Alice Mascarenhas launches ‘Palabras al Viento’, a book honouring her late father

Alice Mascarenhas launched her book ‘Palabras al Viento’ honouring her late father, Gibraltarian broadcaster and journalist Manolo Mascarenhas, at Grand Battery House on Thursday evening.

Ms Mascarenhas, a former Deputy Editor of this newspaper, penned the book featuring a collection of her father’s works and named after his well-known 1960s broadcasts ‘Palabras al Viento’ on Radio Gibraltar.

At the launch on Thursday evening, alongside Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and Gibraltar Cultural Services’ Chief Cultural Officer Seamus Byrne, Ms Mascarenhas unveiled her years-long project which is close to her heart.

“This book is probably the most important project I've ever had to undertake,” Ms Mascarenhas said.

“Not just because… as you can all imagine [it’s] extremely personal, but because it is about our history as a people at a specific point in time.”

“But because in many ways, my father's stories of El Pueblo Calpense, which he so fondly wrote about, and his words, especially in his Palabras al Viento, have helped make us who we are today, a people in our own rights.”

“And that is what he and his generation would have wanted for us.”

“One question I have been asked several times is, why now?”

“Well, quite simply, because this year is the 60th anniversary of the very first Palabras al Viento, which aired on Radio Gibraltar.”

Ms Mascarenhas played some of her father’s broadcasts at the launch, describing how every Sunday for five years, Palabras al Viento, united “Gibraltarians in one of the most traumatic and challenging periods in its history”.

The broadcasts began airing on Radio Gibraltar in January 1965.

“It laid the path to the closed frontier years,” she said.

“By January 1969, Palabras al Viento had been on the air every Sunday for four years, defending the rights of the Gibraltarians, correcting the lies and false accusations reported in the Spanish media. Many of you here will remember those years.”

“When Spanish dictator Franco closed the frontier on the 8th of June 1969, Palabras al Viento would only run for a further year, but it had already done its job in raising the spirits, the morale of the Gibraltarians, and telling this community that united it would survive the Spanish onslaught and would not be defeated by Franco's regime.”

She described how when researching this project, she concluded that Palabras al Viento was her father’s most important contribution to this community, but it “was just a small part of his enormous contribution throughout his entire life”.

Ms Mascarenhas said her father was a book-writing expert, passionate actor, a poet, a sports reporter, a drama and cinema critic, and had incisive political observations.

“It seemed to me I would not do him justice if I just concentrated on one, so I chose them all,” she said.

The book details her father’s work from 1946 to 1972 including a record of his writings in local newspapers.

Chief Minister Fabian Picardo described how every generation has had its battle and, in this book, Ms Mascarenhas details how her father won the battle in the 60s.

Mr Picardo called it a magnificent book for future generations to read and understand Gibraltar’s history.

Mr Byrne said the book plays a significant role in Gibraltar’s past, present and future.

Ms Mascarenhas will be signing her books at BookGem on Wednesday, October 29 from 11am to 1pm and at the Gibraltar Heritage Trust on Saturday, November 1 at 11am to 1pm.

She also forms part of the Gibraltar Literary Festival where she will talk about the book alongside former Chief Minister Adolfo Canepa, GBC’s Ralph Lima, and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia.

The Literary Festival talk will be held at the Garrison Library on Sunday, November 14 at 2pm, for tickets visit: www.gibraltarliteraryfestival.gi