Yesterday afternoon, a crowd of people took part in the presentation of the book Andando la ciudad by the journalist and writer María Celeste Mendaro, edited and published by the Editorial of the National University of Entre Ríos (Eduner).
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The work brings together writings by the author published between 1980 and 1990 for The newspaper from Paraná. There, Mendaro combined urban chronicles with interviews with former residents, neighbors, artisans, merchants, artists, fishermen, leaders and visitors.
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In conversation with ONE, Gustavo Esteban Martínez (director of Eduner) said: “What we did was present a book that we published in our Cuadernos de las Orillas collection. María Celeste Mendaro was a well-known journalist in the city, as well as a writer of fiction texts and more. We compiled a series of his notes and in this presentation we seek to recreate that idea through a dynamic of touring the city. That’s why we started the activity on the corner of Urquiza and San Martín streets, then we went to the 3 de Febrero Municipal Theater and ended at Eduner.” Those in charge of writing the introductory text to the book were Jorge Riani and Natalia Pandolfo. In addition, both participated in the tour and did brief readings of the book along the way.
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Maria Celeste Mendaro
María Celeste Mendaro was born on May 26, 1957 in the city of Nogoyá, province of Entre Ríos. She was a Professor of Letters at the National University of the Litoral and of French at the French Alliance of Paraná, she served as a Language and Literature teacher at the José Martí Middle School No. 7 of Paraná. In 1984 she started working at El Diario and from 1987 she began publishing a weekly interview section. Through the neighborhoods, under the wheel Walking the City, which she reflected every Saturday until 1994, the stories of the city’s inhabitants.
In addition, Mendaro won the first edition of the Paraná Municipal Literature Prize in 1993 for his book Orígenes y legados, which brings together twelve stories. Likewise, he also obtained a Mention in the Municipal Prize for Literature for his book of poems Guerreros de la noche in 1994. He also wrote articles on customs in the Local section, under the flyer Daily life, notes that were published every Sunday until 1999.
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In 1995 he obtained a Mention in the Municipal Literature Prize for his play De Don Federico Méndez y del Amor Eterno and in 1998 he won the Municipal Literature Prize for his novel Almuerzo. In 1999, being one of the most recognized writers in the region, the Entre Ríos Publishing House published Series en punto cruz, a book of nine stories with a prologue by Claudia Rosa. Her poems and stories have traveled the world. After an impeccable career and making friends everywhere, the author died on July 28, 2003 in Paraná.
Below is a text from the author about the Teatro Municipal 3 de Febrero. Behind the scenes conversation: “We have made Jorge Yarull, seventy-one years old, retired, from the Cuarteles neighborhood, come here, to this place that ‘stole’ forty-one years of his life. And the expression is not a coincidence, if one thinks that ‘the show must go on’ has unknown, forgotten protagonists: the employees of theaters and cinemas, mediators between magic and oneself. Those who are always there, even when everything has apparently ended. Yarull guides us through unknown places of the theater, through its ancient history that dates back to 1853, the time when Urquiza created a stage theater, in the same place it occupies today, since the time of its founding on October 18, 1908. governor of the province Faustino Parera. This is what a dusty plaque on the entrance wall of the Teatro 3 de Febrero in Paraná tells us. Yarull amazes us on his tour behind the stages, the dressing rooms, the pits under the stalls and the emergency tunnels in case of fire. We are amazed to imagine lions and elephants entering the tunnel through a ramp, or that the stalls have a mechanism that allows them to be placed at floor height and transformed into a circus ring, and we can still see them – as Yarull must have seen them – to the bars of the lions’ and tigers’ cages, today covered by a plaster that fails to conceal their limits.”
María Celeste Mendaro’s book is for sale at Eduner (Andrés Pazos 406) and through the website eduner.uner.edu.ar at a value of 11,000 pesos. And in Ebook format it has a value of 5,950 pesos.
