I love Mars Attacks. When I was a kid, I collected the Topps cards that circulated in Latin America in the 60s. I have the complete collection in Spanish. Then in 1996, came the Tim Burton movie based in part on the stories from those cards.
When my neighbor and friend Oliver Sacks was finalizing his Musicophilia, I mentioned a scene from the movie, actually not based on the cards. Humans, by chance, discover that an atrocious, schmaltzy music (Indian Love Call) is the only weapon capable of destroying the Martians. Dr. Sacks decided to include that anecdote in the chapter about the dangerous power of music. Although it was a mere footnote, he was kind enough to mention me in the acknowledgements.
When the book came out I discovered that my name had been mispelled: Paul Rodriguez, instead of Raúl Rodriguez. Oliver was somewhat mortified, but I took it as a happy accident: not only he dedicated the copy that we still cherish, but he added, in his favorite purple marker ink, a diagonal line, back-slash like, to make the P in Paul an R. I mentioned to him I didn’t mind being called Paul. Since Raúl is not a common name among Anglo Saxons, Paul was a favorite misnomer. Raoul, Rahul, Ravi were close contenders.(1) Dr Sacks liked to call me Raül, trilling the R and adding the diaeresis to the second vowel in an unnecessary diacritical situation in Spanish. It made my name sound more Estonian, exotic. Or whimsically quixotic.
—Raúl Rodriguez, Hector’s Coffee Shop, NYC, 11.20.2018
(1) I once received a FedEx package and it was addressed to Ravel Rodriguez. Needless to say, I smiled and felt unfairly honored. Ravel is one of my Top 10 favorite composers, if not number one. Oliver was fond of Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin, each movement of the suite dedicated to friends who died in World War I.