Pilar Lacalle Pou She is Uruguayan, lawyer, plastic artist and mother. She is also a restless, curious and bold woman, according to her own view. “I am a woman in constant reinvention,” she says when she is invited to introduce herself.
She has a master’s degree in International Relations and Environmental Law from George Washington University and is director of URUMEPA, a non-governmental organization for environmental protection.
He lives in Montevideo and belongs to an important Uruguayan family. His father—Luis Alberto Lacalle—was President of his country; his brother—Luis Lacalle Pou—is the current President; and his mother—Julia Pou—was a senator, among other family members who were protagonists in the political history of Uruguay.
In her role as a plastic artist she exhibited individually in San Pablo, Buenos Aires, Madrid, Punta del Este, Montevideo and Galicia and in several group exhibitions.
He is currently exhibiting in an individual exhibition at the Sofitel Buenos Aires Recoleta Hotel, until February 2024.
News: What is it like to be constantly reinventing yourself?
Pilar Lacalle Pou: Today I play the role of mother almost exclusively. Of course I paint and work, but adapting to a much quieter and more routine life, and doing it with pleasure for my son, was my last great reinvention.
News: She decided to be a mother when she grew up and chose to do it alone.
Lacalle Pou: Yes, it was seven years ago, Joaquín turns six these days. He didn’t have a partner, he had tried to start a family in a conventional way but had had no luck, and at 44 I made the decision. I was lucky enough to get pregnant, in vitro, and I had a divine pregnancy, very enjoyable, peaceful.
News: And he did it with an unknown donor.
Lacalle Pou: Yes, anonymous.
News: How did motherhood impact your life?
Lacalle Pou: It calmed me down and reversed my priorities. It is very tiring to be a mother, especially being a little older. It is a sacrifice in the sense that it is permanently postponed, but I do it with desire for everything I have desired..
News: What is Joaquín like?
Lacalle Pou: He has a lot of character, he has a passion for buses and all types of vehicles. I now know about airplanes and turbines. He is a happy boy and it is normal in his relationship with the other little ones.
News: How did your family support you in your decision to be a mother, also taking into account that you live with your parents?
Lacalle Pou: Without them I would not have been able to make the decision. I have to work to pay the bills and my parents help me with Joaquín. They gave him a home. My mother is a very open-minded woman and when I told her about my decision she told me that she perfectly understood my need to be a mother. My father is a Jesuit, of daily mass, but he was also divine. Three months into the pregnancy I spoke to him and he told me: “It exceeds the world to which I belong, I cannot understand it, but I do share the love that you feel for that child and we are going to accompany you as in other circumstances.” He took it as another family adventure and now he is fascinated with Joaquín.
News: You belong to an important family in Uruguay, especially at the political level. How do you get along with politics?
Lacalle Pou: Well, I haven’t known anything else. At home, the country’s issues were family issues, and they still are. Sometimes it’s a little tiring because you’re explaining, justifying, and also representing a family all the time. That implies more obligations than rights. It can also limit you in some things. But I have lived twelve years outside of Uruguay and there I did not limit myself in anything and I had a great time. It was nice to be Pilar and that’s it, and not be his daughter or sister, and to relate from myself. It was an important discovery and internal work for me.
News: In Uruguay do you feel more exposed?
Lacalle Pou: Yes, it costs me less now as an adult than when I was a teenager. When dad was President I was 18 years old and I felt it was a responsibility. Maybe I was taking emotional responsibility for things that I didn’t have to take care of. I had lived the political campaign with my father very intensely, I had traveled the country with him and I had seen how impressive it is when people give you the vote of confidence.
News: Did you think about assuming a specific political role?
Lacalle Pou: At some point I thought I was going to dedicate myself to that, I was very upset after the ’89 campaign. But then life happened and gender happened. I am still from the generations where you got married and had children. The race was a semi-accessory thing. I never approached my professional life from passion. It was like a mandate and the women who were harmed were, of course.
News: The truth is that he studied Law and specialized in Environmental Law.
Lacalle Pou: Yes, and I am the director of URUMEPA, the Uruguayan headquarters of an international organization. We are currently working on the need for deplasticization and renewable energy.
News: How is Uruguay doing with respect to caring for the environment?
Lacalle Pou: Alright. We only have the Ministry of the Environment since this government, before it did not have the place it deserved. At the awareness level we are doing well, especially with the children, who are very informed and take the cause personally. They are the environmental multipliers. Little ones come in all the time with very creative projects.
News: Her third facet is that of a plastic artist.
Lacalle Pou: I was always very creatively restless and from a very young age my mother sent me to a free expression workshop. I went for several years and learned various techniques. Later, when I lived in Madrid, I took classes with a German painter. I am basically self-taught, it is a very strong creative need that I even apply in my work at URUMEPA. Working with children lends itself a lot to art with waste, recycling is art too, giving a second life to plastic containers. These problems need new and creative solutions.
News: What do your paintings talk about?
Lacalle Pou: I am quite versatile, I don’t like monotony, I have very different series of paintings. Since motherhood I notice more serenity in my works, more depth, I don’t have as much need to use strident colors, as in my beginnings. It is abstract painting. Now at the Sofitel Recoleta I am exhibiting works from different series.
News: What is it inspired by?
Lacalle Pou: In nature. I am lucky to live in Montevideo three blocks from the coast and I walk there almost every morning, looking a lot at the beach and the sky when the light penetrates through the clouds. That fascinates me. It is the emblem of hope, that type of lighting obsesses me.
News: What is it like to live in Uruguay?
Lacalle Pou: It is ideal for starting a family and raising children. It is a country that, within the global chaos, remains calm. It is still viable to cycle to different places. And it offers comforts without much investment. A very Uruguayan program is to go drink mate on the promenade or the beach with friends, we have 200 km of coastline, and that does not imply a great cost. Also the serenity it has compared to other big cities.
News: In recent years many Argentines see Uruguay as a possible destination to live. In fact, quite a few have moved there.
Lacalle Pou: For us it means an injection at an economic and social level, because the Argentine is much more restless than the Uruguayan. They are more outgoing, they have concerns, they take classes, they organize programs. I see the young couples who have taken over the city here and in Punta del Este, it is incredible how the restaurants are starting to fill up, you have to make a reservation, and in Uruguay that never happened. In winter, in Punta del Este, everything is open. There is an incredible life, they are consumers of services. It is great for us because they feed different socioeconomic sectors and, in addition, the vital energy that the people of Buenos Aires have, above all, is contagious. The Uruguayan is much more homemade, we tend to barbecue more at home with friends and we spend much less.
News: How do you see Argentina from there?
Lacalle Pou: It does not seem right to me to express myself about the political situation of another country. What happens in Argentina always seems half Kafkaesque to me. It is a very particular country with many good things and others, not so much. YesWhat happens on a political level there always seemed surreal to me.
News: You lived abroad for twelve years. How was your experience?
Lacalle Pou: Yes, I lived in Washington, Chile and most of it in Madrid. Leaving my country at 23 years old was like cutting the umbilical cord. It gave me the world, tools to handle myself, it gave me opportunities to meet fascinating people from different places. They are experiences that cannot be quantified, it is an intangible that adds up. I am very restless, very curious and I like new things.
News: Why did you return to your country?
Lacalle Pou: Because the last year I was living in Madrid I got married, it didn’t go well, I got divorced and returned to my country, where I had emotional and family support. I thought something was momentary, but it ended up being permanent.
Thanks:
Hotel Sofitel Recoleta
Grace Grisolía PR
