My name is Ralph Rothschild (the one with curly hair and today bald). Friend (and at times not so much) of Jorge and I was editor-in-chief of the supplement Mordisco del Expreso and Zaff y Pan Caliente in its first stage.
The writings that do not have a signature can be awarded to me.
You are therefore invited to start this journey...
The man who couldn't stop dreaming
“Jorge Pistocchi was a Quixote, an adelantado who always clung to what he believed to be fair,” says editor and journalist Ralph Rothschild about the founder and director of one of the most legendary cultural magazines in Argentine history: Expreso Imaginario. A milestone by all accounts that, with a genuinely free and critical spirit, not only knew how to portray the rock counterculture revolution in the midst of a fierce dictatorship: “Much of what is talked about today, to which no one was referring back then , we already said it, with notes on ecology and care of the planet, on native peoples”, exemplifies Rothschild. And he soon highlights that “spending those difficult years in the Express was like being able to breathe, even though they put us in jail all the time. Notice that, by editorial decision, we were the only publication that did not write about the 78 World Cup…”. In the Express, creativity and idealism came together from strokes carved by key names such as Pipo Lernoud, Horacio Fontova, Alfredo Rosso, Claudio Kleiman, among many others. Including Rothschild himself, who was editor-in-chief, a role he would later occupy in other outstanding Pistocchi initiatives: the Zaff!! magazines. and Hot Bread. Without forgetting, of course, Mordisco, who took to the streets in mid-'74 after Jorge set up the newsroom in his house, in a small loft. “Today we start the march towards a station called impossible. Getting there can become dangerous, but we trust that the contents of our luggage will protect us", he wrote in his first editorial as director of a magazine where music dialogued with poetry, painting, philosophy... Well, "to honor this person who has influenced many”, who died in 2015, Ralph just released pistocchiweb.com, a website that he himself has made from start to finish with the hand of a goldsmith, "so that his legacy is not lost, it lasts over time". In fact, with a simple click, you can access "practically all the magazines that Jorge did", digitized, in optimal quality. Also learn about his story, decidedly quixotic: his friendship with Miguel Abuelo and Luis Alberto Spinetta, his vital role as patron of Almendra. His experience as a columnist for Pelo, the ethical reasons why he ends up moving away from the Express. The community experience of the Cosmic Center that he set up in the 80s in La Paternal, in addition to his work in the Amat cooperative, in Monte Grande, a factory that Menemism destroyed, recovered by its workers in the second half of the 90s, "where Jorge organized orchards, production, endless things”. Because, as summarized by Ralph, formerly editor of La Mano, “Pistocchi couldn't stop dreaming”. Using extracts from interviews, unpublished photographs, stories of various kinds, the site traces the life of this peerless man. Calling, by the way, for readers to send material, anecdotes, clips, images. Because, as Rothschild notes, "via email pistocchiweb@gmail.com you can send files to add to this website that, like Jorge, never has to stop...". So be it.
