Viggo Mortensen, “el argentino”

I have Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s Capitán Alatriste books on my mind these days because El Ministerio del Tiempo, the Spanish TV show I’m currently enjoying on Netflix, has a running joke about a time-traveler from the 1500s (played by Nacho Fresneda) who resembles Pérez-Reverte’s swashbuckling hero.

The Alatriste doppelganger specifically reminded me of an amusing conversation I had a few years ago with Lorena, a friendly Mexican woman who used to have a coffee kiosk near my train station. I frequently picked up a cup of coffee there and, naturally, would also enjoy a chat in Spanish.

One morning I happened to have the first volume of the Alatriste series with me when I picked up my coffee. I showed it to Lorena and she instantly recognized the handsome man on the cover. “Es el argentino,” she said.

This tickled my funny bone since she was referring to Viggo Mortensen, who played Alatriste in a movie based on the series, and who is actually Danish-American. Mortensen lived in Argentina when he was a young boy, returning with his American mother to the United States at age 11. It’s impressive that he’s held onto his Spanish…and his Argentinian accent.

Coincidentally, my son Aaron just sent me this clip of Viggo Mortensen speaking six languages, including Spanish:

If you look on YouTube you will find similar videos of him speaking other numbers of languages. Wouldn’t it be great if all Americans were multilingual?

Even more coincidentally, I recently rewatched Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, starring Mortensen as Aragon. He was perfect for the role — and in a few scenes, speaks Elvish.

3 thoughts on “Viggo Mortensen, “el argentino”

  1. Daniel

    Wow! I have more respect for Viggo than ever! It’s one thing to speak several Romance or Germanic languages, but he does the Romance, Germanic, and some Arabic!!

    Reply
    1. jhochberg Post author

      I speak Hebrew (not too well). Learning a non-Indo-European language is mind-blowing — I recommend it.

      Reply
  2. macarena

    In Argentina and Latinoamerica we considere someone latino when born or is raised here and that person loves the culture so for us and viggo he is Argentinian and Latino. he continues with the culture he experimented and lived

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Daniel Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *