Between A and B, C. Between this and that, that one. Between the one and the other, the one beyond.
The social activist Andrew Oliver Funk (Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, 1981), like the Gorgonite Ocula, has spent half his life deciding between two options, and in all of them he has chosen the least bad choice. Vertical, existentialist ("I like to help others"), is the antithesis of the sculptor Jorge Oteiza ("the man transformed by art"), occupying spaces for the homeless, as if the tellers of the banks were spiritual metaphysical boxes. Andrew has founded the non-profit organization of Barcelona #HomelessEntrepreneur.
He grew up in the lands of the Sioux. Pitcher with iron arm. Baseball cards thief (shortstop Dickie Thon, 1992) and loose poems that cut off his breath, as indolent soil clauses ("hold infinity in the palm of the hand", William Blake).
When he was 12 years old, he had to choose between father and mother, at the request of the matrimonial lawyer who processed the separation of the parents: "Who do you want more?", He asked him to answer. His father was drilling the Texas soil with the rod bombs, looking for the black gold to pay the bills. The boy stayed with the mother, not knowing that the two weighed the same in the balance of his heart.
At the age of 18, he had to choose between a career in economics ("I took refuge in mathematics, I did not have to talk") and an English Literature course, both at the Arizona State University. He chose literature, the only articulated vehicle that transported him farther, away from judgments and gangs and emptiness.
His favorite book is Private M emories and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, by James Hogg ("I am sure that by recording the horrible events that continue ..."). But he stopped reading books and began to read people, as a result of the learning acquired in the course of the subject "theory of knowledge".
At 19 he chose between two foreign languages, compulsory subjects: French or Spanish. He was inclined to the word Cervantes, who hugged him to give him the songs (Sting), insults or half-insults ("for the balls") and nap ("the good here").
With 22 years he went to Spain to change the world; it did not manage to change the world, but it helped Spain to become clever; Soon she would enter the economic and social crisis that is still transforming her into a long-tailed dragon.
He traveled the distances between malodorous hostels, tarnished rooms and expensive and unhygienic rents. He traveled each time with less budget, and of the 43 countries he has visited there is one he always comes back to: Barcelona, onceived as a country, as his home, as His Home in capital letters: "All the people I've met are interested in the same thing : eat, drink and fuck, basic things. I have gone to poor places and rich places, and in all of them people are very similar. " In Barcelona all these people come together.
Established in the Mediterranean city, he founded the English Metas English academy. I wanted to grow and enjoy: "I knew how to grow but not manage".
Closed ("English Goals website is having a make-up!"). He became disoriented. He got into a vortex without sense, spiral of self-destruction, battles with himself, unfortunate loneliness, inconsolable. "I was like this staying on the street [takes a pinch of air with my fingers]. I went from couch to couch, burning relationships, "she says honestly.
He visited the shelters of Cáritas Diocesana de Catalunya, which he saw as insufficient.
To survive and not hit bottom ("when you hit the bottom, you make your home base, so it's not an option to go up"), created the organization #HomelessEntrepreneur.
"The homeless people have lost everything, everything, everything: the links, the networks, the friendships ... They do not know how to carry out anything. Even if they get angry they do not know how to channel it ... For me they are not invisible. "
Reporter. -What would you have done if you had stayed in the street?
Andrew.-What I'm doing now.
R. - What are you doing?
A. -Create community.
Between returning to his previous position and continuing with the project to eradicate homelessness, the North American Barcelona Andrew Funk, the Gorganita Ocula, chose again: he chose the latter. "I want the model that I am implementing in Barcelona to be exported to all the cities in the world."
The second is the first.
