Fina García Marruz receives
Queen Sofía Prize

THE simple, minimalist, discreet but universal poetry of Fina García Marruz places her name alongside those of José Hierro, José Angel Valente, Angel González, Mario Benedetti and Nicanor Parra. García Marruz is now a winner of the Queen Sofía Ibero-American Poetry Prize.

The Queen of Spain presided over the presentation of the award bearing her name, which exceptionally took place in the University of Salamanca auditorium and not in the Royal Palace, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of a prize which, this time, "has been given to a creator who serves eternal beauty," as her grandson, José Adrián Vitier, who received the prize on her behalf, stated.

Fina García Marruz was unable to travel to the capital of Salamanca for health reasons, but a little piece of Havana reached the University via an emotional speech the poetess recorded on video.

She emphasized that she was receiving the prize not as a personal one but as one of the figures of a generation particularly active in Cuban literature, which included her husband, Cintio Vitier, Julián Orbón, Eliseo Diego, Octavio Smith and Gastón Baquero. They gave added spice to the vitality of the pages of Orígenes, the legendary magazine so closely linked to María Zambrano, to whose memory Fina García Marruz also dedicated the prize in her recorded message.

"She came from the [Spanish] Civil War, from tragedy and brought us light, and our lives and words would have been others without the knowledge which María Zambrano instilled in the generation of Ramón Jiménez, Federico García Lorca and Rafael Alberti," the poetess recalled.

In her profoundly moving speech, García Marruz also noted the treasure of the cultural link between Spain and Cuba via language. An austere and simple Spanish with which she regaled the auditorium in one of her most famous poems, "If all the poems were lost/the fire would continue naming them endlessly/cleansed of all dross, and eternal poetry/would return roaring, once again, with the dawns."

It was the second time in the 20 years of the Queen Sofía Prize awarded by the University of Salamanca and the National Heritage that the ceremony took place in this academic institution. An occasion which the rector, Daniel Hernández Ruipérez, highlighted as "the most special."

In his speech, the rector defended the "magical" value of the word as represented in García Marruz’ work, emphasizing its strong social content. "In these times, in which we are talking of crisis at every step, her work vindicates the fact that poverty does not necessarily have to be experienced as a deprivation and that certain scarcities can signify freedom," he noted.

Ruipérez observed that in the face of a society of abundance, "Fina García makes an almost Franciscan apology for austerity; excess is not always the most recommendable, at times in life also it is true that less is more," he emphasized.

For his part, Nicolás Martínez-Fresno, president of the National Heritage Administration Council, highlighted in his speech the keys of Garcia Marruz’ poetry, and the presence of a language accessible to everyone. "She turns to regarding, to the individual, to discover the profound essence of things."