The Café Chronicles are coming out soon, so I thought I would talk a little bit about them. The fact is, they were just plain fun to write, and they were written to be fun to read as well.
The project started at Origen Café, which is located on the corner of Humberto 1º and Perú streets in the San Telmo district of Buenos Aires. I had rented an apartment in the neighborhood, so most mornings, I would go to the Origen to start my day. For this short period of time, I was able to let go of most everything and have what some people might call a vacation. Yes, I was working, but if I do it right, work can look like a vacation.
One morning, as I was sitting at a long table, I noticed that someone was looking at me more than usual. I was reading a novel, so it took me a while to notice him, and I didn’t figure out that he was drawing me until the end when he slid the picture over.
We started talking about art and theater. I had asked him if there was anything I should see. He told me that he wasn’t well informed about the current offerings. I sometimes figure that artists, writers, and actors know about the other arts going on in town. I already had some theaters I wanted to visit but was hoping for a diamond in the rough.
When he slid the drawing to me, I did honestly think that it was a gift. I didn’t understand that he was basically doing it on spec, so to speak, until he asked me for money. I don’t remember when I started writing the story. I think I may have waited until he was done, but I did want the drawing, not because I really wanted a drawing of myself, but more as proof of the story.
I had a notepad that I kept in a less than pretentious shoulder bag. I think I got the bag thirty years ago, but I still use it. It carries a notebook, novel, pens, and maybe a few other small things. I started scribbling the story and got the idea to write little stories like this at each of the cafés that I was going to visit. The other thing is that I was alone, and I wanted to have something to do while sitting there.
Early on, I started developing a few rules regarding the stories. There were two in particular. The first rule was that I had to finish each story in one sitting. The idea was not to think too much and let the writing flow. If, for whatever reason, it didn’t come quickly and flow naturally, I didn’t write it. The other rule I followed was that I had to write about the café in some authentic way; it could a physical characteristic of the location, a person I saw, or some activity. For example, when I first wrote about another “me” being at the café, it was because there was another person doing the sort of thing that I would do at cafés.
One of my favorite stories is Rustic Café. I like it because there was an additional rule that fell into place as I started writing it. All of the music that played during the writing of the piece had to be included in the writing of the story in real-time. I would hear a lyric and throw it in. The story follows my imagined story arc of the songs played. If you look up the running times of the songs, you can calculate how long it took me to write the story. I think I got lucky as all of the songs seemed to fit naturally into the story. There are other stories that I like, but that one stands out due to that technical twist.
Some notes on the title. I have gone through several ideas, including “There’s a Gringo in My Café.” I dropped that idea after I started including tales from the US. I also, for a short time, called them “Tinkle Tales: Stories Short enough to pee by,” or something to that effect. They are short, and I thought that was funny. A friend thought I was being dismissive of the stories, so I am going with “Café Chronicles.”
I do hope that you enjoy them.
Henry James Morello 