José Manuel Franco (Barruelo de Santullán, Palencia, 53 years old) is a greengrocer and writer.
He has lived on the former for 30 years at a stall in the Eco de la Cruz market, in Madrid's Ciudad Linear neighborhood, and enjoys the latter, writing treatises on the history of Rome (
La sangre de Roma. Las Guerras Civiles y el fin of the Republic
, Almena editions) and historical novels (
The Cantabrian Wars
,
in the Librucos publishing house and
The Black Mountain
in Vision Books).
At his stall you can buy the same apples from El Bierzo as the adventures of Marco Licinio Craso.
He is already preparing a new novel.
With you, the best greengrocer in history.
Ask.
Fruit bowl, writer, fruit bowl-writer or fruit bowl writer?
Answer.
Well, more than anything, reader.
And fond of history and dedicated to greengrocers.
P.
How much do you dedicate to the fruit vendor and how much to the writer?
R.
Man, realize that I get up at half past four in the morning, and I get off at Mercamadrid.
And I finish the day at nine o'clock at night.
With which, I have to do the documentation and the writing later.
And between when you shower, have dinner and take your time... well, nothing, I usually wear from ten to twelve.
And I take advantage of the weekends.
You are looking for holes.
Q.
Does one still want to think about Tiberio Sempronio Graco after such a job scourge?
A.
Yes, but the way you like it… it's a
hobby
.
Although now I'm a bit relaxed, because this book [
The Blood of Rome
] took me a long time.
But I already have a project in mind.
It's that I have a very romantic family and I want to do something about us.
P.
Count, count.
Fiction?
R.
Well, I'm going to mix the family history with whatever there is.
P.
In other words, fiction based on pure reality, or self-fiction, which is popular now.
R.
Well, I don't know if it will take, but I want to.
It's just that we have a somewhat colorful family.
Q.
May you ask why?
R.
It is that we have never been the typical family, there have always been strange things, ups and downs.
P.
It happens in the best families, never better said.
R.
Of course... but I can assure you that mine is even more atypical.
Bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero in the Capitoline Museums in Rome.Capitoline Museums.
Q.
You write novels and history.
In the end, they are not so different either, right?
A.
Well…
P.
In history there is also a lot of interpretation, and recreation, and lucubration.
A.
Oh, of course.
History is always interpreted.
The story is never true.
There are few true stories.
The ones you live
And because you live them.
The true story nobody knows.
What reaches us is distorted and manipulated, with good or bad intentions.
For example, today there is a lot of talk about populism.
But there were always populists, Cicero was one of them, although he later went down in history as a great orator and a great politician.
The problem is that many people approve of populism.
There are people who say “I, since I don't know what to do with my life, so let this man take me by the hand”.
Ignorance is very bad.
P.
Would you have liked that writing had not been a
hobby
, living from books and not from fruit?
R.
Man, yes.
If I had the talent of professional writers…
Q.
Be careful, there are professional writers without talent.
And not professionals by far.
R.
I mean that if I knew that I was worth it, I would have dedicated more time to it.
With the job I have, I don't have many opportunities for promotion, nor time to investigate, study, go here, there... I take this out for a personal thing, because it satisfies me to write a book and have it on the street, read it ten people or read it thousand.
P.
Do you separate 100% the facet of greengrocer and writer?
Is it a Jekyll & Hyde?
Or do they get mixed up and confused and sometimes, looking at a tangerine, a story comes to mind?
R.
It is as if you were two characters.
But when you're immersed in a book, ideas come to you anywhere.
I'm very much of "damn, this came to me, so I write it down!".
Let's see, if you're in the greengrocer you can't be to many things either.
Q.
Do you talk to clients about your ideas, about your books?
R.
Well, luckily I have some clients with a high cultural level and then the conversation engages.
And you start talking about one thing and end up talking about another.
Q.
You start talking about avocados and end up talking about the Roman vestals…
R.
And politics, or the latest movie premiere, or where you spent the weekend.
We are not only here to sell fruit.
We are also here to meet people.
They become friends.
P.
Well, there will be everything, there will be professional pains.
R.
There is everything.
There are people who tell you important problems of theirs, and you have to listen to them.
And others who come to tell you something that you think “and what the hell do I care about this?”.
And I'm not telling you about those who give you political talk as if pretending that you agree with them... or those who talk to you about football.
Football and politics are just as histrionic.
Q.
There are bookstores where you can eat and drink.
But until now I didn't know any greengrocer where you could read...
R.
Well, now that you mention it, it's true that I hadn't thought of that question... man, I know restaurants in towns where, suddenly, the owner has written a book about the region and sells it there.
But in a greengrocer the truth is that no…
Q.
What is your favorite book?
A.
Perfume
, by Patrick Süskind.
Q.
And your favorite fruit?
A.
The pineapple.
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