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Among the content that will be safeguarded are glasses belonging to the intellectual from Alicante and three handwritten poems
The legacy of the intellectual from Alicante, Juan Gil-Albert, will have its place in La Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes. In conjunction with the 121st anniversary of his birth, the Instituto Alicantino de Cultura has organized an event at the headquarters of the Madrid center on April 1st, with the purpose of introducing some of his personal and artistic objects for the future.
This was announced on Monday by the President of the Diputación de Alicante, Toni Pérez, who stated that having Juan Gil-Albert be part of this educational and cultural proposal «is a pride for our province and for the provincial institution, both for what this means for the dissemination and recovery of the figure of the author from Alcoy, as well as for the visibility of our Instituto Alicantino de Cultura at the national level.»
Accompanied by the Deputy of Culture, Juan de Dios Navarro, and the director of the IAC, Cristina Martínez, the President of the provincial corporation explained that in 1983 the «unanimous decision» was made to name the IAC after the writer, «which is why spreading his figure and making known his work and trajectory is a natural objective of our cultural center, which stands as a vigilant beacon of an extraordinary heritage nourished by works, ideas, and literary arguments of artists, thinkers, scientists, and philosophers.»
It is, as detailed, «about opening and expanding his figure beyond our province and recovering his memory in the city where he developed part of his work, Madrid,» as reported by the provincial corporation in a statement.
On his part, the Deputy of Culture detailed the process followed to carry out this proposal, which began through conversations with the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero. «Negotiations began in 2024 and at the end of the year, the agreement and event were finalized,» detailed Juan de Dios Navarro, who highlighted the «admiration» that García Montero has for the work of Gil-Albert.
GLASSES AND POEMS
The event at La Caja de las Letras will take place on April 1st at 12:00 pm and will feature interventions by Toni Pérez and Luis García Montero. After the speeches, the personal legacy of Gil-Albert will be deposited, which consists of glasses belonging to the poet and essayist and three handwritten poems: one dated in 1935, ‘Epithalamium to the sister’; another dated in 1936, ‘Farewell to a year’ and, finally, ‘My nostalgia, homage to Játiva’, from 1964, all provided by his great-niece, Claudia Simón Aura.
From the Diputación de Alicante, a copy of the Canelobre Magazine dedicated to the writer and some photos of him will be delivered, while García Montero will entrust the box with some first editions of the author from Alcoy that are in his possession.
Subsequently, the actor Toni Misó will perform a reading of a brief part of the work ‘Valentín’, in the theatrical version by Juan Ramón Torregrosa, while a video with images of the writer is projected.
As Cristina Martínez has conveyed, La Caja de las Letras «now safeguards part of the legacy of essential personalities of Spanish and Latin American culture of our century and of all areas of creation.»
This historic armored vault has more than 1,800 safety boxes, some of them occupied by legacies of intellectuals such as Francisco Ayala, Antoni Tàpies, Margarita Salas, Luis García Berlanga, Cristóbal Halffter, Manuel Alexandre, Ana María Matute, Juan Marsé, Gabriel García Márquez, Luis de Pablo, Buero Vallejo, Eduardo Mendoza, Benedetti, Delibes, Unamuno, Francisco Brines, Joaquín Sabina, Ángela Molina, Enrique Morente, or Marisa Paredes.
He is the third person from Alicante to be part of this initiative, after Miguel Hernández and Vicente Molina Foix, as Cristina Martínez has indicated, who has stated that this proposal «represents a milestone for the IAC, for the Diputación, and for the province, and also in a city, Madrid, that meant so much to Gil-Albert.»
