YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → 🐺 Mario Mendoza responde | La hora de los lobos 2 - La historia continúa…

🐺 Mario Mendoza responde | La hora de los lobos 2 - La historia continúa… — Transcript

by Lectores Mario Mendoza · 3,824 words · 578 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00Well, Mario, we are going to answer
0:01some questions that our readers sent us
0:03.
0:05>> Well, my pleasure. We are at the
0:07Concordia market square in La
0:09Candelaria, and this neighborhood
0:11obviously brings back many memories of
0:13my entire adolescence and early youth.
0:17We are going to answer the first
0:19question here, sent to us from
0:20Instagram by Cat Lesmes.
0:24>> She asks us, "When a story refuses to
0:26end, how do you recognize that there is
0:28still something left to tell?"
0:32>> Well, that's a great question because
0:35it’s about, let’s see, as a
0:37narrator you have a character and you
0:39have what is called a dramatic arc.
0:42What does that mean? It means that at
0:45the beginning something happens to that
0:47character and they have a certain
0:49stance in life, and something is going
0:51to happen to them, right? A series of
0:55intense events arrives, some more and
0:58some less, blows from life, uh, trials,
1:01etc., and there, little by little,
1:04slowly, that character must be
1:07transformed. Sometimes, or many times
1:11—the vast majority—you lead the
1:14character from an initial position to
1:16its opposite, to the position exactly
1:19the other way around. So you say: "But
1:23this character, how on earth, from the
1:25beginning, had a certain position and
1:27ended up being exactly the opposite,
1:29thinks the contrary, and acts
1:31differently due to the dramatic arc? In
1:35other words, were the events or
1:37occurrences so hard, did he have to be
1:40in such a brutal clash of forces, that
1:42life gradually led him to positions he
1:45didn't even imagine or that he even
1:47radically rejected?" And in the end,
1:51then he reaches where he has to reach.
1:54How do you lead him there? That’s
1:56where the trick lies. In Bruno's case,
1:59uh, I believe that at the end of*The
2:02Hour of the Wolves*, the dramatic arc
2:04is incomplete. The arc, he hasn't
2:07learned what he has to learn, nor has
2:09it happened to him—even though many
2:12things have happened to him, it’s not
2:14enough to lead him where he needs to be
2:16led, right? Uh, I think that, for
2:19example, the most outstanding example
2:22in cinema, and the one you notice a lot
2:24, is Michael Corleone in*The Godfather*
2:27. Michael at the beginning is a war
2:30hero, he rejects his family who are
2:32mobsters, etc. And yet, in the last
2:34scene he is the Don,
2:36>> he is the boss, he is the capo. How on
2:39earth did Michael get from here, from
2:42point A to point B? That is where the
2:45magic, let's say, of art lies.
2:49>> Sebastián Rodríguez asks us, "Knowing
2:51that Bruno was a faithful follower of
2:53Sun Tzu's advice in The Art of War, did
2:55he ultimately end up knowing both
2:57himself and the enemy for his battles?"
3:00>> Mm. Okay. Uh, as Westerners, we have a
3:05tendency to think in what is called
3:08simple opposition, which is A or B,
3:11right? Here or there. What do you
3:14choose? This or that? One or two? In
3:17politics, for example, that is very,
3:19very clear today. Which side are you on
3:21? Here or here? And it takes away our
3:25ability to think in complexities.
3:28Eastern thought is very rich. Haiku,
3:32the tradition of Japanese poetry,
3:34sumi-e painting, etc., completely
3:36nullifies those simple oppositions, and
3:39we must learn to get out of that to
3:41think in complexity. So, Sun Tzu is
3:46what Bruno considers his great teacher,
3:49the one who guides him throughout his
3:51life on how he should move. But I
3:56believe that the trials, and I repeat
3:59it again like a sort of leitmotif, I
4:01think it is in the second part where we
4:03will see Bruno's learning in relation
4:06to everything, but also in relation to
4:08Sun Tzu's Art of War. That is, one
4:12gradually understands that the enemy is
4:14not external, that the enemy is
4:16internal,
4:17>> the enemy is no longer out there,
4:18>> that one is one's own enemy.
4:20>> But it takes a long time to understand
4:22that. One, one takes a long time to
4:25understand that the decisions, where
4:27one has been and where one is, and what
4:30one has built, all of it is one's own
4:32responsibility. One is always
4:35accustomed to blaming others, to
4:38holding others responsible. To say it
4:42was the circumstances, that this
4:44happened to me, that happened to me,
4:45that it was my family, my dad, or my
4:47mom. But one little by little has to
4:51understand that no, the struggle is
4:53internal, that the struggle is against
4:56something within oneself that drags one
4:58down the wrong path, to where one
5:00actually never wanted to go.
5:04>> Clau Forero asks us: in the book, you
5:06speak of the dark side of the city that
5:08many prefer not to look at. Mm. But
5:11what happens with the young person who
5:12knows that reality and precisely for
5:13that reason decides they do not want to
5:15be a part of it?
5:19>> Well, in the case of "The Hour of the
5:21Wolves," it’s about a character who
5:23is dragged, right?,by forces he cannot
5:26avoid, born in a neighborhood with
5:28certain logics, and from when he was
5:30little, from school, he is shaped by
5:33those forces. So, we can't tell Bruno
5:38to just free himself or get out of
5:43there. It’s very difficult, it’s
5:45very complicated to judge him, isn't it
5:47? I think Bruno is dragged along
5:50uncontrollably and must reach where he
5:53must reach. But I insist again that it
5:57is in the second part where we will
6:00really find out who Bruno is, right? I
6:03think Bruno hasn't yet shown what he is
6:06made of or what he has to learn.
6:08>> Something is missing,
6:09>> something is missing which is what I
6:11have been striving for all these months
6:13. So, I think people will be able to
6:15judge Bruno's story a bit better after
6:18reading the second part.
6:20>> Andrés Acevedo asks us this question.
6:23Are there societies condemned to
6:24misfortune? No, it is our own capacity
6:29for decision, it is our own rhythm, it
6:32is the responsibilities not only
6:35individual, but group responsibilities.
6:39So, there is no condemnation, there is
6:42a path that unfolds as one moves
6:44forward. And I think that,
6:48unfortunately, Colombia from the 80s
6:50and 90s has been brutally traversed by
6:53drug trafficking. The "Proceso 8000" is
6:58a process that confirms how far mafias
7:00and organized crime have reached,
7:03reaching the then-Minister of Defense
7:06and reaching the presidency of the
7:08Republic. Since then, we haven't been
7:11able to escape that logic. Whether they
7:14are parties or candidates from the
7:16right or the left, they have also been
7:18co-opted by the narcos and criminal
7:20groups. In a way, "The Hour of the
7:23Wolves" is the desire to return to the
7:25subject from other angles, from other
7:27sides, from other points of view. And
7:30that is what I have strived for so much
7:32in these two novels. Uh, Sebastián
7:34Villamizar asks us if we will have a
7:36second book with Bruno as the
7:38protagonist, but if the same thing will
7:40happen as with Frank Molina so as not
7:42to get attached to the character.
7:47>> We will have a Bruno in a second part
7:49and we will have a Bruno in a
7:51tremendous, very tough dramatic arc. Uh
7:54, but there won't be a trilogy, nor
7:57will there be a tetralogy either. There
7:59is no book that comes after. Uh, in
8:02this second part it closes, and I think
8:04what will remain is what I said in the
8:06last video, a diptych, right? Like in
8:10painting, one panel next to another,
8:12and both function as mirrors of each
8:15other.
8:18>> Angélica Burgos sends us this question
8:20. In "The Hour of the Wolves," prison,
8:22crime, and religion are related in a
8:24very particular way.
8:27>> What role does faith play in the
8:28character's transformation? Is it a
8:31form of redemption, or can it also
8:32become a tool of power and control?
8:34>> Great question. Well, notice that the
8:38novel alludes to a very specific
8:40movement, which is narco-pentecostalism
8:43. Narco-pentecostalism is a Latin
8:46American movement whose greatest
8:48strength is in Brazil, but which is
8:50already co-opting different parts of
8:52the continent. So, narco-pentecostalism
8:57is a movement that is strongest in
8:59Brazil but is already spreading across
9:02the continent, and it is a religious
9:05power united with a military power
9:08whose main funding is drug trafficking.
9:13That is already generating a series of
9:16confrontations, struggles, and even
9:18massacres. And what I would most like
9:22within the novel is for readers to
9:24realize that there is a change—I mean
9:26, for readers to notice there is a
9:28shift in coordinates regarding
9:30organized crime in Latin America. It
9:33has nothing to do with the Cali cartel,
9:35it has nothing to do with Pablo Escobar
9:37and Medellín. It is a total change of
9:39coordinates. And in some way, yes, in
9:43some way Moisés and in some way Bruno
9:46are co-opted into a religious sect
9:48inside the prison that they call
9:50themselves. They name themselves, right
9:54? The "Saudade" congregation.
9:56>> Adriana Yesenia Alvarado asks us from
10:00Ecuador, uh, will Bruno meet again, I
10:03mean, about Moisés 'sister? Will Bruno
10:07ever meet Mara again? That is a
10:10beautiful question. It is a beautiful
10:12question because with Mara, in reality,
10:14it's like, well, there is a previous
10:17love who is Salomé,
10:18>> right? Salomé is like his first love,
10:21but it's his adolescent first love,
10:24whereas his first love as a grown man,
10:27an adult, of legal age, let's say, is
10:30Mara. And Mara is a very strong love,
10:34it is a very powerful love, and he
10:36tries to protect Mara by telling her
10:39not to visit him in prison so that she
10:42isn't condemned or doesn't have to
10:45suffer the prison regime, right? The
10:49phrases, what the inmates are going to
10:51say to her when she enters the prison.
10:55It is a way to protect her, but it is a
10:57very hard decision, it is a very
10:58selfish decision. He only thinks of
11:01himself, and from then on, we don't
11:03know anything about Mara.
11:07>> From then on, Mara disappears, and if
11:09we were to think about it cinematically
11:12, the camera almost goes with Bruno,
11:14and stays with him for the rest of the
11:17novel. So, of course, something is left
11:20pending; Mara is left pending, and Mara
11:23is left by the wayside, so undoubtedly,
11:26we have to pick her up again. We can't,
11:28a character that important cannot just
11:31be left in a void, in nothingness. So,
11:34yes, we would have to tell Adriana that
11:36, indeed, she will run into Mara in the
11:39second part.
11:40>> Oh, how nice.
11:42>> Eugenia asks us, if you happened to run
11:44into Bruno on the street today, what
11:46would you say to him? I would tell him
11:51that the image he has, and that the
11:58Saudade Congregation has of God, is an
12:01image of war, an image tailored almost
12:05exactly to them. But that, but that
12:09something is missing, which is for him
12:12to run into a different God, to stumble
12:15upon a distinct God, not one made in
12:17his own image and likeness, but to give
12:20himself the chance to experience what
12:23is called a hierophany. A hierophany is
12:26the experience of the sacred that comes
12:31from elsewhere, that comes from another
12:33area of reality. And Bruno doesn't
12:36understand that throughout the entire
12:38first part. Let's see if he understands
12:40it in the second part.
12:41>> Manages to grasp it.
12:42>> Exactly.
12:43>> Alejandro Dasa asks us, "In this novel,
12:46was there any inspiration from Gilmer's
12:48work?" Ah, well, Gilmer is a great
12:52storyteller, he's a great writer whom I
12:54admire and whose literature I like a
12:57lot. Since Aranjuez, I've been
13:00following Gilmer, and I think he
13:02belongs to a generation that comes
13:04after ours, which has inherited a great
13:07vision of the city in the case of his
13:09native Medellín, and I think it's a
13:11very similar aesthetic, it's a very
13:13comparable aesthetic. I think we are,
13:17yes, we are on the same aesthetic, on
13:19the same path, but evidently they are
13:21distinct narrative worlds and they are
13:23different worlds, but yes, there are
13:25similarities, of course.
13:28>> Natalie Gómez, uh, sends us a question
13:30, "Mario, I admire you so much and I've
13:33been reading you since 2015. I thank
13:36you for arriving and remaining in my
13:38life. Uh, when I read*The Hour of the
13:40Wolves*, I couldn't stop reading. My
13:42question is, did you imagine you could
13:44generate such an emotional and intense
13:46connection in a reader?"
13:49>> No, never. I never thought of that. One
13:53of the doubts I had with*The Hour of
13:56the Wolves*was whether tackling that
13:58subject, the mafia, organized crime, uh
14:01, was a mistake or not, right? Because
14:07I rejected it for many years. I never
14:09went into that topic, I never wanted to
14:12get involved with that subject in
14:13Colombia. If you notice, none of my
14:16novels make reference to drug lords,
14:19lieutenants, mobsters, kidnappers, or
14:22hitmen. Uh, so I had many doubts. Uh,
14:27and yet I said, but it's about
14:29approaching it from another angle, from
14:32another point of view, from a vision
14:35that surprises the reader and makes
14:37them say, "Well, this, this really is
14:39organized crime, but I never imagined
14:42it could work in this way."
14:45>> So, I had no idea and it makes me very
14:48happy. The response from readers has
14:50been more than positive. I am
14:53pleasantly surprised and I hope the
14:55second part doesn't disappoint them. Of
14:58course not. What I hope most is that
15:01they see in the second part a powerful,
15:04independent novel, which has its own
15:07momentum and has its own driving forces
15:09, its own evolution. Let's see. I hope
15:14it turns out that way, but you only
15:15know once they read it, right? One can
15:18have all the theories in the world
15:20beforehand, uh, and in the end crash
15:23because reading is unpredictable. But I
15:25hope that happens. Let's see. I hope I
15:27succeed. Those who judge, those who
15:29judge in the end are always
15:30>> are always them and and I hope I
15:32succeed. Sure.
15:34>> Sent in by Efímero. He says, "My
15:38question emphasizes the phrase that
15:40marked you most in the book, which is
15:42our weakness is our strength. We know
15:45that everything has duality. Evil is
15:47possibly a consequence of good. Hatred
15:49could have at some point been love.
15:51Something bad can transform into
15:52something good." Following this context
15:55, how would you define the word
15:57weakness and how can it become strength
16:00? It is an extremely religious
16:05expression. Uh, when I was consulting
16:11many religious texts, uh, let's say
16:14I've been working with the subject
16:16since The Carpenter's Son, right? Which
16:20is a novel from the youth saga The
16:23Messenger of Agarta, where I naturally
16:26provide an interpretation of Jesus, but
16:29above all for God's vagabonds. I was
16:34reading, I even consulted an expert on
16:38the subject, a theologian, Jenny Santa
16:43María, and, and she was, let's say, a
16:48guiding light for me. She shed light on
16:53many things from the gospels for me. Uh
16:56, and that’s where I arrived at a
16:58phrase by Saint Paul, right? He is the
17:02origin of all Christianity, where he
17:06suffered from illnesses and his health
17:09had been severely compromised, but he
17:13gradually realizes that what seems like
17:17a weakness, what seems to shrink him,
17:20to make him smaller, to diminish him,
17:24is also making him very resilient,
17:27right? Or rather, he becomes empowered
17:30while others go through life so calmly;
17:32he goes through it by way of pain. And
17:36pain does not intimidate him or corner
17:39him. What pain does is it makes him
17:43grow, right? He handles adversity
17:46better and better. So, I think
17:51Congregación Saudades in a way
17:53captures that stance of Saint Paul and
17:56turns it into a motto of strength. It
18:01makes it a motto of strength in the
18:04sense that one might think being born
18:07in a shantytown or a favela or in the
18:09midst of poverty might be a
18:11disadvantage, and perhaps it isn't.
18:16Perhaps not, perhaps it's a strength.
18:20Perhaps a person who has had everything
18:22, perhaps a person in a very well-off
18:24neighborhood will always be afraid.
18:27Afraid of what? Of losing their
18:29privileges. Afraid of losing that
18:31apartment or that house. Afraid of
18:34losing vacations in big resorts. Afraid
18:38of not having, right? Afraid of the
18:42street, afraid of street food, afraid
18:44of eating empanadas, everything that
18:46sounds like a street threat from the
18:48common people. And perhaps someone who
18:52has grown up in a tougher neighborhood,
18:55uh, doesn't have those fears,
18:57>> they have no fear of losing it
18:59>> and that makes one stronger because
19:01they have nothing to lose, so
19:02everything is there to be gained,
19:06>> right? So, I think Congregación
19:09Saudades is, uh, a congregation of
19:11outsiders, of weak outsiders in
19:14principle because they are in jail,
19:16they are prisoners, they have nothing,
19:19they are screwed, but on the contrary,
19:22they go about discovering that this
19:25makes them very powerful, and when they
19:28get out of jail they will demonstrate
19:31that power,
19:32>> their strength already
19:34>> they will show their strength, what
19:35they are capable of. That's clear.
19:36Exactly.
19:37>> Luisa Albarracín asks this question.
19:40In "The Hour of the Wolves," I felt
19:41that the characters not only fight
19:43against a darkness that surrounds them,
19:44but also against what they carry inside
19:46. In the second part, are you
19:48interested in delving deeper into those
19:50inner wolves, or will the threat come
19:51mainly from the outside world?
19:54>> Great question. It's as if she knew
19:56what the second part is. Well, indeed,
20:00we are going to see an external threat
20:02initially, but little by little I think
20:04Bruno is going to have to face what he
20:06doesn't want to face, right? Likewise,
20:09his torments, his doubts. Bruno, Bruno
20:14is going to have to acknowledge what
20:17used to be called the adversary, right?
20:21The inner demon that one carries within
20:24. Uh, and here it is very difficult to
20:28understand this in your younger years,
20:31as one always believes that something
20:34led them to it, but one gradually
20:37discovers that there is free will. One
20:41chooses, one can always choose at any
20:45moment and can always choose the path.
20:49And it's hard to realize that. It's
20:52very complicated to realize that
20:55everything depends on decision-making
20:57and that one isn't always prepared to
21:00decide correctly. And the adversary
21:03sometimes decides for you. The
21:05adversary sometimes takes control and
21:08sometimes one is dragged along, but
21:10then one blames. Sure. One then makes
21:13up thousands of arguments to say, "I
21:15was forced into this, I had to, I had
21:18no escape.""And in reality, there isn't
21:21always an ability
21:23>> to decide. That free will is ultimately
21:26the key to life, and it is that you can
21:29. You can, you are capable of deciding.
21:33Choose well, stand up, right? And and
21:37for that, you have to defeat the
21:39adversary, you have to overcome it, and
21:41that is the final battle. The final
21:44battle is with oneself. We'll see how
21:47Bruno does with that, because Bruno's
21:48adversary is very great and very
21:50powerful
21:51>> and very tough. Exactly.
21:54>> Lorena Mora sends us: Bruno was or is a
21:57very cunning man. Her question is, was
22:02it that easy for Mara to let him go?
22:06>> Mara again. Yes.
22:08>> How about that, huh? Let's see, Bruno
22:12is cunning, as she very well says, he
22:15is intelligent, sagacious, but abstract
22:19intelligence has nothing to do with
22:22emotional intelligence. Emotionally,
22:27Bruno is very clumsy and is almost,
22:31let's say, blind; he cannot grasp the
22:36depth and profundity that exists in
22:40affections. So, Bruno, Bruno can behave
22:48very well in war, he can behave very
22:52cunningly too, uh, as Atila's
22:56strategist, and later he will be
23:00Zafiro's strategist, right? But
23:07emotionally he remains weak, blind, uh,
23:11he goes as if in darkness, navigating
23:14waters that he is completely unfamiliar
23:18with. So his behavior with Mara is not
23:23only ambiguous, but clumsy. It is, it
23:26is extremely clumsy. Uh, and I think
23:30he's also afraid. I think he’s afraid
23:35of giving himself fully, right? A man
23:39who has been through what he has since
23:42he was a little boy, who has already
23:45lost both parents and is an orphan, is
23:48a man who has many shortcomings, many
23:51voids, and many gaps. And in his
23:55behavior with Mara, you can see that
23:57fear, the fear of taking a step.
23:59>> Yes. And of discovering himself, and of
24:03beginning a journey of self-knowledge
24:05through his affections. He’s not
24:08capable of that yet. Let’s see what
24:11happens to him in the second part. Yes.
24:15>> Bruno Santa María, you have addressed
24:17the subject of bipolarity in some of
24:19your most cherished books, and there is
24:21no doubt that mental health has been
24:23the backbone of all your work. He asks
24:27us, what can we do as a society to
24:28avoid discriminating against people
24:30with a psychotic diagnosis?
24:34>> Well, I have a somewhat strange,
24:36somewhat odd position on that. I think
24:40that before, there was a dividing line,
24:44and one could more or less determine
24:47where reality was and where the" other
24:50"began, let’s say. Where healthy
24:55people were and where disorders,
24:58hallucinations, or psychosis began. But
25:03I think that nowadays that can no
25:05longer be determined. That line was
25:08erased, and I think that since the
25:10pandemic, especially, we are all
25:12hallucinating now, all disordered, and
25:15we are all unwell. Social media has
25:19generated something called digital
25:21psychosis, right? So, people are
25:24already mostly finding themselves
25:27psychotic, and people are trapped in a
25:30web that is, let’s say, dragging them
25:32along. Not to mention those who
25:37sometimes consult artificial
25:40intelligence on an emotional level or
25:42to seek company or something like that.
25:47Those bots, right? They are already
25:50driving people crazy in a bad way. So
25:55it is very difficult nowadays for us to
25:57run into someone 100%healthy, 100%lucid
26:00. That just doesn't work like that
26:03anymore. And there is a very strong
26:05addiction to social media. So everyone
26:08—and it's not just young people, I
26:10see it working the same way in people
26:12my age. So, we are seeing addicts,
26:16junkies everywhere, and that cancels
26:19out lucidity. And that cancels out
26:21lucidity in politics. That cancels out
26:24lucidity in affections. That cancels
26:26out lucidity in friendship, in
26:28everything. One starts to become
26:30contaminated in a bad way. So, I think
26:33we should start to understand that
26:35it’s already a world of the deranged,
26:37and what we have to do is write
26:39literature about a general psychosis
26:41where no one is okay anymore. We are.
26:46>> Yes, we are all Frank Molino. Yes.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of 🐺 Mario Mendoza responde | La hora de los lobos 2 - La historia continúa… by Lectores Mario Mendoza, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,824 words across 578 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.