A spiritualist ceremony that takes place in the southern region of the island, the murder of the three people who participate in the rite, and a Puerto Rican Police sergeant about to retire who is ordered to carry out the investigation. These are some of the elements of the film Coronation Mass, based on the novel of the same name by Puerto Rican writer Juan López Bauzá, which the Los Angeles, California production house, Hirsch Giovanni Entertainment (HGE), hopes to film on the island at end of next year.

"A feature film set in Puerto Rico, which will be filmed in Spanish with local talent, says HGE development manager Alexandra Carbone, who highlights that they had been studying different texts for some time, until they read López Bauzá's and decided it was what they wanted.

“We wanted something that was authentic. I have known Juan for decades and I contacted him when he was writing his new novel, which is a detective thriller and, based on the fact that I know his writings and their quality, we chose the text and we are very happy in terms of the fact that it is going to be a film that can only be filmed in Puerto Rico, which is about Puerto Rico and is related to the culture and its political reality,” says Carbone in an exclusive interview with El Nuevo Día, along with López Bauzá and the Puerto Rican screenwriter Ray Figueroa, who worked with the hit Netflix series, Nicky Jam: El Ganador, and in the YouTube original series, Bravas.

“We are very interested in finishing the script, filming in Puerto Rico and having as much local talent as we can in terms of acting, music and anything we can hire that is Puerto Rican. The film has its own rhythm and although we are still in a very early process, we want to do it as best as possible, but we hope to start at the end of 2022,” adds Carbone.

For López Bauzá it is “very flattering” that even before publishing their fourth novel they “have been interested in filming a movie.” That's why he believes that, more than anything, the production company was interested in the complexity of the topics covered.

“It is not just a police or detective novel and, as we discovered along the way, it is also a kind of paranormal or esoteric thriller if we speak from faith,” explains López Bauzá.

In fact, the writer addresses Santeria and spiritualism in the novel, topics that he knows very closely because he has been a babalao for more than 20 years. (The babalao or babalawo is a person initiated into a deity called Ifá and is one of the highest titles in the Yoruba religion). “This is a very profound topic and it has taken me many years, as a practicing babalao - I am not a theorist - to go deeply into this religion to be able to speak in a responsible manner,” says López Bauzá, winner of the third edition of the Las Premios. Américas for the best Latin American narrative for his novel “Barataria.”

Precisely, the writer explains that he began writing Coronation Mass after publishing Barataria, in 2012, but then interrupted it to write The Shining of Luzbella, published in 2018.

“(With Coronation Mass) I enter new territory in terms of writing. Until now I was writing literary novels that have other requirements and structures,” says the writer, after pointing out that it was not until the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 that he resumed writing this novel.

Even so, López Bauzá includes data related to daily sociopolitical life in Puerto Rico. For example, he says that the protagonist - Sergeant Luna - is about to retire, very disappointed with justice on the island "with that figure we have that only two out of ten cases reach court." “He is about to return to his old passion, which was writing detective novels. But just at that moment there is a massacre between Peñuelas and Ponce and they call him for the investigation.”

According to the writer, it is a crime that occurred in a Santeria ceremony that is prior to the coronation of a saint or what is known as a coronation mass or a spiritualist mass. “In the middle of that, two gunmen enter and kill the three people there. “There is a girl outside who also dies from a stray bullet.”

López Bauzá highlights that, although the novel takes place in the “underworld,” it has all the elements related to Santeria and spiritualism, topics that, in his opinion, in Puerto Rico are known in a very superficial way and “closer to superstition and folklore.” On the other hand, in the novel there are “some very important discussions about what these religions are and what they really mean.”

For screenwriter Ray Figueroa, it is a very interesting job and different from what he has done until now. He highlights, for example, that it is the first time that he not only works with an extensive novel, but that he has also been able to work on the script with the author's hand.

“I was reading Barataria when they asked me to work with Juan on the script. Having him so close has made this adaptation work not only a super rich experience because the story is very good and at the same time being able to question why this happened, give my options for changes and for him to participate. I think that the film can be as genuinely close as possible to the novel and the original work,” says Figueroa, who highlights that the seriousness with which the topic of African religions is addressed is noticeable from the beginning.

“It is not an anthropological point of view, but it comes from someone who lives it and knows it. From these descriptions, what we try to do is that the authenticity of the novel can be reflected in the film, in addition to the images that can be seen. (Santería) is part of our culture and I think that of all the difficulties that there may be in a genre novel like this, adapting that is the easiest. The way Juan did it, it is very difficult to make a mistake,” says Figueroa.