Don Francisco spent the pandemic writing his second memoir. Here’s how to get it
During his confinement because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mario Kreutzberger, also known as Don Francisco, dedicated five hours a day to writing “Con ganas de vivir “ (Penguin Random House), a 400-page book that discusses the last two decades of his life.
This volume, which will be available Tuesday, May 4, is a followup to his 2001 memoir “Entre la espada y la TV” (“Don Francisco: Life, Camera, Action!” Grijalbo), when he was still hosting Sábado Gigante. The show, which was on the air from 1962 to 2015, was the longest-running variety program in television history, according to Guinness World Records.
The Chilean presenter, age 80, recounts his beginnings on television in his country and describes the rise of Sábado Gigante, from a local show to an international hit.
“Why did I want to write a book? I asked myself many times before starting, and I always came to the same conclusion: Because I am a communicator and I live and breathe from the daily exercise of communicating. It is a need I can’t divorce myself from, which has become almost an obsession in my life, which has given me great satisfaction and a few inconveniences...,” he writes, recounting his effort to give voice to the growing Hispanic community in the United States through the program.
Kreutzberger also narrates the detention of his father, a German Jew, in the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1938, and the obstacles he faced in emigrating to Chile, where Kreutzberger was born on Dec. 28, 1940.
He also discusses his determination to leave the family business and try his luck in the fledgling world of television, as well as his desire to preserve the Chilean Telethon, the charity event he had founded in 1978, which in its most recent edition raised $52 million that was allocated to 14 institutions that specialize in helping children with disabilities.
“Con ganas de vivir” highlights how Sábado Gigante became a mandatory forum for the U.S. presidential candidates to try to attract the Latino vote. George W. Bush, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama and John McCain all were guests on the show.
“Unfortunately I must admit that, if these interviews had to be done today, fifteen years later, the questions would be almost the same, which indicates that the problems of our community, far from being solved, continue to be a matter of permanent concern,” he added, referring to the drama of family separation, deportations, the possibility of legalization of the undocumented, the temporary protection laws (TPS) and the future of students called dreamers, “which have become recurring campaign promises, but so far neither Democrats nor Republicans have had the true political will to seek a definitive solution.”
The book offers a collection of anecdotes about unusual characters, conversations with world leaders, his visit to South Africa to learn about Nelson Mandela’s legacy, his trip to China, along with the first Spanish-language team that entered the country with cameras in 1976, plus countless work and life experiences over the almost six decades of his career.
Without a doubt, “Con ganas de vivir” is required reading for anyone who wants to know the history of television in Chile and the United States.
“Con ganas de vivir” can be purchased here: https://sites.prh.com/conganasdevivir/
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 4:14 PM.
