Invaded by memories and words of gratitude from her colleague and friend, the narrator Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012), the writer mexican Elena Poniatowska received the Carlos Fuentes International Award for Literary Creation in the Spanish Language, in the Main Room of the Palace of Fine Arts.
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“Carlos Fuentes He was a winner in a country that tended to the vision of the defeated, as Ángel María Garibay documented and ratified. Miguel Leon Portilla. As for me, I receive the prize which he sends me with a wink: ‘There you go, Poni, I had it saved for you.’ I never believed that I would live longer than him or that José Emilio Pacheco, Carlos Monsiváis and Vicente Rojomy co-workers at the newspaper Mexico in Culture”said the 91-year-old journalist.
The narrator He emphasized to the jury that with this award, granted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the Secretary of Culture “In reality, they also reward the characters that I have embraced over seventy years,” which were transcribed in iconic books, both fiction and non-fiction, including extensive journalistic texts The night of Tlatelolco (1971); Nothing, nobody. The voices of tremor (1988) and All of Mexico (2003); as well as the story book At night you come (1979) or the novel Tiny (1992).
“Starting in 1953, I intended keep record to Mexico in thousands of fervent pages that cover characters that impacted me: from Alfonso Reyes to the high school student in Coyoacán, from María Félix to Jesusa Palancares, who, together with several soldiers, paralyzed the entire Mexican Republic by lying down with her petticoats on the rails and managed to prevent, during the Revolution Mexicana, the start of the locomotive,” he explained.
DESPITE THE FEAR OF REJECTION
The writer of Until I see you my Jesus (1969), took advantage of his speech to highlight the work of Mexican women that “despite the fear of rejection” they have launched themselves into writing, following the example of authors such as Rosario Castellanos, Elena Garro, Josefina Vicens or Guadalupe Dueñas; although she regretted that even the lack of recognition of other authors, such as Nelli Campobello“The only one author of the Mexican Revolution”, of whom it is unknown where she was buried.
“Throughout 70 years, I never abandoned the why, where, when and how, the first questions of the journalism. Maybe I would have had more self-confidence if I was born in Mexico, but they brought me from Paris and I still ask the same questions. Looking at it, my life has been an immense question mark and now I keep wondering how to do things and what is going to happen to Mexico, what is going to be the fate of my 10 grandchildren and that of all the children of our country,” he said. the author.
SOURCES, A WIND OF FREEDOM
After reporting that he met Carlos Fuentesin the fifties of the last century, “when we still did not know what our vocation would be,” Poniatowska highlighted his keen knowledge of the universal and Mexican culturewhich helped to understand more precisely the meaning and consequences of the Mexican Revolution and the development of these during Institutional Mexico.
As a funny and wise man, author of novels and books of stories milestones of the mexican literature as The masked days (1958), The most transparent region (1958) or Terra nostra (1975); The chronicler highlighted the importance of Fuentes for the history of the mexican literatureof which she was a witness and accomplice.
“Fuentes was the most willing to go out of himself, to risk it and to recognize others, because he couldn’t get enough of the gifts that his own talent sparked. […] More than other great Mexicans, he represented for the generation of the fifties, the emergence of a wind of freedom. Son of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, no sun melted his slopes, no ‘nopal curtain’ prevented him from crossing the oceans, no criticism managed to stop his upward path.
MURALISTS OF MEXICAN LITERATURE
As part of the panel that accompanied the ceremony Poniatowskahe writer and historian Javier Garcíadiego, who was a member of the jury, said that this recognition of the writer “it is an act of justice”, which emphasizes the greatness that unites them
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“Sources and Elena Poniatowska They are the greatest muralists of the mexican literature. In her works the largest number of compatriots are drawn, especially women in the case of Elena. There is no relevant topic that they have not been interested in, there is no significant issue that they have overlooked. “Both were concerned about the country’s wounds,” said Garcidiego, who, as a historian, highlighted the work of Poniatowska as an interviewer.
The journalist Silvia Lemus, widow and broadcaster of the construction site Carlos Fuentes gave the award to Poniatowskar; The Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, also attended on behalf of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador; the Secretary of Culture Alejandra Frausto, and the writer Rosa Beltránholder of the Cultural Diffusion Coordination from UNAM. With information from Froylan Escobar Lara