The magic of reading and those who make books flew over this Thursday Plenary Hall from old Consistory of San Marcelo with the two-voice proclamation given by the writer and academic José María Merino And your daughter Anaas a prologue to the 46th edition of the León Book Fair. Both writers showed their satisfaction at being able to be again in a city of which José María is the Adopted Son and with which Ana maintains that emotional bond that is acquired in childhood and that never disappears. “We are happy to be here and be able to share our love of books,” declared Ana Merino. “In addition to the fact that this desire for reading and for books is still alive, because it seems that new technologies think that books are going to disappear,” José María reiterated.
Regarding the content of the proclamation, both authors announced their intention to highlight the importance of reading in a province where literature has always been very present, crowned this year with the Cervantes Prize to the Lacianiego writer and personal friend of both, Luis Mateo Diez.
José María Merino recognized the importance of having a family environment conducive to the emergence of a literary vocation at an early age. «First, a grandfather who brought the family together on Saturdays and we had what we called a filandón. Then my father thought that the library is the greatest wealth that a family can have, a very rich library where I started reading since I was a child. “My passion for reading was born there,” acknowledges the author of ‘The Place Without Guilt’.
Ana Merino believes that her decision to become a writer has been influenced by the luck of having “the workshop at home” and seeing someone who transmits that passion for fiction to you every day. «The luck of having a writer father is formidable. You see someone dedicated to writing and it transmits to you that passion for invention, for fiction, for constructing a story. And also the responsibility of reading, of having a formidable library and of fighting for one to read. Genetics predisposes you to some things but having books guarantees it.
For the mayor Jose Antonio Diez, José María and Ana Merino are an integral part of that León Brand for which this city is known throughout the world and of which we are not always fully aware. After the proclamation, the delegation moved to the fairgrounds located one more year on the central avenue of Ordoño II.
