Mexican author Carlos Fuentes, on hand in Colombia to help his buddy Gabriel Garcia Marquez celebrate his homage at the International Spanish Language Congress in Cartagena de Indias, had a few things to say about the need for U.S. politicians to speak Spanish, and about our current president:

“He is the worst president of that country that I’ve seen in my lifetime. I’m willing to forgive Ronald Reagan and Nixon, because he is so atrocious and does so much harm that I have never seen anything comparable in terms of stupidity, arrogance and ignorance. This has been a catostrophic presidency and is still causing very dangerous situations in the world,” said the author.

Fuentes expounded on the topic of the use of Spanish for political gain, and Bush’s slaughter of la lengua de Cervantes:

The author of “Terra nostra” thinks it’s “revolutionary” that in the U.S. there are 45 million Spanish speakers, and that before U.S. politicians “refused to speak Spanish” and now “it’s somethign to be proud of and a political necessity.”

“Bush gives speeches in Spanish, although I don’t understand a word he says in Spanish or in English,” said Fuentes, always critical with the current president of the United States.

One U.S. president that Fuentes and his buddy Gabo seem to really like is Bill Clinton, who was present for the homage as well, and spent 3 hours chatting Gabo up. Fuentes said:

“He’s very intelligent, extraordinarily cultured and with a very sharp international perspective. I think that Clinton should be the president of the world. He has a clear understanding of problems, how to resolve them, and the respect for the sovereignty of nations and international law. I admire him a lot.

President of the world? I don’t know about that, but I do find irony in the fact that someone that we raked over the coals for his personal life a decade ago has become this country’s best representative in the rest of the world.

P.S. Apparently, Gabo’s feelings for Bill are reciprocated.

Via / El Universal

Clinton-Garcia Marquez image via PeriodistaDigital.com