Por amor al arte

I have to admit I am a (very) late PepSi fan. Yes, I know it's sad to say but I am a post episode 104 follower. And it was by a very, very random coincidence that I found them, so I should consider myself lucky to be part of the PeSiverse now.

I lived in Glasgow, Scotland, until June this year - right until Graduation Day. My best friend in G-town was Patricia, a crazy, sweet blonde from Zaragoza, who loved Los Hombres de Paco. I was always around in her house for dinner and movies, and she watched the show regularly, but I always chose to watch something else because I was never too fond of the stupid cop storyline. I had seen some pre-Pepa episodes when I was in Spain and didn't particularly like them either. She knew about PepSi all that time and never told me, and I would have never found out if I had not come back home for the summer.

I was mid-July 2009. I was on MSN with this girl (no need for details here) and we were sending each other Youtube links of songs we liked. She eventually sent me a link to a Pepsi music video, with the song Por amor al arte by Iván Guevara (link here). The chorus of the song goes:

Y apareció en tu vida la chica de tus sueños
a cubrirte esa herida y ella curó tu infierno,
que aunque tú no sabías que aunque nacieras princesa
no querías un Rome, esperabas a Julieta.
Nadie supo explicarte porqué la querías,
que el "hombre" de tu vida se llamaba María.
Pero escúchame, amiga, si ella también quiere amarte
no hay que darle más vueltas, no sé, por amor al arte.

[And the girl of your dreams appeared in your life
to heal your wounds and your hell.
Because you didn't know that even if you were born a princess
you didn't want a Romeo, you were waiting for Juliet.
Nobody managed to explain to you why you loved her,
or why the "man" of your life was called María.
But listen to me, my friend, if she wants to love you back
don't even think about it twice, just for the love of art]

Since I did not know the PepSi story at the time, when I listened to the song, I linked it to my own story (my first gf also happened to be called María). As I got involved in the PepSiverse, I realized that the song made total sense - Silvia's hellish life and her discovery, and well, Pepa's Sunday name is also María (José) after all. I think I might have watched the whole PepsiEnglish compilation in just one sitting. I didn't need the subtitles, of course, so whenever I saw something that didn't go, I wrote it down (professional de-formation, as we Spaniards call it). It was summer, it was hot, I was jobless and I had nothing better to do - that's my excuse.

That is how the whole thing began. A smart ass correction on Dr Piper's translation of the Save Silvia Campaign article in El País earned me my DPep and the Head of Translation Dept chair. Now I'm very glad I joined - thanks to PepSi, I have met brilliant people and I'm back on track building a career in translation.

Dr Bekelauer

Piper's Note:
The last is certainly not the least - Beke's contribution to Pepsi University has been immense and her translations have been priceless.  People wouldn't know how hard she works - but she has already completed translating the first season with Silvia (before Pepa), and has signed on for the coming's season's translations.  Personally, I am proud to call Beke my friend and because of her age (23), my adopted daughter whom I care for deeply.