A native of Seville by birth; a native of the Pened\u00e8s by blood. Joan Baptista Carri\u00f3n <\/b>is Jean Leon\u2019s nephew. His father\u2014Ceferino Carri\u00f3n\u2019s brother\u2014spent over 14 years working at the winery. We talked to Joan Baptista so he could tell us what his \u201cAmerican uncle\u201d was like and what he thinks of the legacy Jean Leon left behind.<\/p>\n
What memories do you have of your uncle? What is the first thing that comes to mind?<\/b><\/p>\n
I remember him coming over with friends. There was always a lot of people. I don\u2019t know whether they were always famous actors, because I little, but there was almost always someone with him when he came over. I remember my father always told us, \u201cthe American uncle\u2019s coming tomorrow.\u201d Whenever we came, we\u2019d comb our hair, he\u2019d give us two kisses, and almost always some money for candy, too.<\/p>\n
What aspects of his personality stand out for you?<\/b><\/p>\n
He was a very nice person. I always had him on a pedestal. He was also very generous, at least with me and my siblings. We always used to play with plastic balls, and two out of every three would burst. One day I told him, to see if he would buy us a regulation ball.<\/p>\n
Did he buy one for you?<\/b><\/p>\n
Of course! He gave me 2,000 pesetas [around $15] and said, \u201cWhen I come again, I want to see the ball.\u201d My mother always collected the money my uncle would give us\u2013we didn\u2019t see any of it! [Laughs] For my First Communion I asked him for a bike, since we had to walk to the neighboring town every day to get to school. Two weeks later, I had it. The family always says I\u2019m a lot like his son and that he was the apple of his eye. Everything I asked him for, he gave me.<\/p>\n
What was your relationship with your uncle like?<\/b><\/p>\n
Somewhat distant, considering that I was young\u2013I was six or seven years old. Once I was able to, when I was a teenager, I saved up some money and went to the US. I was curious to find out more about him and to see everything he\u2019d done in America. Everyone was talking about him, he was famous, he knew Marilyn, JFK… One day I turned up in Los Angeles, without telling him.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t know you were coming?<\/b><\/p>\n
No, I turned up out of the blue. When I got to Los Angeles, I called him on the phone and we met at the restaurant. It turns out that he was planning to leave on a month-long trip to Thailand the next day, so I stayed at the chef\u2019s house. I was there on vacation for two months and I didn\u2019t see him very much. I didn\u2019t have a very close relationship with him. But with his son it\u2019s the complete opposite. I have much more contact with him.<\/p>\n
What did you think of the kind of life he led in the US?<\/b><\/p>\n
I kind of already knew what he had and what he was like. I wasn\u2019t astonished. I felt like Heidi. Going from living here among vineyards to arriving in a big city… I felt like it wasn\u2019t my place and I decided to go back. To me, the Pened\u00e8s was freedom.<\/p>\n
Why do you think he achieved everything he set out to?<\/b><\/p>\n
He was very smart and he knew how to deal with people.<\/p>\n
What do you think of the legacy he left behind?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s impressive. He went to the US with absolutely nothing. His story is incredible.<\/p>\n
Do you think he had a life worthy of a movie? <\/b><\/p>\n
Yes, and one that many people would envy. His legacy lives on and there\u2019s a lot of value in that.<\/p>\n
What kind of relationship do you have with his children?<\/b><\/p>\n
I have a really good relationship with Jean Leon, Jr. Whenever he comes, he calls me and we go out to eat. He\u2019s very big on family. He even asked the whole family for information to make a family tree.<\/p>\n
Has the estate changed a lot over the years?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s completely different. It\u2019s not at all like it used to be. What I see now seems incredible to me. Many years have passed. The fruit trees were our garden of earthly delights!<\/p>\n
Your mother is from Seville and your father from Santander. How did you end up in the Pened\u00e8s?<\/b><\/p>\n
My father was a fairground worker. When Jean Leon made it big, my grandmother asked him for work for my father and my uncle. So we came to live here, in a farmhouse where the visitor center is located now. We were there for 14 years.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your relationship like with wine?<\/b><\/p>\n
I love red wine. I\u2019m no sommelier, but I really like it. Maybe it\u2019s because ever since I was little I\u2019ve been in contact with the vines, the aromas. A smell would often come to me that I couldn\u2019t place, and one day, relatively recently, when I was working in the vineyard, the grapes were flowering and that smell came to me, and with it all my childhood memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A native of Seville by birth; a native of the Pened\u00e8s by blood. Joan Baptista Carri\u00f3n is Jean Leon\u2019s nephew. His father\u2014Ceferino Carri\u00f3n\u2019s brother\u2014spent over 14 years working at the winery. We talked to Joan Baptista so he could tell us what his \u201cAmerican uncle\u201d was like and what he thinks of the legacy Jean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":798,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discovering-jean-leon"],"yoast_head":"\n