Arrugas

Set in a retirement home in Valencia, Spanish strip cartoonist Paco Roca’s graphic novel Arrugas (2007) tracks the friendship of two elderly men, Emilio and Miguel. Emilio is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, while Miguel simply has no family to care for him; their different life paths shape their attitudes toward old age but also become complementary sources of strength as they grow closer. Highly acclaimed in Spain, the graphic novel has been translated into many languages. It was adapted into a Spanish animated drama film of the same name (translated in English as Wrinkles), in 2011.

The novel begins on Emilio’s first day at a nursing home. He is dropped off by his son, who tearfully tells him that he will be happier where he can get adequate care. Giving him only a brief farewell, he leaves. Additional panels give background on Emilio’s life: Once a successful banker, he is now in early cognitive decline and has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Emilio is placed in a room with Miguel, an outgoing resident who is happy to give him a tour of the home. Miguel, who has never been married or had children, lives without family in his old age. Rather than avoid the difficult realities of his predicament, Miguel speaks candidly about getting old and the frustrations of daily life in the nursing home. On the surface, the home seems a bit more idyllic than it really is: nobody uses the pool, which exists mainly to make families feel better about where they are enrolling their loved ones. Miguel makes small amounts of money charging fees to residents with memory loss who wish to get tasks done. For example, he charges a woman a regular toll to use the phone to call her son to ask him to pick her up. Each time, she forgets to place the call. Miguel lives with his con operation, seeing that it brings the residents momentary hope that they will get home.

Miguel gives Emilio just one warning: to avoid the top floor of the nursing home, which is reserved for residents who can no longer care for themselves. The residents on the top floor are routinely restrained in their bedrooms and kept docile with medication. One ailing resident, Modesto, is protected by his wife, Dolores, who strives to keep him off the top floor. The floor thus symbolizes despair and alienation for some, being the place one goes when one’s family fades away. A resident named Antonia rejects this view of the top floor. She asserts that she has chosen it in order not to be a difficult burden for her loved ones.



One morning, Emilio wakes up and realizes that he has lost his wallet. Miguel offers to help him look for it later in the day, after their regularly scheduled gym time. The two revel in gym time, because it means they can trick their female therapist into bending over by repeatedly dropping the ball. On a different day, Emilio loses his watch. While searching the room, he decides to search Miguel’s cigar box; he finds no watch, but instead a stash of money and pills. Miguel returns while he is searching and grows angry over Emilio’s breach of their friendship. He explains that the money is for independence and that the pills are for “self-deliverance,” or suicide. He offers to share the pills with Emilio, should his memory loss ever bring him unbearable suffering. Emilio replies that he would never accept.

Several seasons pass, until one day, Emilio cannot bear the nursing home any longer and devises a plot to leave. With the help of Miguel and Antonia, who both want to escape as well, they escape the home one night in a stolen car. They crash the car, abruptly ending their brief feeling of freedom. Emilio’s injuries are severe enough that, combined with his worsening memory loss, the nursing home staff relocate him to the top floor. Antonia returns to her room, luckily with just a broken arm. Miguel returns to his room and pulls out his bag of pills, spilling them on the floor. While he picks them up, he notices a black sock sticking out from Emilio’s mattress. The sock conceals Emilio’s missing wallet and watch. Miguel realizes that Emilio must have distrusted him and hidden his valuables before forgetting. His perception of his role dramatically shifts; realizing that his actions have caused emotional harm, he commits to helping his fellow residents in the future.