New York fascinates even more when you just visit. Because it is one of the few places that not only maintains expectations but even exceeds them. Especially if you can discover it with good friends who live throughout the heart of the city.
No, NY never disappoints. And that which we all display about this great city, endless imaginary saturated between cinema, literature and history. Everything in New York meets expectations in terms of its amalgamation of cultures, its contrasts between neighborhoods, the overwhelming downtown of Manhattan and the feeling of traveling through a world like unreal, fantastic.
A space that assaults all your senses from sight to smell. A gigantic stage, adorned with all the possible trompe l'oeils in the form of skyscrapers, lights and characters so that you feel inside the movie in turn.
And then there is the reality of the city, how it was made. There are many interesting books on the history of New York and its infinite insides. I remember "The cathedrals of heaven»About the Mohawk Indians and their innate recklessness to build skyscrapers at bargain prices. Or «The colossus of New York»From the doubly Pulizter Colson Whitehead.
This time Xavier Moro recovers the story of an illustrious Spaniard (yet another among the plethora of great guys that the memory of New York ends up devouring). It is about Rafael Guastavino.
New York 1881: in one of the most popular neighborhoods, little Rafaelito and his father, Rafael, a renowned Valencian master builder who struggles to demonstrate his talent in the great city, live in misery. Absolute ruin lies in wait for him.
But thanks to his indefatigable genius, this man will achieve fame and fortune by building the iconic buildings that have given New York its profile. Javier Moro introduces us to the unique Rafael Guastavino, a true construction genius who dazzled the great North American magnates, conquered by the techniques he used in his works to prevent fires, the greatest evil of the nineteenth century megalopolises.
He had a life marked by successes: from his studio came constructions as "New York" as the Central Station, the great hall of Ellis Island, part of the subway, Carnegie Hall or the American Museum of Natural History.
You can now buy the book «A proof of fire», by Javier Moro, here: