Spanish 1999 Yale University

Portuguese 138: Advanced Conversational Portuguese 1999 Yale University

Portuguese 118b: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers 1998 Yale University

Aesthetics Theory and Political Theory 1998 University of Buenos Aires

Spanish 115a: Introductory Spanish 1997 Yale University

Portuguese 118a: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers 1997 Yale University

Brazilian Popular Music and Culture 1995 I.E.S. Lenguas Vivas

History 1995 San José School

Aesthetics Theory and Political Theory 1994-1995 University of Buenos Aires 

History and Introduction to Physical Education 1994-1995 Ward College

Applied Ethics 1994-1995 Ward College

Language and Literature 1993 Lasalle College

Introduction to Communication 1992-1993 Ward College

General Sociology 1992 -1993 Ward College

Workshop on Media and Journalism 1992-1993 Ward College

Ethics and Professional Deontology 1992-1993 Ward College

History 1991-1992 Saint Paul's College

Technology, Language, and Everyday Life 1991 Facultad Libre Venado Tuerto 

 Philosophy 1991 Inst. Alte. G. Brown 

Microeconomics 1991 Inst. Alte. G. Brown

Civic Instruction 1991 Inst. Alte. G. Brown 

Introduction to Sociology 1989-1990 Universidad Nac. del Centro 

Urban and Rural Sociology 1989-1990 Universidad Nac. del Centro

Latin American Social Thought 1988-1990 University of Buenos Aires

Informatics and Society 1989 University of Buenos Aires

Communication I 1987-1988 University of Buenos Aires 

Political Sciences 1987 University of Buenos Aires 

Argentinian Society Analysis II 1986-1987 University of Buenos Aires 

Political Sociology 1986-1987 University of Buenos Aires

Introduction to Scientific Knowledge 1985-1989 University of Buenos Aires

SELECTED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Geopolitical discourses in the Americas” 03-15-2025 Lacan Salon, Vancouver

“El amor, la sonrisa y la voz” 10-23-2024 Bar Association, Morón

“Ethics and Culture” 05-02-2019 Heritage and Rights Seminar, Tallin

“La educación y la construcción de ciudadanía! 10-08-2019 Mercosur Seminar, Montevideo

“Derecho, neurociencias y literatura” 11-23-2017 Law School, University of Buenos Aires

“Literatura, moral y derecho” 06-06-2017 Law School, University of Buenos Aires

“Literatura, comunicación y neurociencias” 05-30-2017 Neurosciences and Law Program - UBA 

“Literatura, comunicación y neurociencias” 11-24-2016 INEDE-Ministerio Público Fiscal

“Animals in literature” 11-04-2016 University of Buenos Aires Law School 

“Literatura y Medicina” 05-27-2016 La Pampa Colegio Médico

“Literatura y Medicina” (keynote speaker) 04-12-2015 Health Interdisciplinary Conf. B.Blanca 

“Literatura y Medicina” 09-23-2014 OSDE F.-Bibl. Sarmiento, Tres Arroyos 

“Inmigración y literatura en la Belle Époque” 08-30-2014 Tigre Art Museum

“La añoranza de las creencias encendidas” 11-29-2013 University of Buenos Aires

“No tenía paredes” 11-21-2013 OSDE Foundation, Bahía Blanca

“¿Cómo deberíamos vivir?” 10-09-2013 TEDxRosario

“Casa tomada: Ética, comunicación y cultura” 10-10-2012 Osde Foundation, Tres Arroyos

“La literatura, el mar, el río” 08-26-2011 National Reading Plan, Berisso

“Lectura y encierro” 09-17-2010 Bs. As. Ministry of Education, La Plata

“Cómo leer los medios” 02-24-2010 Ward College, Ramos Mejía

“Casa Tomada: Ética y Comunicación” 08-26-2009 La Matanza National University

“Como leer y escribir en la Argentina” 06-11-2009 Bahía Blanca Town Hall

“Siger de Brabantia, precursor de Borges” 09-04-2008 UCA, Buenos Aires

“Representaciones de la Violencia” 11-22-2006 Museum of Memory, Rosario

“Inmigración y Literatura” 10-20-2006 Sociedad Italiana, Rafaela, Santa Fe

“Medios de comunicación y violencia” 10-10-2006 Centro Social de San Javier, Santa Fe 

“Educación Sentimental y Literatura” 08-20-2006 Comodoro Rivadavia Book Fair

“Homenaje a Beckett” 06-31-2006 MALBA

“Violencia, identidad y melodrama” 05-27-2006 Argonautic Theatre Festival, Mendoza

“Del Teatro Popular al Teatro Culto” 05-26-2006 Argonautic Theatre Festival, Mendoza 

“Educación e identidad” 04-30-2006 Buenos Aires Book Fair

“Violencia Criminal y Medios” 11-10-2005 FLACSO

“Literaturas imposibles” 04-11-2005 OSDE Foundation, S. Rosa, La Pampa

“Lo imposible en Fernando Pessoa” 10-30-2005 MALBA

“Homenaje a Lezama Lima” 05-30-2005 Argentinian National Library

“Medios Públicos son todos” 09-20-2004 F. Ebert Foundation / FLACSO

“Medios, identidad y violencia” 08-23-2004 Department of Culture, San Fernando 

“Seguridad y Medios” 07-28-2004 SECYT-CAPES Seminar, Buenos Aires 

“Pen(o)samiento argentino” 20-11-2003 National Rosario University

“Como leer y escribir en la Argentina” 10-15-2003 Argentine Literature Conf. Río Gallegos 

“Argentina: Dreams & Nightmares of a Nation” 10-01-2002 University of British Columbia

“Política y tragedia de la memoria y el olvido” 08-14-2002 National Rosario University

“Las cosas son casi razonables” 12-15-2001 University of Buenos Aires

“Al que le quepa el ensayo que se lo ponga” 08-01-2001 National Rosario University

“Como sobrevivir en caída libre” 07-31-2001 CEJ, Venado Tuerto

“La Sonata Kreutzer, de Beethoven a Tolstoi” 07-30-2001 National Univ. of Patagonia, Trelew 

“Reflexiones en torno a E. Martínez Estrada” 05-22-2001 Laval University, Sainte Foy, Québec

“The Kreutzer Sonata, from Beethoven to Tolstoy” 02-14-2001 University of British Columbia

“Animal Writers” 01-18-2000 McGill University, Montreal

“Jorge Luis Borges and the impossible literatures” 01-17-2000 McGill University, Montreal

“Jorge Luis Borges y las literaturas imposibles” 11-10-2000 Yale University

“The impossible in Borges” 09-15-1999 King's College, London

“Aporías, pícaros y amantes” 12-09-1998 University of Buenos Aires

“Inmigración en la literatura argentina” 11-16-1998 University of Buenos Aires

“Hombre de ningún lugar” 11-12-1993 Ward College, Ramos Mejía, B. Aires

"Borges: violencia, traición, derrota y soledad” 10-21-1993 National Rosario University

“Perfiles profesionales y el mercado laboral” 09-30-1988 National Rosario University

OTHER COURSES TAKEN

Environment Studies 2023 INAP, Buenos Aires

Strategic Planning and Public Budget 2020 UNSAM, Buenos Aires

Coaching and Personal Leadership 2019 UNSAM, Buenos Aires

Heritage and Rights Training Course 2019 ICOMOS, Tallin and Lahemaa, Estonia

Conflicts Resolution and Management 2018 Universidad Abierta Interamericana

Conflicts Negotiation, Mediation and Treatment 2017 Universidad Abierta Interamericana

Practical Ethics (with Peter Singer) 2014 Princeton University (MOOC)

Radio Workshop 2003 FM En Tránsito, Castelar, Buenos Aires

Portuguese Studies Course 1996 University of Lisbon

XXth Century French Literature 1994 Prof. Lenguas Vivas, Buenos Aires

Life Design 1992 Terranova del Plata S. A., Buenos Aires

Radio Workshop 1992 University of Buenos Aires

Contemporary Sociology 1986 University of Buenos Aires

Cybernetics Methodology and Systems 1985 University of Buenos Aires

Systems General Theory 1985 University of Buenos Aires

Militarization and Demilitarization of the State 1983 CLACSO, Buenos Aires

EDITING EXPERIENCE

Revista Anales de la Educación Común 2011 Editor

Huellas. Revista del ILLPAT 2006-2007 Member of the Editorial Board

CLACSO Publication Program 1989-1990 Assistant

Babel, Journal of Literary Criticism 1988-1989 Reviewer and Section Chief

Fahrenheit 450, Journal of Social Sc. (UBA) 1986-1987 Member of the Editorial Board

RADIO AND VIDEO EXPERIENCE

En otras palabras FM 107.2 La Red, Rosario 2008 Weekly Columnist

Mestizo S. R. L. 1994 Speaker (English and Portuguese)

Hojas en blanco FM Suburbana, Haedo 1991 Producer and speaker

UNPD-UNESCO-CLACSO Broadcasting Plan 1989-1990 Writer of radio articles

Love, smile, and voice

(Conference originally given in Spanish on October 23, 2024, Bar Association, Moron, Buenos Aires Province, illustrated with songs sang by me and played with my guitar, Osvaldo Nan playing the keyboards, and Gabriel Vignoni the harmonica) 

 The ancient Greeks had three gods of time: Cronus, who continually devours us; Aion, the god of a life freed from Cronus, a time of pleasure and desire when we want the moment to last forever; and Kairos, fleeting, who determines that time of the instant, the god of opportunity linked to art. In order to temporarily detach ourselves from Cronus and be in Aion, we need events that make the eternal appear, so that we can anti-entropically resist Cronus. If today more than ever time appears to us Shakespeareanly torn, there are moments when we dance in the uncertainty of a beautiful contact with Kairos, moments of a life that seems never to die.

Borges also sang of the diversity and depth of any given instant, in which the elusive Kairos allows us to experience eternity while it lasts, from Aion to Vinicius de Moraes. In order to achieve this other relationship with time, it is necessary to achieve another relationship with the world and with death. Cronos is the opposite of love, and it is necessary to always be ready to resist this god and his entropy. Evolution is that resistance. Because if fleeing Cronos is ultimately impossible, temporarily escaping him and undergoing evaluative experiences that disorient or distract him is not.

In a world that has become a vast marketplace of priceless offerings, we desire everything, we want to experience everything, and in this detachment from longing, we are often unaware of the place and moment we inhabit and, therefore, we don't even experience it, because our minds are elsewhere: behind, because we don't understand what has quickly passed, or ahead, because we fear what will quickly come. And suspecting that we lack control over or understand ourselves, and unable to accept it, we often waste time, life, and its very meaning in the deserts of a cultivated anxiety.

That's where Altazor, that inspiring poem by Vicente Huidobro, arrives to remind us of the parachute journey of a being who breaks the shackles of reality, transforming it. He comes parachuting down, and in the process, he writes his poem. Altazor helps us remember the possibility of a more poetic and just life, filling it with meaning and value, until our brief journey in this world ends. I now remember that other poem by Borges:

Los justos

Un hombre que cultiva su jardín, como quería Voltaire.
El que agradece que en la tierra haya música.
El que descubre con placer una etimología.
Dos empleados que en un café del Sur juegan un silencioso ajedrez.
El ceramista que premedita un color y una forma.
Un tipógrafo que compone bien esta página, que tal vez no le agrada.
Una mujer y un hombre que leen los tercetos finales de cierto canto.
El que acaricia a un animal dormido.
El que justifica o quiere justificar un mal que le han hecho.
El que agradece que en la tierra haya Stevenson.
El que prefiere que los otros tengan razón.
Esas personas, que se ignoran, están salvando el mundo.

If we're falling, we can do it another way, poetically and valuably. Altazor falls with his eyes open, shaking nothingness, bringing the atmosphere of passion into his darkness, reminding us that we're all sewn to the same star, by the same music, under the same sky. Like Altazor, I propose here to remind you of the possibility of higher lives and I invite you to fall from high above.

To achieve this, it is essential to add value to our lives, to poetically fall into other spaces, with other conversations, other words, while we construct meaning.

And that requires warm spaces for encounter and reflection on what makes our lives more meaningful in the world. If the world still has the open possibility of encounter with a horizon of hope, it's good to remember why we live.

What I call values of poetic significance are values that are exercised on knowledge and practices, and I propose working with at least three dimensions of values closely linked to each other: a sensitive dimension , a cognitive dimension and a practical dimension, in order to promote through our lives a culture that is not indifferent, a culture that is capable of knowing what it is talking about (hence also the need for intercultural competences), and a culture committed to action and justice regarding those things to which it is sensitive and which it knows.

Sensitivity is an essential component of moral life: there is no moral conscience that is not moved, enthusiastic, or indignant. But this sensitivity must be nurtured and call upon reflection on these emotions and feelings, the elucidation of their motives or motivations, their identification, their expression, and their discussion. The formation of moral judgment must allow us to understand and discuss the moral choices we encounter in our lives.

It is at least partially the result of instruction in the different forms of moral reasoning, of being placed in a position to argue and deliberate on the complexity of these problems and to justify our moral choices. The development of moral judgment appeals primarily to the capacities for analysis, discussion, exchange, and the confrontation of points of view in problematic situations. And it demands a capacity for attention , particularly to the work of language in all written and oral expressions. However, we are doing little of all this in our education and in our cultural and political life, where those who cannot even express themselves orally or in writing are no exception. A world that cannot even express itself adequately and that mutilates its languages, a culture that does not know what it is talking about, is a guarantee of deterioration.

It is urgent to learn to converse as if we were dancing, recovering the magic of words and the art of listening.

What I call "poetic citizenship" entails a capacity for self-transformation that we tend to forget. It is built through its exercise; it implies a "power to do" within the contextual conditions in which we find ourselves immersed, within the framework of our relationships, our social capital, our values, and our participation in the construction of our home, city, country, planet: the place where we are, from our own language to our imagination. Multiple discourses traverse us, which is why it is important to generate an antidisciplinary space for different dialogues, the scope for the construction of a poetic awareness of citizenship itself and its labyrinths. Furthermore, in the case of today's adolescents and young people, it involves capturing the values that unfold in their unique ways of relating in the attempt to achieve meaning, a poetic value for their lives. It is about, as the avant-garde aspired, turning one's own life into a work of art or, in a nostalgic epic variant, becoming the heroes of our own lives. We can do more with them. Be fairer to others and to ourselves. Because there is another voice within us beyond the "sound and the fury" that Faulkner portrayed. Tomorrow burns us, and we find ourselves caged in old institutions. Values, then, are the support of a life that moves us toward another place, that excites us, that generates meaning.

We are imagination, desire, and memory, tears in the face of beauty, laughter in the face of nothingness itself, the courage of commitment, and the ability to dream of penetrating reality. If we are to die, let us leave behind poetic moments, valuable events. Let us be what we are to leave behind.

We need to have new meanings for the words and voices of the world. If we must fall, let us do so courageously in a poetic parachute, enriching the moment in which we are in this world.

The idea is that something is shaken and new possibilities for perception are created, leaving ourselves towards a beyond, to other lands, other skies, other truths sometimes distinguishable in what flees or sings, in an attempt to translate the sublime through a sacred rhythm.

Important figures have lived a clandestine and diminished life in a Cartesian world. Their exile grows more terrifying every day in a world that has lost its meaning and wanders aimlessly.

And these values are present within us as a longing for what we desire: another body beside our own, another being, another life. Beyond, outside of ourselves, among the trembling trees, something sings in a moment of heroism when time stops flowing, like when we freeze before a beautiful smile that makes us reborn.

For many today, values may not enlighten them, much less entertain them, in times when everything seems to be entertainment and values seem to have no value.

If meaning has ceased to illuminate the world, we circle around an absence. And as we face the future, isolated, we share a sense of uncertainty with all human beings and feel that an unformed future demands courage so that we won't give up so easily in the face of the darkness of time and ages. It demands a question about meaning, a search that will reunite what has been separated: ourselves.

In our days, a disenchanted and painful world of multitudes undergoing therapies in which they learn to protect themselves from others, to achieve personal fulfillment rather than commitment to a group or social institution, mortally threatens any possibility of resurrecting a convivial "we." It is therefore necessary to establish formats of conviviality, of life with others when we are most educated for life and happiness without others.

Day after day, we struggle to survive, alienated within an anomic society, with no sign of the customary abuses we suffer. Our society has long since entered a period of instability and threat, but since we cannot bear too much reality, we flee to the most relatable and legitimate fictions. Undoubtedly, the fiction of the autonomous "I" and its power is not the least among them.

Like never before, many people find themselves alone, isolated, even by their own choice, which not only does not contribute to the situation, but actually contributes to it. Loneliness in times of individualistic utopias is one of the great social problems of our time. Already in the 19th century, Emile Durkheim pointed out that some of the serious social problems we suffer are due to the deterioration of group life. French philosophers, he asserted, had exalted a "science of the self" instead of a philosophy of social man, of the "we." Without authority, without effective moral or legal controls, only an overflow of selfishness would have unfolded since then. Today, we see how cultural transformations have weakened an image of "we" that allows for the creation of bonds of trust and social cooperation, and we even see daily the difficulty of politics in generating shared meanings in this regard.

These are times when some of the most precious aspects of the human condition are at risk, heralding an inhospitable landscape. That's why it's so difficult to feel at home. And if we continue to be encouraged—as is the case—to empower ourselves individually and increase our personal capacity for influence as a privileged way of building our identity, while underestimating our condition and potential as social beings, it will not be possible to live without fear and at peace with ourselves and with others.

In a world where self-interest had become the god of humanity, demanding the sacrifice of morality, it was the sociologist's responsibility—according to Durkheim—to study how the sanctification of these private interests was accompanied by a degradation of public morality. When only individual appetites remained, we found ourselves facing a society that would inevitably bring a high proportion of crimes, suicides, and divorces—he predicted—in its bourgeois pursuit of individual "happiness." Violent deaths were inevitable in a sickly acquisitive society tainted by individualism.

There is no prospect of overcoming the planet's weakness without encouraging the emergence of socio-value-based forces with sufficient power to move in this direction, and the conviction that only by generating solid alliances of poetic significance will it be possible to generate sufficient power to overcome social anomie.

From a culture of simulation to a culture of meaning and value, that would be the path to follow. And on that path, we must reenter history when it seems we can't take any more, that we're exhausted, that everything is a step toward the abyss. The parachute journey demands that we live as if the ideal were reality. Because a world without a moral compass and without cultivating values of poetic significance is the best guarantee of its destruction.

The narrative of our brains is incessantly searching for and creating meaning. In addition to being captive to old institutions, we are, in a way, prisoners of the cultural imprint stored within them, and we need to create another imprint, leave another imprint. Questions about truth, beauty, and goodness are tangled in our neural circuits and have to do with their history. Moral intuitions are already there, but learning modifies the synaptic connections between neurons and their intensity. And, contrary to what prejudice suggests, and beyond cultural prisons, neurobiology reveals that our brain is fundamentally what we make of it. And what are we making of it with AI?

More than ever, we need beings who experiment with superior and more just forms of life. Our history is filled with examples of those who felt like foreigners in their own land, idealists uneasy in the face of cynicism and resentment. The value of example is fundamental. There will be no other world if we fail to enrich our outlook, marginalize those who promote it, and unhealthily conform to those who servilely flatter and mistreat us, pay us and charge us, seduce us and reject us, accommodate us and inconvenience us, in times of moral harassment.

We live in an age of great corruption in political life, and cynicism about ethical idealism is an understandable reaction to the tragic way in which ideals have been shattered by many political leaders. But if Aristotle was right that we become virtuous by practicing virtue, we need societies in which people are encouraged to act virtuously. Unlike the Hobbesian view, in which violence becomes a culture upon which identities are constructed, the explanation of which is articulated on the recourse to conflict as its sole and constant source, we need to create a cooperative social setting with an emphasis on empathy as the driving force of social action. A caring attitude , with its limitations and weaknesses, can therefore be the way to embrace the responsibility for another way of being in the world, helping us see and hear ourselves as part of a shared identity and glimpse other possibilities for our planet.

We face the challenge of encouraging virtuous behavior. And to do so, we seek what Bateson called the pattern that connects the world. Kant believed we would be condemned to a solidarity of destinies, and the pandemic was no small sign of this. Very bad things can have very good consequences, and who knows, if we do something more and differently, our time in this world could become a more dignified and beautiful parachute journey. Everything remains possible if passion endures thanks to the oases or mirages of a smile, a voice, and love.

There is something and there is someone. We have hope even in the absurdity of our condition because we believe we can be saved by love. The law of the desert is the home of the impersonal, whose narrative must be denied. And we always precociously leap over that boundary. Each testimony of that leap is as precocious, risky, and unpredictable as love. We are what can transform that desert and what allows us to be transformed as long as we continue to suffer it. We struggle with the absurdity of the experience, and as an exit or entrance from or into that situation, we fall in love.

Suffering will bring transformation. And even when love is at risk, there is something that may be happening for the first time, or that we may be experiencing for the first time. But we don't understand it. We have created a space of uncertainty and suspicion, a space in which one cannot know who one is supposed to be while trying to overcome the pain with which we traverse the destinies of our time.

The desire we've been left with, the desire we've built, no longer serves us: normalized, it sinks into a banality that is sadness and silence. And then the world of illusions gives legitimacy to hatred. All hatred, they say, is frustrated love.

Love, under threat today, is a fundamental force in the universe, necessary for peace and beauty. Before it can ascend to heaven, the poet must first understand the depths of degradation to which we can sink.

We love against death. To love means to seek the unattainable; it is a fantasy, a hallucination in which what we love, above all, is love. In a universe that has lost its unity, those who love rarely know what they love, or why they love, or what it means to love. Especially if they want to understand, since understanding is to forget how to love.

In love, we encounter bursts of energy, shattered thoughts, incoherent rhythms, terrible hallucinatory storms, intellectual collapses, magical combustions. The lover waits and does not exile himself from his imaginary world of delirious energy. Because...without that energy, what? The entropy of someone who no longer recognizes us, and with it, helplessness, undoing, nourishment of twilight. Enthusiastic, the energetic, the sacred, and the erotic intertwine.

Loving is a decision in the face of the desert, even the desert of love itself. Everything interesting in this world is born from passion. And, as with energy, nothing is lost in love; everything is transformed. The rest is desolation. This is what Chico Buarque's song, "Futuros Amantes" (Futuros Amantes) speaks about (interpretation of the song with my guitar, piano, and harmonica).

Entropy also seems to be concerned with evolution, which was once a source of resistance to the degradation of the universe. If the apocalypse has become trivial, it becomes essential for us to consider a new sentimental education that recovers visions of the good life that don't end in mockery and hilarity, but rather in the smile of the cat in Alice in Wonderland, or in others like those of Osvaldo Nan and Gabriel Vignoni, who just joined me in composing this song with me.

One waits for another beat, another glow in the darkness, troubadour and butterfly illuminating the night, the arch of promise always open, the imagination shaken, sweeping poems along the path of a voice.

If love is the origin of the new day, our journey is also an adventure worthwhile despite the horror, with trembling boats anchored but ready to depart, with the vertigo of not knowing what one is doing, the chimerical vertigo of renunciation, the vertigo of a dance that is a temporary relief from the need to flee thanks to the sacred smile of its rhythm.

Passion is resistance to the law, to the verdict: Aphrodite's infinite smile making us stutter. And we want that moment, our contemplation of that smile, to last forever. Contemplating a smile is like meditating on a Zen koan, observing a mandala, entering the realm of infinity and paradoxes with an energy that, when it acts, stops.

Camus said it was necessary to imagine Sisyphus happy. Those of us who work with the material of the impossible rehearse it, not without difficulty but with determination and Chaplin-esque aplomb, every day. The love that lifts and rocks his drunken ship carries out an eternal Sisyphean task, attempting again and again in every sea, on every coast where it is possible to bear witness to innocence, to catastrophe, but also to the deserts of love: the lost innocence of love and also the enchanted world we reinvent when we don't want to surrender so easily to the implacable order of what is given, accepted, indisputable.

Smile. A smile pushes and strains. As Charlie Chaplin, the author of this beautiful song, suggests (Interpretation of Smile).

And suddenly it seems there's only one voice in the world, a voice without windows, an illusion, an image that burns like fire and sleep, sheltering our desert words. Fragile, so fragile, that voice often takes refuge because it doesn't know what to reply, what to do with its confusion, with the fragments of broken worlds, vestiges of a god who can't find what to say before the sea.

So we beg for a melody, we stutter like a hammer, like an unfinished book, with a voice we don't have for the whirlwinds, to invent a place where words return to things, where harmonies are set in motion like a song after sacrifice.

But that voice calls us to glide among the flowers, to be a sailor in her garden, and we lose ourselves in the memory of a poem like that dead man who did not want to be considered dead, like incorrigible beasts, absent lights, flowers hidden on the other side of the star.

That's why I sing, I stumble, and I look for exceptions, and not having to sing, I sing with the harmonics of memory of that day that could have been possible. And I play the guitar with my mutilated hands... my eaten-away fingers won't stay still: an unfinished story drives them, lost opportunities drive them, and I stammer with my breath words made of air and I imagine their bodies as if they were part of an encyclopedia... like a daring guest in a hidden gem, I wait for the instant of a word in my voice, cooking my soul, my bones, like a divine gust seeking to bring forth an improbable song from nothingness. Perhaps a love is being made like a god who hasn't yet been born, and a multifarious language that hasn't yet been written for our sacred theater.

I believe in the voices of birds because I know their anguishing mystery, and I imagine then that I have already achieved it, that through them the mornings of the world have returned. I should fall silent like a garden in the city, I should stop writing and speaking with the sand of my voice, but I am a man who has reached such a level that he can do nothing but this, who searches for those lost books and the cipher of their voice, who thinks of the things that could have been and were not, in the world without the rose, to dream again what was dreamed, the sacred music, its revelation like an impossible sonata in frozen time.

And it turns out that I am and I see that we are often the ones who are afraid of the distance of the voice, of the stars that look at us, filling the air with more fears, and then I throw spears to the sky and wait in my delirium for the hope of the trapeze artist in the swamp of his solitude.

Reality is a nightmare, it seems unreal. We live in terror, listening to voices from the caves. There's a sadness inherent in thoughts and loves that leave scars. Life is so hard sometimes that if we didn't have this impulse to smile, it wouldn't be worth living.

But no one is saved with words. To speak of love is to lose it. This enigma refers us to the realm of sung and lived loves. I have sung here by invitation and because the form of life called love is enunciated by the minstrel, the troubadour. Love is an ethical, political, and religious crossroads. And today there is a fissure in love. Love as we understand it today is a song we inherited from courtly education, from troubadour ethics, the love of non-possession and non-contract, of gift and gratuitousness. The courtly love in which many of us were educated was a joyful knowledge, a jovial game, a literary and competitive spirit. It is part of medieval tournaments, of their festivals, of skill.

The art of the troubadour and courtly love are poetic constructions. And the human voice is, of all existing music, the closest to the divine secret. Its lyrics are part of a chant. The "elevation" of everyday speech to the realm of art, the musicalization of poetic forms, are part of a rhetorical ethic in which good speech and politeness in speaking are the axes of the virtues of the courtier. And there is a "nomadism" in the voice of the minstrel. For a long time, linguists condemned the privileging of the voice in the name of writing, when in reality there is an absolute proximity between the voice and being, between the voice and the meaning of being.

Here I begin to sing, to the rhythm of the vihuela, as Martín Fierro begins. But in the resonant sound of the poetic language, the repercussion of the song is, above all, a sacrificial resonant: the creator is sacrificed in and by his work. The courage of sacrifice IS the courage of the poet-singer. All the poet's courage is precisely a courage or spirit of sacrifice. And the song of sacrifice is like this, the clamor of the open-mouthed one who is about to be sacrificed, the clamor that is none other than the sacred song of life, the sacrificial vocalization that is the truth of the tragic and the poetic. The song, every song, what I would say is always the resistance of life itself, resistance to the fact that sacrifice must, again and again, necessarily take place. Many, and perhaps some of us, have lost their lives to give this song a chance, the song of a sacrificed life, a song that announces the necessary death, the parachute fall. Resonance of the sacrificial in song, when everything remains possible if passion endures, the constant passion to undermine the legitimacy of an original simplicity. A song that intertwines voices and comes from the tragedy of life, linked today with the profound relationship, as Gorgias liked, of the word, and my word now, with kairos, the present moment, circumstance, the grace, misfortune, and sincerity of a voice. But what is the voice? How is the voice constructed? The voice is one of the ways in which a body, a life, resonates, and expresses the intimacy of being, its beliefs, values, feelings, security, as well as its doubts, anguish, fear, its warmth, its rhythm, its tone, its timbre. How can we discover an intonation, a voice, a destiny? How can we give voice to the voiceless? Can it be taken away from those who have one? I think of Scheherazade and her voice, keeping it alive. And again of Martín Fierro. Nothing is lost if his passion for Song and the ability to continue making his voice heard persist. He understands that this ability comes from on High and that the happiness that this gift, with which he has been anointed, gives him comes from stripping away everything else: anything other than his power to continue speaking himself in Song. And he sings:

Gracias le doy a la virgen,

gracias le doy al Señor,

porque entre tanto rigor

y habiendo perdido tanto,

no perdí mi amor al canto

ni mi voz como cantor.

Those who reveal themselves to be enthusiastic always sing because they believe in a way out. The singer cannot remain without a voice, without hope. If nothing can be expected from words, then we must sing so that dead poetry may be reborn. But if we cannot be heard, why sing? Well, sometimes it is a matter of singing that which cannot be heard, that which cannot be called by its name. Today is the time to listen to the sounds of a voice that is still unformulated but present in memory. Words, today transformed into empty sonorities, need to sing of a new kind of love, a renewed sensitivity. We can no longer expect anything from words as they often circulate. Our language must be different because this use of words tempts us to abandon words, and today we are shipwrecked by voices. I continue searching for that lost, impossible, implacable voice, which is born from passions when we probably forget more than we know, when we want the moment to last forever in a life, in a voice. (I play on guitar Minha voz, minha vida , by Caetano Veloso ).

Martínez Estrada wrote:

“I believe that the writer has, de facto and de jure, as one of his pressing social duties, that of being an agitator, a remover of inert materials, an explorer, a prospector of gold-bearing lands, a Viking of unknown seas, a traveler who dreams of unknown continents, the most fertile supplier of leavening materials for philosophical culture; a man in rebellion, as Camus called him, a man who makes, in his entire person, the experiment of trying out other, higher and unprecedented forms of life” (On Kafka and Other Essays. EME).

That's what it's all about. Trying out higher and new ways of living. Because everything remains possible if passion endures, thanks to the oasis or mirage of a smile, a voice, and love. And that's why... I come to offer my heart (Interpretation of Fito Páez's song)