Íñigo Ramírez de Haro

bio

Íñigo Ramírez de Haro believes that life is long, that more often than not, it’s difficult, and that it is fundamentally plural. Being is spoken of in many ways. The obsession for the “one” in our culture: the “monos”: monotheism, monogamy, monolithic… leaves him cold.

Raised in a traditional family in what was a sinister, “ugly, Catholic and sentimental” time for the History of Spain – Íñigo always arrives late and his life consists of making up for lost time.

After a Jesuit school test at age 10, he was labeled a mental retard and has wasted much of his later life in an attempt to prove this test was wrong. The question of whether Jesuits were right or not remains uncertain to this day.

Until age 20 textbooks were his only reading.

Based on his father’s saying: “either you’re an engineer or a failure”- and also because he likes seeing the way birds fly, Íñigo becomes an Aeronautical Engineer. Of the famous four elements, air is the one that entices him the most. (Perhaps so he can be in the clouds.) Curious and always suspecting that somewhere out there, there is more to life he simultaneously also studies Philosophy. This love remains with him for the rest of his life and he is currently writing his doctoral thesis: “Comedy versus philosophy and monotheism”.

Mc Donald Douglas offers Íñigo an excellent contract as an engineer in the United States but, by chance, the day before his departure, he sees a newspaper ad for an acting workshop- and abandons his offer and becomes an actor instead. Perhaps he was tired of so many brains and needed more body. In any event, this is the beginning of a long theatrical career first as an actor and later as a director and playwright. Sadly, he’s still hooked on all.

Tottering towards getting plays right- which is what it means to ‘playwright’, Íñigo discovers that not only has he barely read, it’s even worse, he’s hardly written and so-late again- decides to become a Philologist. This teaches him many things. A particular lesson from one of his beloved baroque playwrights, Lope de Vega, leaves an eternal mark; life is tragicomedy: The most somber of moments -the most serious, are the ones that produce the greatest laughter.

After many weeks of performances in a tour of Spain as an actor, the producer vanishes with all the revenues and Íñigo comes face to face with the chronic seediness of the theatrical medium. So he takes and passes a series of competitive examinations to become a diplomat, with the hope of seeing more of the world. (Because he believes that nothing human is alien to him, he has always been fascinated by anthropology.) His diplomatic career also resolves the employment issue, certainly an important one in life, yet nowadays, he still isn’t sure if it was a good choice.

Unable to resist sticking his finger into the wounds of the world, he is beaten up at a theatre during the performance of one of his plays (which does just that) – is sued by more than more than 3,300 individuals and threatened with death for years. This intensive course on becoming a man convinces him that, no matter what people say, the theatre is still very much alive and is a powerful weapon that can make audiences tremble as they are being entertained.

Fiction is still much realer than any reality.

Íñigo leans against a 53rd story window each morning as he has breakfast to see if he’ll jump. So far he hasn’t but….you never know.