Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

Saragossa 25lion pesetas. (To put this in context, the richest man in Spain, CountRomafiones, was supposed to be worth one hundred million pesetas.)In Saragossa, my father ranked fourth or fifth. I remember my familytelling about the day my father donated his entire account to theHispano-American bank because they were in financial straits. Apparently,it was enough to keep the bank out of bankruptcy court.The fact of the matter is that my father did absolutely nothing.His daily routine consisted of waking up, performing his morningablutions, and reading the paper (a habit I seem to have adoptedmyself). Afterwards, he would check to see if his cigars had arrivedfrom Havana, do some trivial errands, occasionally pick up somewine or caviar. A prelunch aperitif rounded out the first half of thedayThe only thing my father would carry in the street was his elegantlywrapped jar of caviar. According to social convention, menof "rank" were never supposed to carry anything; that's what servantswere for. Even when I went to my music lesson, my governess alwayscarried the violin case.After lunch and a siesta, my father changed his clothes andwent to his club. There he whiled away the time before dinnerplaying bridge or tresillo with his cronies. In the evenings, myparents sometimes went to the theatre. There were four of them inSaragossa, and in the largest one, which was lavishly decorated ingold leaf, my parents had a box. Sometimes there were operas,sometimes plays given by traveling repertory companies, sometimesa concert. (That theatre is one of the few landmarks from mychildhood still standing.) Almost as majestic was the now defunctPignatelli Theatre; the Parisians, somewhat more frivolous, specializedin operettas. The fourth was a kind of circus where I wasoften taken to see plays. One of my most exciting memories is ofgoing to see an elaborate zarzuela called Los sobnnos del CapitanGrant; I must have seen it half a dozen times, but I never failed tobe impressed when the huge condor came plummeting down outof the heavens onto the stage.One of the more spectacular events that came to Saragossa was