The journalist and writer Enrique Symns passed away this Thursday at the age of 77. He was editorial secretary of the magazine the Porteño and in 1983 he founded the magazine pigs and fishone of the mythical publications of the democratic spring.
Born in Lanús in 1945, he lived in Brazil and Europe before returning to Argentina to join the Porteño. He specialized in underground culture and developed a more exacerbated style of New Journalism, the so-called “gonzo journalism”, which had Hunter Thompson as a great figure in the United States.
pigs and fish It continued until 1987 and then had sporadic reissues. In 1989 she went through the daily South. In the 90s she wrote in the magazine The magician. Based in Chile in the early years of this century, he wrote there in the magazine The Clinic. In 2003 she returned to the country and published his atobiography, the lord of poisonsIn addition to collaborating with various publications. His chronicles of pigs and fish were collected in the volume invitation to the abyss.
His link with rock and the Redondos
Symns was linked to the rock scene, which began to flourish massively as the dictatorship collapsed. He accompanied the Redonditos de Ricota in his early years. She acted as a monologue in the band’s shows, before the leap to popularity of the group led by Indio Solari.
The journalist broke all ties after the death of Walter Bulacio at the hands of the Federal Police in 1991. Symns questioned the band and assured that the musicians ignored the fate of the 16-year-old adolescent beaten by uniformed officers the night of a Redondos en Obras recital.
“I shouldn’t have accused them. I wasn’t a judge or a bloody policeman, I was a journalist. In other words, a reconstructor of scenes, an anthropologist of everyday life. Today almost all journalists are policemen, judges, spies. They do not hesitate to spy, to accuse their enemies, to violate the privacy of those who execrate”would write years later on the subject.
He was also close to other bands, such as The Lice, The Knights of Burning and Bersuit Vergarabat.
a prolific writer
Symns’s work is extensive. In his bibliography one can mention The last song (biography of the Chilean band Los Tres); Paez (about Fito Páez); the anthology Life is a bar; in search of the murderer and big bad city.
He also signed monologues as A perfect night, the poisoned fishbowl, A perfect night and Tales of a lost man: 64 years under the sun.
