EDUARDO MONTES-BRADLEY NOTES ON MYSELF It would probably be wiser to write my own biographical sketch before someone with, possibly with a hidden agenda, undertakes the assignment to include a recollection of that which I wish to forget and avoiding, by the same token, all relevant and transcendent facts worth reckoning with. I was bo in Argentina, a country very far away from the rest of the world known mostly by the inabilities of it’s govement to stay in office, inflationary world records, bloody coup d’états, tango and desaparecidos. The historic event took place on July 9, 1960 at a middle-class clinic in the city of Cordoba, some four hundred miles northwest of Buenos Aires. My father, Nelson Montes-Bradley aka The Admiral, failed to report the incident to the local Office of Vital Records. Twelve months went by and local authorities were now prepared to penalize my folks condemning myself to the life of an outcast without a birth certificate to his name. Face with the challenge, my parents resorted to a close relative with good connections in the judiciary in the neighboring province of Santa Fe. Uncle Alberto knew how to go around red tape, rules and regulations and was able to come up wit a solution to my dilemma. Two years after my naissance I was finally in my way to become a citizen of Argentina and with a certificate to prove it just like everyone else. However, I never truly got over the fact the legal instrument (in order to be properly cooked) did not accurately reflected my true place of birth in Córdoba, but instead had Rosary (Rosario) in the province of The Holy Faith (Santa Fe). Not a good start for a half Jew in Argentina. My mother, Sara, maiden name Kaplan, mother's maiden name Bestein, descends from one of the original twelve tribes of Israel. Don’t really know which one of the tribes but my mother’s mother assured me I could bet on it. My father, his mother's maiden name being Ferrarese, mother's maiden name Carrasco, is a Molotov cocktail product of a gene pool that includes but is lot limited to Spanish and Italian, German and French and most definitely English who first joined the American Experiment in Massachusetts way before Boston Tea Party and some two hundred years prior to coming to Argentina with the sole purpose of counting ship in Patagonia. Knowing the aforementioned makes me a half Jew bo in a place called Rosary of the Holy Faith and the heir to a truly twisted genealogical tree trimmed and catered by my brother Saul who assures our blood line can be traced to Odin, most favored by the Vikings and definitely not a Jew. I attended High School during the turbulent years of Peronist confusion, death squads roaming the streets of Buenos Aires hunting for teenagers with bad breath and nauseous political views. Giving the nature of the prevalent ambiance in the capital city, and after seriously considering the meaning of many of my friends either being detained or simply vanishing from the face of the Earth, I decided to accept a cordial invitation by the local authorities to leave Argentina and so I did, arriving in New York sometime in August of 1979. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the dictators who kicked me out of Argentina setting me on the right path to self-discovery in the very sinful paradise called New York City where the girls were beautiful and there was music every where. I have a wife named Soledad and two ex-wives who are doing much better since they left me. I also have a brother living somewhere in Virginia who’s one year my senior and a genealogist at heart. Now that I think of it probably runs in the family: My brother is also married and has two ex-wives, which also happen to be doing much better since they left him. Soledad, (the one that has not yet realize that she can do a lot better without) is a film producer graduated at the University of Buenos Aires and a Master in Culinary Arts. In other words, she can budget and plan a movie and cook a meal worthy of gods at the same time. Two children lay parental claims on us. William, the youngest, has recently discovered the technological advantages of using the toilet and has therefore abandoned all claims to diapers; Thomas Benjamin, the first-bo is leaing to spell his name while becoming familiarized with the techniques of survival at the Saint John’s Elementary School in Buenos Aires. I believe the above accounts for a brief portrayal of my personae, the rest -yes, indeed there is more- would likely tu out to be a mechanical totting up of meaningless anecdotes which are best reflected on my work as a writer and a filmmaker. At any rate, I feel it is most appropriate to define myself as one who likes to document, on paper and film, the sometimes relevant and occasionally curious facts of life. Eduardo Montes-Bradley, Buenos Aires. July 1, 2008. Links Osvaldo Soriano: un retrato Ya sé que todo es mentira Cortázar sin barba Articles Filmography