I began to write this note on my way home from Hawaii where Brent and I had been attending the IUCN World Conservation Congress. By pleasant coincidence, Marta Subirà and I found that we were both on the same airplane for the first leg of our journey – a long flight from Honolulu to New York. Midway into the flight Marta and I huddled in the exit row to visit with each other. The talk soon turned to Salvador and, somewhere over the Pacific, we shared memories and tears.
Earlier in the week, Marta and Eulàlia had passed along to Brent and me this photo from an evening we had all spent together in Jeju, Korea four years ago, while attending the previous IUCN Congress. The memory of that evening brought to mind those sides of Salvador that anyone lucky enough to have known him will have enjoyed and admired: the fun-loving, humorous friend, with a boyish smile – and the hard-working, serious colleague, determined to carry out his work diligently.
There is a story here, of course, to go along with that photo. The five of us – Salvador, Marta, Francesc Giró, Brent and I had gone to a local restaurant near our hotel for dinner. Perusing the menu to decide on dinner options that might be shared among the five of us, we found item after item that listed “horse-meat” as the main ingredient, including the rather improbable option of “horse-meat sashimi.” Surely, there must have been an error in translation from Korean into English. Maybe “house meat” was the intended term? No, the waiter advised us, these offerings were indeed horse-meat. Much giggling among the visiting foreigners ensued. While we managed to find sufficient non-horse items on the menu to eat that evening, it was quickly agreed among us that we needed to “borrow” the menu in order to capture this amusing story. Salvador and I took on this little project, smuggling a menu out of the restaurant (it was leather-bound and rather heavy as I recall), copying it at the hotel, and returning it to the restaurant the next morning. A light-hearted, mischievous moment, but immediately afterwards we were all back to the business of the meeting, and Salvador was working tirelessly on behalf of his delegation to help advance a resolution on regional governments that they were putting before the IUCN General Assembly.
Years earlier, when Salvador was visiting Massachusetts as a participant in the QLF international fellowship program, we hosted the group at our home for dinner a few times. On the first occasion Brent and I had cooked a meal for the group, but on a later visit our Catalan visitors insisted that they would like to prepare some traditional dishes from home for us. We were delighted, but I soon found my kitchen ill-prepared for this undertaking. It had been a busy week and somehow we had managed to run out of olive oil. In addition, the potatoes were not quite the best type for this recipe, and the pan was not right, either. Nonetheless, we forged ahead, with much laughter, and a good deal of chaos in the kitchen, aided by some excellent Catalonian wine. I have since learned how to make this dish pretty well (and enjoy serving it to family and friends) but our result that evening was a very sorry-looking, lopsided tortilla. I still laugh when I recall how Salvador observed, with his characteristic grin, “well, this may not be the best tortilla de patate in the world, but it was certainly the most difficult!”
There are other memories of our visits with Salvador, including a wonderful afternoon in Girona he arranged for me when I was in Barcelona, following a workshop in La Garrotxa. His love of Catalonia and its beautiful landscapes, so rich in natural and cultural heritage, was evident that day, as always.
As I wrote when we first heard the news of his passing, I will always remember Salvador’s smile, sense of humor, and thoughtfulness, which somehow went along with a great seriousness of purpose and commitment to his work. Though the opportunities that Brent and I had to spend time with Salvador were few, they are quite vivid in our memory and will remain with us.
Sending our love to Aurea and family,
(Vaig començar aquest escrit de camí a casa, tornant de Hawaii, on en Brent i jo havíem assistit al Congrés Mundial de Conservació de la UICN. Per agradable casualitat, la Marta Subirà i jo ens vam trobar compartint avió per a la primera part del nostre trajecte —un llarg vol de Honolulu a Nova York. A mig trajecte vam quedar al passadís de la sortida, per veure’ns. La conversa aviat va virar cap a en Salvador i, en un punt incert enmig del Pacífic, vam compartir memòries i llàgrimes.
A principis de setmana, la Marta i l’Eulàlia ens havien enviat, a en Brent i a mi, aquesta foto d’un vespre que havíem compartit a Cores quatre anys abans, mentre assistíem a l’anterior Congrés de la UICN. El record d’aquell vespre va fer que em vinguessin al cap les facetes d’en Salvador que tothom que hagi estat prou afortunat de conèixer-lo haurà valorat i admirat: l’amic divertit, humorístic, de somriure pueril —i el company seriós, treballador, disposat a treballar amb diligència.
La foto té una història, esclar. Tots cinc —en Salvador, la Marta, en Francesc Giró, en Brent i jo—havíem anat a un restaurant, prop de l’hotel, a sopar. Repassant el menú per decidir què ens podia anar bé per compartir entre tots cinc, ens vam adonar que, un plat darrere l’altre, tenia com a ingredient principal ‘horse-meat’ (carn de cavall), fins i tot hi havia una improbable opció de ‘sashimi de carn de cavall’. Hi havia d’haver un error, per força, en la traducció del coreà a l’anglès. Podria ser que haguessin volgut dir ‘house-meat’ (carn de la casa)? No, es tractava de precisament de carn de cavall, ens va aclarir el cambrer. No cal dir que la resposta va provocar rialles als cinc forasters que érem. Mentre ens esforçàvem a trobar prou plats lliures de carn de cavall en el menú, va quedar més que clar que havíem de ‘demanar prestat’ el menú en qüestió per poder relatar l’anècdota. En Salvador i jo ens vam fer càrrec de la missió; es tractava de pispar un menú del restaurant (relligat amb coberta de pell i poc lleuger, pel que recordo), fer-ne una còpia a l’hotel i tornar-lo l’endemà al matí al restaurant. Un moment de trapelleria, de frivolitat, per tornar immediatament després a la feina i al congrés, i en Salvador a treballar infatigablement en nom de la seva delegació per ajudar a tirar endavant una moció sobre governs regionals que se sotmetia a l’Assemblea General de la UICN.
Anys abans, quan en Salvador era de visita a Massachusetts com a participant d’un programa d’intercanvi internacional de QLF, vam acollir tot el grup a casa, a sopar, unes quantes vegades. El primer cop en Brent i jo vam fer el menjar per a tothom, però més endavant els visitants catalans van insistir a oferir-nos i cuinar alguns plats tradicionals. Estàvem encantats, tot i que aviat em vaig adonar que la nostra cuina no estava preparada per a l’ocasió. Havia sigut una setmana de molta feina i, no sé ben bé com, ens havíem quedat sense oli d’oliva. A més, les patates que teníem no eren les millors per a la recepta que volien fer, i la paella va resultar que tampoc. Malgrat tot, vam tirar endavant, entre moltes rialles i un cert caos, amb l’ajut d’un bon vi català. D’aleshores ençà he après a fer aquell plat força bé (i a servir-lo a la família i els amics) però el resultat d’aquell vespre va ser una truita bastant lamentable, desmanegada. Encara ric quan recordo com en Salvador se la mirava, amb aquella rialla tan seva, “bé, potser no és la millor truita de patates del món però sí que deu haver estat la més difícil de fer”.
Hi ha moltes altres memòries de les nostres trobades amb en Salvador, inclosa una tarda preciosa a Girona, que ell em va preparar mentre jo era a Barcelona, després d’un seminari que vam fer a la Garrotxa. L’amor d’en Salvador per Catalunya i els seus meravellosos paisatges, tan rics en patrimoni natural i històric, es ve fer evident aquell dia, com sempre.
Com vaig dir quan ens va arribar la notícia del seu traspàs, sempre recordaré el somriure d’en Salvador, el sentit de l’humor i la capacitat de reflexió, que eren indissociables d’una dedicació al treball voluntariosa i compromesa. Encara que les oportunitats que en Brent i jo hem tingut per estar prop d’en Salvador han estat poques, són vívides en la nostra memòria i estaran sempre en nosaltres.
Fem arribar la nostra estima a l’Àurea i la família.)