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The most beautiful thing about life
is life itself - Nacho Cadena
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by Ana Luz Velázquez
May 27, 2002. |
 Builder,
restauranteur, writer, chef, columnist, speaker, promoter
of culture, president of the Coastal University Center's
Council on Culture, he travels to Guadalajara every
week, presides over meetings, lunches and dinners. And
we ask ourselves, when do you do all that? How does
he do it? He has been a tennis player, a golfer, a trekker,
a diver, an explorer and a friend to the Seris Indians.
His silvery hair, like a lion's mane,
blends with his always-impeccably white, always cotton
outfit. He always dresses the same, whether attending
a concert or attending to his customers, conducting
a cultural event or signing contracts in a notary's
office with some important businessmen. This is Nacho
Cadena, the one of La Petite France Restaurant, a man
in love with life.
PVMirror: Why are you always so
restless, Nacho?
N.C.: Life is short when you look at all the facets
you can enter. I think one has to look for happiness
in life by looking for new, beautiful things. And if
you enrich yourself along the way with knowledge and
experiences you can share, well then, just like life,
you find interesting paths to follow. But you have to
finish what you start because the risk in versatility
is to leave things unfinished. You also have to have
fun, you shouldn't always take everything seriously.
PVMirror: But we live in an age
of specializations…
N.C.: We have to give ourselves time to do things.
Unfortunately people are focused on money, consumerism
leads you to want this and that. I think that sometimes
we have to give up a little abundance to treat the spirit
a little, to give it a little beauty, these are things
that grant tranquility, that make it more reflective,
more creative.
PVMirror: Were you just as restless
as a child?
N.C.: I had a great teacher, my father. He was
a very disciplined man, a military man with a world
of tastes and concerns, he operated a carpenter's workshop,
he grew chickens, we made ham, wine, olives and I took
part in it all. He wanted me to learn to play the piano
-for which I had no talent whatsoever- and my teacher
did her job but she laughed as I would sit on my baseball
glove on the piano stool to play a minuet by Liszt that
she had taught me. I grew up alongside my four brothers
in the country, in Hermosillo.
PVMirror: Why did you come to
Vallarta?
N.C.: I came with a group of people with which
I had purchased a property here, Los Tules. Then I told
my partners that I intended to stay here. Afterwards,
I was involved in the construction of the Fiesta Americana,
the Qualton and many residential developments. I have
a very unusual profession, that of creating business
concepts. More than being a businessman, I know how
to invent adequate things for a piece of land or a town.
PVMirror: Why this eagerness to
spread culture?
N.C.: I was lucky enough to be born in a family
where my mother who was French had the idea that culture
was an integral part of one's upbringing. At the age
of 80 she was still going to University to study French
literature. So when you live in an atmosphere of this
kind, it never leaves you. I also had a great master
(López Legazpi) who awakened the taste for reading
in me and I am most grateful to him for that. Culture
is pleasant, it's fun, I like the fact that what I like
also pleases others. Culture is fuel for life.
PVMirror: And what about books?
N.C.: I like to read, I am very selective, I read
poetry and there is always a cookbook on my desk. I
like to delve into the various gastronomical cultures.
PVMirror: Why do you always dress
in white?
N.C.: Because I believe that white gives me energy,
and cotton because it feels like a caress…
PVMirror: Music?
N.C.: I like symphonies, romantic music, trios,
and one piece in particular, the Concert of Aranjez.
PVMirror: What is your concept
of women?
N.C.: Ah, what would we do without them? They are
the most divine thing in the world. I have a lot of
respect for them. They are responsible, intellectually
honest.
PVMirror: A flower?
N.C.: The sunflower, because I like yellow a lot.
PVMirror: And politics?
N.C.: I've never been politically-inclined and
I never will be. Parties no longer have banners, there
are only personal interests, party members but nothing
regarding national interests.
PVMirror: What motivates you?
N.C.: Life. Waking up every morning.
PVMirror: What disturbs you?
N.C.: That people do not do what they're supposed
to do, when they are incongruent.
PVMirror: Nacho, how would you
like to be remembered?
N.C.: As Nacho Cadena, a lucky man who passed by
this world.
PVMirror: If you were at the Pearly
Gates, what would you say?
N.C.: Don't be mean, Saint Peter. Let me in.
Nacho Cadena is the owner of La Petite
France, the excellent French restaurant located in the
Hotel Zone, right at the entrance to the Fiesta Americana
Hotel. Tel.: 293-0900
Zopilote (Buzzard) Chhom
analuz@pvmirror.com
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