Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

a couple of weeks I began to hate him. I was grateful to him fortaking me in, but I couldn't help it; it was an irrational aversionprompted no doubt by some dark detour in my unconscious mind.Years later, I still hadn't forgotten it; there's even a scene in TheExterminating Angel reminiscent of Juan's eccentricity.At a certain point, to please my father, I changed courses anddecided to study industrial engineering, a six-year program whichrequired mastery of technical subjects like mechanics and electromagnetics.I managed to pass industrial design and, thanks to theprivate lessons, some of my mathematics exams. The following summer,in San Sebastian, I went to my father's friends for advice; onehad an excellent reputation as an Arabic scholar, the other had beenone of my high school teachers in Saragossa. I told them my horrorofmath, my boredom, my aversion to six-year programs. They talkedto my father, who finally agreed to let me pursue my penchant forthe natural sciences.The Museum of Natural History was only a stone's throw fromthe 'Residencia, and I worked there happily for a year under theguidance of the great Ignacio Bolivar, at that time a world-famousorthopterist. Even today, I can still identify many varieties of insectsat a glance and give you their Latin names.During the following year, while I was on an excursion to Alcalade Henares led by Americo Castro, a professor at the Center forHistorical Studies, I heard about the need in certain foreign countriesfor Spanish instructors. I was so eager to get out of Spain that Iimmediately offered my services; unfortunately, no one seemed interestedin hiring a student of the natural sciences. So in a fast andfinal metamorphosis I became a candidate for a degree in philosophy,a broad course of study involving literature, philosophy itself, andhistory-my area of specialization.(These details are excruciatingly boring, I know, but if you wantto follow the sinuous route of a single life, if you want to see whereit came from and where it went, it's impossible to tell what's superfluousand what's indispensable.)My passion for sports began at the Residencia, where every morn-