The two treated him and are more than authorized voices to talk about Rafael Alberti, the Cadiz and universal poet who is paid tribute in Granada, in a congress that vindicates his figure, commemorates the centenary of his ‘Sailor on land’ and rescues other authors of the Generation of ’27. The analysis of Fanny Rubio and Manuel Francisco Reina It is precise, accurate and deep. They complement each other, qualify each other, clarify each other, converge in their love for the artist, for the lyrics and their transformative capacity.
Q: At the opening of the congress, its director, Remedios Sánchez, spoke of the permanent validity of Alberti. How do they value it?
Fanny Rubio: The word would be normalization. Finally, its presence in contemporary Spanish culture has been normalized. It is there, with full powers of everything it means, as a reflection of poetics, as an assimilator of all the previous tradition, symbolist, avant-garde and traditional, and then there is that kind of mental harp that it has, that converts everything into in music.
Q: Does normalization also imply assuming that Alberti belongs to everyone, like Lorca?
FR: Alberti belongs to everyone, always, but there are those who do not see it and do not admit its prevalence. There will always be rejection from some, less enlightened than they should be. Rafael always maintained the separation of powers. The poet is a poet and is everyone’s heritage, poetry does not admit colonization.
Manuel Francisco Reina: When he returns in the transition he says: «I left with a closed fist and I return with the open hand of harmony. That was a declaration of principles. He was a communist militant since 1930, but he was very clear that democracy was above and that culture had to be a point of consensus and meeting. He agreed to run as a deputy, although he did not want to, because he was a poet above all, it is evident proof of his civic commitment. The famous photo of Alberti with Dolores Ibárruri descending the stairs of the chamber united more people than many campaigns and rallies. He was an advance aesthetically and intellectually and this congress finally puts him in the place where he always was, but from where they have tried to move him. There are those who say that they tried to ‘rightize’ him. In the Letters for Concord he met with Pemán, but he died as a communist. Five days after 23-F, he gave the proclamation of the Cádiz Carnival. They wanted to cancel it and he said no. And Pemán, of whom he had been a political enemy, went down to hug him. It is said that he was a social poet, but his commitment was civic.
FR: It is a symbol of the transition, that pivotal moment in which a new world was opening. And he gives up a lot of things to be a central figure. When they gave him the San Fernando award from the San Fernando Academy, Queen Sofía was there. And he told her: “This queen takes the flower that the others don’t.” He maintains his republican outlook, but appreciates the gesture.
Q: At the closing of the congress there will be young people reading Alberti, it seems like a brilliant way to transmit his legacy.
FR: There is no choice but to have the school in front of everyone, so that in the school generations are born that know how to think, doubt, create, that have a concept of beauty and the other. They have to teach all that in school.
MFR: It is a success, because like every great poet, Alberti never loses his inner child. That is why his books connect so much with children, who are incorruptible readers.
FR: It connects because it works with short poetry, verse, and seemingly easy and catchy rhyme. The children choose Alberti over others to repeat it, to ask: “Why, mother, did you bring me?” Why is always the child’s question.
Q: The congress is also presented as a vindication of other authors of the Generation of ’27. It seems fair, right?
FR: Those in the Ateneo photo were close friends. Rafael had an enormous friendship with Federico García Lorca, he called him his cousin, but also with Altolaguirre or María Zambrano. There were some central figures there, but they all loved each other and related to each other.
MFR: There are more direct poets, like Alberti, who was ahead of everyone by claiming Góngora, Garcilaso, Becquer. Others need more rest. In this moment of immediacy there are poets who do need a more calm reading, like Alexandre. It is a success that this congress vindicates them.
FR: Although Cernuda or Guillén later gained fame, Rafael from very early on said that he is Nordic, as a tribute to Gustavo Adolfo. In his work are music, the minor art poem, the song, ‘On the Angels’, the first surrealist book in Spain. He also owes Juan Ramón Jiménez, whom he greatly admires.
MFR: Other poets inherit aesthetic and ideological slogans from Rafael, what would later be called social poetry, which usually expires because it is born in a specific sociopolitical context. While Alberti does not, because he always takes into account that literature is on the margins, although sometimes it overlaps.
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