The article reflects on the duality of New York City, portraying it as both violent and tranquil. The sentiment, echoed in a letter from poet Pedro Salinas, emphasizes the city's chaotic bursts resembling a combustion engine. Despite its apparent harshness, New York serves as a cultural hub, especially for Spanish literature, with many authors chronicling their experiences in the city. The overwhelming literary output surrounding New York reinforces its status as a vibrant, contradictory metropolis that inspires both admiration and contemplation.
The city disconcerts me enormously. It shifts from an enormous lyricism of raw material to a harshness of raw material... New York seems to me: it chugs along with bursts, with shocks.
Violence, everything is violent. And of course, alongside violence, its indispensable opposite: tranquility, stillness... My impression is confirmed, Marg. New York is [uncivilized] and violent does everything have to mean something?
It seems that writing about the five boroughs... is almost a reflex for any author who walks its streets. The city's literary popularity is overwhelming.
The legend and myth that surrounds the metropolis: all at once, it's photogenic, egocentric, neurotic, absorbing... But the list of Spaniards who have written about New York... is very long.
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