In this video, Galician owner, Carlos Ventoso tells the melancholy story of the creation of his restaurant Rincón de España (Corner of Spain) in Greenwich Village. The interview was conducted in Spanish by New York University Professor James D. Fernandez in 2004 just before the closing of the restaurant.
Although the interview was conducted in Spanish, the video transcription is in English.
Rincón de España(Translation)
bold = words originally spoken in English
italics = words sung
Title:
There are dozens of Spanish restaurants in New York City.
Carlos:
There are some little flies around, I don’t know where they’re coming from, if they’re coming with the fruit, or with the wine, I don’t know why there are mosquitos here.
Title:
These are places in which smells, tastes, sounds and memories are used to recreate the image of a country.
Carlos:
I consider myself Spanish, a hundred percent.
Title:
The country that is recreated is in constant flux…
Carlos:
My whole life is here, you know, I was twenty four years old when I opened this place. It’s all here.
Title:
…and the country in which the reconstruction is carried out is also always changing.
Carlos:
Eu nunca falé galego –eh, español—hasta chegar a América.
(in Galician: I never spoke Galician –I mean Spanish—until I came to America.
Title:
These restaurants are theaters. Theaters of identities.
Carlos:
What you don’t learn in a restaurant, you can never learn in a university.
Title:
National identities…
Carlos:
We are the ambassadors of Spain in the US. Not the embassy that’s over there, no. We are the ambassadors.
Title:
…and personal identities.
Carlos:
People know what my character is like, they like the way that I… to perform, you know?
Singer:
Dear audience, first of all, good evening, welcome to…
Singer and Carlos:
Rincón de España (Corner of Spain).
Title:
Rincón de España, established 1965.
Carlos:
My name is Carlos Ventoso. I was born in Santa Eugenia de Ribeira, Castrilleiras, La Coruña, Spain.
I lived in Spain until I was 19, and I worked as a fisherman. I fished night and day with my father, he had a boat. Since my grandfather had come to the United States at the beginning of the century, he decided to call us over to the US. So in 1960, June 26, 1960, I emigrated to the United States.
Carlos (singing)
And everyone says that it’s true,
And they cry when they have to leave…
So I started working in construction, because it was the only thing I could do, so that’s how I became a construction worker here in the US.
Once, towards the end of the five and a half years that I worked in construction, I was injured, I hurt my back, and I had to stop working in construction.
Carlos and singer (singing)
That’s why you can hear that saying:
“Long live Spain!”
Carlos
A friend of mine who had worked with me in construction in 1961 found out that I was injured, and he asked me if I wanted to work with him. I knew that he had a restaurant. And I said, well, I know a little bit about cooking, because I had learned a little from my mother and father, but I don’t know anything else about restaurants. And he said to me, making a comparison: “well, you weren’t a construction worker in Spain either, I was a simple seaman, but I was a disciplined person and a fast learner.” So I said : well, if you believe in me so much, I’ll work with you.
Carlos and singer:
The people sing with passion…
Carlos:
And things went so well for him once I started working for him, because I gave the people such special attention, that people must have started talking a lot about that restaurant, because three months later, you’d have to get on line to get into that restaurant. And that’s where, actually, I discovered who I was, because I didn’t know before who I was.
Carlos (singing)
Spain has always been and always will be
A peerless, eternal paradise.
Carlos:
That’s where I discovered that when I was in contact with people, that I loved to serve people, I loved to do things for them., I love being part of that. And that’s when I really fell in love with this business.
Towards the beginning of 1965, I had been working there for seven months, when an old guy came in, a Spaniard, crying, because he couldn’t take care of his business any more, it was too much work, he was too old, he didn’t have the strength to continue. He wanted to sell, but the none of the buyers had any cash, and this and that, and he couldn’t do that because he had debts. So I said: “Where is this place?” And he said “it’s just a block and a half away from here.” So I came to see it, and I liked it, and I bought it from him. And that’s how my adventure in this restaurant started.
Carlos and singer (singing):
Life has a different flavor,
Spain is the best, Spain is the best. Olé.
Carlos:
I brought in a cook, who was used to cooking for people here, who was accustomed to So I brought in a cook, who was used to serving people here, who was familiar with the taste of the audience (“público”) here in the US, so we started with him. I was the waiter. Two week later, the cook stood us up, he disappeared; it was like a boycott; someone paid him to bail on us to make fun of us, because we were so young…
No way I’m going to lose… whatever I invested in this, I’m not going to lose. There’s no one else to do it? I’ll go into the kitchen. And it was like a miracle. When I went into the kitchen, the people liked everything I did; the place became so famous that we got two stars from the New York Times, and the lines to get in went all the way to the corner, lunch and dinner, it was… an invasion of people here. We had to push them out, because they’d line up all the way into here, and we couldn’t do our jobs. That’s when I realized that I have a special gift, which I had never discovered. And that’s where my success began. I was written up in all the magazines, we were on all the radio and television stations, about food, WOR, radio and television, en ABC, Channel Seven, en todas las estaciones me invitaron a ir a cocinar delante del público.
Carlos:
This cumbia is called the cumbia of the fisherman,
He wrote it one sunny morning
Singer:
Fisherman!
Carlos:
But of course, we worked so much, I worked so much, I didn’t devote myself to anything but the business, I spent little time with my family, I was always stuck here.
Carlos:
He speaks to the moon
Singer:
Fisherman!
Carlos:
He speaks to the beach
Singer:
Fisherman!
Carlos:
We would work 16 or 18 hour days like it was nothing, because we did it with such gusto, with such pleasure, that your body didn’t even have time to know that it wasn’t doing that well. My legs would swell up like this…
Carlos:
He has no luck, all he fishes is his own hook
Singer:
Fisherman!
Carlos:
If I were the age of my son, I would take this, and I would make a marvelous place; I would make a beautiful, divine restaurant here, based on my father’s idea.
Carlos (singing)
Here come the fishermen, ready to sell their catch,
To the port of love,
Carlos:
But my son was brought up with more abundance; he wasn’t brought up amid desperation, like me, worried about survival, like me, out at sea, to be out working all night and not earn enough to eat.
Carlos and singer:
He has no luck,
All he fishes is his own hook…
Fisherman!
Carlos:
I saw it. I saw that light that was so far away, but I decided I was going to reach that light. And I did it. It almost caused [sic, for cost] my life, but I got there. And I’m very satisfied. But the only thing that tortures me, is that one day I’ll have to sell this, because I no longer have the strength to take care of it.
He’s not interested, and it breaks my heart. It used to offend me. To me it seemed that he had scorn for the sacrifice of my life and of my youth, so that I could leave them something good…
But because they didn’t suffer it, they don’t love it.
Computers. He’s crazy about… He’s a very intelligent boy, but he likes… computers. And he doesn’t like being under the orders of anybody.
It really does hurt me. I’d love to leave this world knowing that this would continue, that Carlos was here, and now his son is here and tomorrow his grandson will be here. You know? That was my idea. That’s why I worked so hard. Not for any selfish reason…
Carlos:
I achieved it. God granted me my whole dream. But not the ending that I was hoping for.
You know, they say “Nothing is forever.” I’ll depart with my memories. That’s why I never decided to sell Rincón de España. The Rincón de España will always be a part of my soul. Another person could open it, but it wouldn’t be Carlos’s Rincón de España.
I built this, and this will disappear with me. It can’t be bought.
The old guys left, end of story.
There’s nothing in life that is complete.
And that’s the story of the Rincón de España.