Bunuel_Luis_My_Last_Breath

policemen coming toward us. I began to tremble under my headdress;in Spain, a joke like that could get us five years in jail. Butthe policemen only stopped and smiled."Good evening, Sister," one of them said. "Can we help you?"Sometimes Orbea, the Spanish vice-consul, came with us to theBal Bullier. One night, he asked if he too could have a costume, soI whipped off my nun's habit and gave it to him. (Ever prepared, Iwore a complete soccer uniform underneath.) Vicens and I wantedto open a cabaret on the boulevard Raspail, so I went to Saragossato ask my mother to back us. Needless to say, she refused. Shortlyafterward, Vicens was hired to manage the Spanish bookstore on theme Gay-Lussac. He died, in Peking, after the war.Another thing I learned to do in Paris was dance correctly. Notonly did I take French classes, but I went to a dancing school andmastered all kinds of steps, including the Java, despite my aversionto the accordion. I can still remember the tune to "On fait un' petitebdote, etpuzs voila. . . . " The melody was everywhere, as at this timeParis was filled with accordions.I still loved jazz and continued to play the banjo. My recordcollection had reached the impressive number of sixty discs, whichwas not inconsiderable for the period. We used to go to the HotelMac-Mahon to hear jazz or to the Chateau de Madrid in the Bois deBoulogne to dance.I also discovered anti-Semitism, something I simply hadn't beenaware of before coming to France. I remember hearing a man tell astory about his brother, who'd gone to eat dinner at a restaurant atthe Etoile. When he entered, he saw a Jew sitting there and becameso enraged that he walked up to him and, without a word, struckhim so hard that he fell off his chair. Such an act was absolutelyincomprehensible to a Spaniard; so when I heard the story, I askeda lot of questions-which must have been hopelessly naive, since theanswers weren't very satisfactory. This was also the period whenright-wing groups like the Carnelots du Roi and Jeunesses Patriotiquesorganized raids on Montparnasse. We used to see them leap