Peque Gallaga, 1943-2020
Maurice Ruiz de Luzuriaga Gallaga. Photo from wikipedia.
Peque Gallaga died in Bacolod this morning. He had been in poor health for some time. I had not seen him in many years, so for now I can deny that he no longer exists. How can he be dead when Oro, Plata, Mata, Virgin Forest, Scorpio Nights, Manananggal, Tiyanak, Sonata, so many wonderful—and don’t forget: weird—movies are still with us? So they were flawed, big deal, even his flaws were interesting. Peque was an authority on Tolkien, so I will think of him as Gandalf the Grey: fallen in battle with the Balrog, to return at the turning of the tide.
He was my favorite interview subject—intelligent, articulate, erudite, and candid, and his passion for art was contagious and all-consuming. I just put a recorder in front of him, and we were off. Easiest assignments ever: I just had to transcribe them. I will miss our fabulous conversations.(I just remembered that he and Madie gave me my first Monty Python recording.) I grieve for the movies he never got around to making. Mostly I grieve for us because our world has gotten smaller (and not just literally because we’re indoors). Peque Gallaga had more fun than all of us.
Our last interview from 2003: Dancing In The Teeth of Insanity. (Click on the links to read)
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