- In a day with a Cordoban accent, the notable poet and writer born in Villa María de Río Seco was evoked.
- The artist José Luis Serrano participated in the performance with his character Doña Jovita.
- There were readings of poems and references to the life of Lugones.
At the International Book Fair in the city of Buenos Aires, the poet and writer from Córdoba Leopoldo Lugones was remembered, who yesterday, May 3, marked the 150th anniversary of his birth.
With that tribute as its axis, Córdoba Day was celebrated at the institutional stand of the Córdoba Culture Agency at the Book Fair, where local publishers are present.
The day Lugones, his house and the birds of northern Córdoba, proposed reading poems by the author born in Villa María de Río Seco and references to his life.
The endearing Doña Jovita, played by José Luis Serrano, participated in the tribute.
In addition, audiovisual material was projected on the enhancement of the Córdoba writer’s birthplace carried out by the Córdoba Culture Agency last year.
Raúl Sansica, president of the Córdoba Culture Agency, Francisco Marchiaro, member of the agency, and the journalist and writer Alejandro Mareco were present.
Also participating were the poets and writers Leandro Calle and César Vargas who, together with the editor Ricardo Di Mario, wrote the book Alas, a fragment of the work The Book of Landscapes, in which Lugones dedicates his verses to the birds of northern Córdoba, his childhood landscape.
They were in charge of reading the poems and the words dedicated to the figure of the poet.
Raúl Sansica referred to the importance of the Book Fair: “It is essential to be present at these events that recognize the literary production chain. This connection achieves the humanized book.”
“Leopoldo Lugones is a writer from Córdoba who represents us in the world. Last year, the enhancement of Lugones’ birthplace in Villa María de Río Seco, in the north of Córdoba, was carried out. The promotion, appreciation and knowledge of reading and everyone’s access to books is always a public policy for the government of Córdoba”, he added.
A writer born in the capital of poetry
At the beginning of 2023, the Córdoba Culture Agency made a cultural commitment by revaluing the House Museums of the province, starting with that of the painter Fernando Fader, in the town of Ischilín, and continuing with the house of Leopoldo Lugones in Villa María de Río Seco, a town declared by the Legislature as the Capital of Poetry.
The house where the famous writer lived is located 175 km from Córdoba Capital, and preserves belongings of the poet, narrator and journalist who was born on June 13, 1874 and died on February 13, 1938.
The house has three large bedrooms and a colonial brick living room.
The museologist Marcela Fernández was in charge of the new design of the cultural space, which was thought of as a typical typology of the House Museums in which visitors look out to “spy” how, in this case, Leopoldo Lugones lived: “It is a small house which is divided into three large nuclei. On the one hand, there is the entrance from which two rooms open, one to the right and one to the left. The first, the greatest, is based on the importance of Lugones as a poet and writer. A timeline that recreates Lugones’s life reflects the years of his first poems and his masterpieces, as well as the context in the letters, politically and socially,” he said.
150 years after the birth of the Cordoban poet, the story, told through his brother Carlos, who managed to recover the writer’s birthplace later sold to the province for its cultural corridor, tells that Lugones always longed to return to Villa de María de Río Dry.
In the house there is also a recreation of the desk where the author wrote and some of his manuscripts can also be seen, such as the last writing, that of his suicide.
