Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

set up in the attic and invitations sent to all the children in the villageover twelve. Just before curtain time, we'd put together a feast ofcandies and beaten egg whites, with water mixed with vinegar andsugar to drink, fantasizing that it was a strange nectar imported fromsome exotic land. (Luis did everything, and it was only on our father'sintervention, and his threats of canceling the show, that we threesisters were allowed to attend the performances.)I also remember the day the mayor of Saragossa organized a specialassembly at the municipal school to celebrate some sort of seriouscivic occasion. Luis arrived onstage dressed as part gypsy, part bandit,brandishing an enormous pair of barber's shears and chanting:With this pair of scissorsAnd my will to fight, it's plainWe'll have a revolutionAnd capture all of Spain!The audience applauded wildly and threw the actors cigars and cigarettes.Luis was a boxer as well as an actor. When he'd beaten thetoughest boy in the village, he arranged a series of boxing matchesand gave himself the title of "the Lion of Calanda." (In Madrid, hewas a lightweight champion, but I don't know the details of thisparticular incarnation.)After Luis passed his baccalaureate exams with flying colors, hebegan to talk of becoming an agronomist. The notion pleased myfather, who already saw his son improving the family property inAragon. My mother, on the other hand, was horrified; to pursue hisstudies, her son would have to go to Madrid! Of course, that wasprecisely what attracted Luis to the subject; it was a way out of boththe family and Saragossa.During this time, we were spending our summers in San Sebastiin,and we saw Luis only in Saragossa, for vacations or for familycatastrophes, such as our father's death in 1923. In Madrid, he