Luis García Montero received the Carlos Fuentes International Prize at the Fine Arts

The Spanish poet and essayist Luis García Montero (Granada, 1958) dedicated the Carlos Fuentes International Prize for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language to his wife, the writer Almudena Grandes, and to his friend, the Mexican writer and journalist Cristina Pacheco, both deceased, which was presented to him yesterday at the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Almudena was and still is a wonderful woman. Cristina was and still is a wonderful woman. I begin with a touching memory, because I want to dedicate this award to my friend Cristina Pacheco, but also because it seems to me a clear way of explaining the emotion I feel on receiving one of the highest distinctions of Mexican culture, a culture that through the book of life and the life of books forms a very intimate part of myself.

The director of the Cervantes Institute also stated the above after reading an email message, dated December 4, that the Mexican author sent him to say goodbye formally, since what we abominably call terminal illness prevents me from moving forward.

As he did earlier in a meeting with the Mexican press, García Montero referred to the influence that Mexican literature has had on him, a country that he recognizes and admires for its solidarity in providing asylum to refugees from the Spanish Civil War during the government of Lázaro Cárdenas.

After mentioning names like Rubén Bonifaz Nuño and Jaime Sabines in poetry, he alluded to the narrative of Carlos Fuentes, who he said nourished his literary vocation thanks to reading stories like The most transparent region, The death of Artemio Cruz o Old gringo, and that also taught him to understand the relations between Spain and Mexico, as well as to value details of Cervantes’ work with his book Cervantes and the criticism of reading.

I understand that this prize is, above all, a recognition of poetry, of that literary form of witnessing the world from one’s own human intimacy. I owe to poetry the desire to question myself, the possibility of understanding the relationships of my self with the we of a community and the need for calm, the alliance of a time of mine, to become the owner of what I hear and what I say.held.

The academic spoke to the media at length and generously for almost an hour. He touched on topics such as his origins in poetry, his animosity towards the Franco dictatorship, his poetic influences such as García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda and all those poets who had to go into exile after the coup d’état of Francisco Franco and the subsequent dictatorship.

The Spanish It is not a language of the poor

After reaffirming that the Spanish language It is from its speakers and that diversity must therefore be respected, the academic argued that the way to defend the extension of a language is give prestige and, in that vein, he called on the Latino community in the United States to show Donald Trump that he is not a language of the poornot only economically, but also because of cultural tradition and social values.

The award ceremony was chaired by the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Leonardo Lomelí; Marina Nuñez Bespalova, federal undersecretary of Culture; Silvia Lemus, widow of Carlos Fuentes, and the writer Elmer Mendoza, representing the jury.

As winner of the Fuentes Prize, Luis García Montero was awarded a diploma, a sculpture by Vicente Rojo, the last one made by the artist of Catalan origin, and an amount equivalent to 125 thousand dollars.