Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

without reservation, drink for at least an entire night, and wanderaimlessly through the streets of the city. Those who preferred to goto bed early became escudero~ at best; the qualifications for the guestsand the guests of guests aren't really worth mentioning.The decision to establish the Order came ro me, as ~t does to allfounders, after a strange vision. I saw two groups of friends run intoeach other by accident and decide to make the rounds of the tavernsin Toledo together. I'm in one of the groups, outrageously dmnk.At one pint I walk Into the cloister of a Gothic cathedral, andsuddenly the air is hll of thousands of singing birds. A voice ordersme to return to the Carmelites-not to become a monk, but to stealthe treasury. I go to the convent, the concierge lets me in, a monkappears. I tell him of my sudden and passionate desire to become amember, but he ushers me out the door, never noticing that I absolutelyreek of wine. The following day, I announced the establishmentof the Order.There were redly only two rules: each member had to contributeten pesetas to the communal pot (meaning, to me), and he had togo to Toledo as often as possible and place himself in a state ofreceptiv~ty for whatever unforgettable eqeriences might happen along.We used to stay at an unusual inn called the Posada de la Sangrethe Inn of Blood-which hadn't changed very much since Cervantessituated Lu ifustre fregonu in ~ ts courtyard. Donkeys still stood in theyard, along with carriage drivers, dirty sheets, and packs of students.Of course, there was no mnning water, but that was a matter ofrelatively minor importance, since the members of the Order wereforbidden to wash during their sojourn in the Holy City.We ate either in taverns or at the Venta de Aires, which waslwated a short distance outside the c~ty and where we always hadomelettes, pork with fried eggs, or partridge and drank white winefrom Yepes. Afterwards, on our way back to the inn, we made therequisite pilgrimage to Bermguete's tomb of Cardinal Tavera, wherewe meditated for a few minutes by the cardinal's alabaster body withits pale and hollow cheeks. (This is the model for the death mask