A los veinticuatro años fue a estudiar el At the age of twenty-four he went to Harvard Master a Harvard… fue a trabajar allá to do his Master’s, and while he was working y en una lavandería (un a laundry mat there in a laundry (one of those classic laun- como las que se ven en las películas), co- dromats you see in American movies) he met noce a un joven arquitecto que trabaja- a young architect who was working with Jo- ba con Josep Lluis Sert quien le pregunta sep Lluis Sert, who asked him if he knew how si sabía hacer maquetas, porque estaban to make models, because they were looking buscando alguien que les ayudara... Y así for someone to help them. And that’s how he fue como entró a trabajar con Sert, pero started working with Sert, but he never end- nunca hizo maqueta alguna: Sert lo sentó ed up making models: Sert sat him down at a su lado y juntos hicieron varias facha- his side and together they designed a num- das, la primera, la de los Dormitorios para ber of façades, the first being the one for the estudiantes casados, el complejo Peabo- housing complex for married students, Pe- dy Terrace. Sert le conseguirá una beca abody Terrace. Sert managed to get him a para seguir sus estudios y fue moasí co se scholarship to continue his studies, and that matriculó en el Master de Urban Design, was how he enrolled for the Master in Urban un trabajo de bibliotecaria para su mu- Design, as well as a job in the library for his jer… Sert, dice, no era muy comunicativo, wife. Sert, he says, was not very communica- pero uno aprendía si estaba atento y fue tive, but you learned if you paid attention, con él con quien comenzó a aprender and it was with him that he started learning qué significaba pensar como arquitecto. what it meant to think like an architect. A los veintiocho nos lo encontramos en la By the age of twenty-eight, he was at the Ar- Architectural Association de Londres, en chitectural Association in London, where his donde tomó conciencia política leyendo political awareness was honed by reading los textos de Henry Lefebvre, desde don- the works of Henri Lefebvre, before returning de volvió a Argentina… Gana la plaza de to Argentina. He won the position of associ- profesor titular en Rosario, su ciudad natal ate professor in Rosario, his native city, in 1976, y, en el setenta y seis, tras el golpe de es- but following the coup d’état he had to go tado, se tuvo que exilar (los milicos tedes- into exile (the military made you disappear aparecían, si eras de izquierdas… él dice, if you were left-wing he says, in his strong Ar- en argentino, te chupaban y me zafé)... Y gentine accent, they’d suck you up so I got fue así como eligió venirse a BCN, en vez out of there fast). And that was how he chose de la salida natural que era volverse a los to come to Barcelona, instead of the more USA, para trabajar con Sert. Le pregunto natural outcome which would have been to por el porqué de su elección… Pero Sert, return to the USA to work with Sert. I asked en aquella época, tenía más trabajo en him why he made that choice, and it turns BCN que allá, por aquel entonces... había out that Sert, at that time, had more work in acabado los Apartamentos de les Esca- Barcelona than in the States. He had finished les Park, la Fundación Miró (ambos junto the Les Escales Park apartments, the Miró a Gelabert, Ribas y Anglada) y estaba, Foundation (both with Gelabert, Ribas and entonces, con el edificio en la Jonquera Anglada) and at that time he was working conocido como Porta Catalana, junto a on the building at La Jonquera known as Por- Tous y Fargas. De hecho, tres días antes ta Catalana, with Tous and Fargas. Indeed, de morir, Sert le da su última elección, “la three days before he died, Sert gave him his fachada de la Porta Catalana no está final lesson: “the façade of Porta Catalana del todo bien”. Y Mario se quedó con eso: isn’t quite right”. And that is Mario’s memory hay pocas profesiones que piensen así... of him: there are very few professionals who que muriéndote te preocupes de cómo think like he did… whowith their last breath queda lo que vas a dejar. worry about how what they’re leaving is go- ing to turn out. t7518