Pilar del Río deposited books and manuscripts of the Portuguese Nobel Prize for Literature in the presence of the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa
A small library with crucial manuscripts and books in the life of José Saramago (1922-2010) is now part of the rich heritage of the Cervantes Institute’s Caja de las Letras. In a solemn act, the writer’s widow, Pilar del Río, introduced several books, manuscripts and documents in the 1670 box of the vault of the Cervantes headquarters. Saramago is the second author of Portuguese expression present in the Caja de las Letras, after the Brazilian Nélida Piñón.
Del Río introduced the legacy in the presence of the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and on a day as important as April 25, a date of great symbolism in Portugal, since it commemorates the Carnation Revolution, a date that marks the reestablishment of democracy in Portugal 48 years ago.
Saramago’s widow, translator of his works into Spanish and president of the José Saramago Foundation, deposited a first edition of ‘História do futuro’, by Father Vieira, recalling that “Saramago stated that no one had written as well in Portuguese as this Jesuit”. She also proofs ‘What will I do with this book?’ a play by Saramago whose subject is Camoes’ attempts to publish ‘Os Lusíadas’. “It’s a way for Camoes to be in the Caja de las Letras,” del Río said.
He attached a 1986 phone book from Saramago; an envelope from the Foundation with poems by Saramago dedicated to Don Quixote, Sancho, Dulcinea and Cervantes; The latest edition in Spanish of ‘Raised from the ground’; a folder with texts by Saramago on authors in Spanish such as García Márquez, Cortázar, Fuentes, Donoso, and also one on Fernando Pessoa, “so that he also has some presence in the Caja.”
The event was attended by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, and of Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta; the Secretary of State for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Juan Fernández Trigo and the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero.
The delivery of the legacy was followed by a round table Tribute to José Saramago’ with Carlos Reis, curator of the Saramago Year and professor at the University of Coimbra; Antonio Sáez Delgado, professor and translator at the University of Évora; in addition to Pilar del Río and Luis García Montero himself.
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