Tuesday, May 6, 2025, 08:30
The writer Almudena Grandes, (Madrid 1960-2021) awarded the National Narrative Prize in 2018, has been honored posthumously by the City of Alpujarra de la Sierra at its III Book Fair. The husband of Almudena, the writer, poet, a graduate in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Granada and director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and the mayor of this municipality, José Antonio Gómez, were in charge of inaugurating the reading corner of Almudena Grandes in the Municipal Public Library Don Pío Navarro, located in Mecina Bombarón. Many people from inside and outside the Alpujarra were present in this emotional act. The duo Gómez Valero acted, formed by Ramón Gómez (cello) and Pilar Valero (piano).
Luis García Montero showed his thanks to the first authority of Alpujarra de la Sierra for remembering the figure of his wife. Almudena Grande’s widower said, among other things, that Almudena Grandes “became aware of her illusion for literature because one day her grandfather gave her an edition for children of Ulysses and she when reading it was excited because she understood that literature was an adjustment with life. Almudena was a chubby girl and when Christmas holidays were made at school they never chosen her as a virgin or so followed as an little angel, they always chose her as a shepherd in the middle of a flock so she did not attract much attention and, well, she was a little tired of being called fat and that they laugh at her because she was a chubby girl. And in that edition he found the adventure of Ulysses. As it returns from Troy and how it reaches his house, how there are many people who wanted to seize the money from Penelope and as suddenly Ulysses, when he manages to return out of all prognosis, take an arc and some arrows and end up with all those who wanted to leave him with nothing and manage to restore his illusion of life and happiness. And for Almudena literature was that, the need to adjust accounts with life and defend one’s illusions, ”he recalled.
Luis García Montero, referring to the municipality of Alpujarra de la Sierra, said that “it seems very important to me that there is a town that becomes a book, because it serves not to close their eyes, it serves to want that we want to defend by joining our history with our future. That is what I have lived in Mecina Bombarón and that is what has taught me literature since I dedicate myself to her as a poet and as a teacher. And that was dedicated to Almudena when he discovered that Ulysses could adjust accounts with those who wanted to harm him. And that’s why he started writing in a world that was trying to get out of a dictatorship. And he understood very soon that leaving a dictatorship is not to be able to vote every four years. It was, for example, asking for equality between men and women and for that committing it was not just to support a strike or demonstration on May 1, it was also to fight for the transformation of a sentimental education. And he wrote a novel: ‘Madrid escape’, in 1989, which was a great success, he sold a lot, there were translations and became so famous that one day he raised not to confuse creation with the seeing cheap. She did not want to be a writer of successes, but of quality and then wrote ‘I will call you on Friday’ and there I started to fall in love with her because I admired a successful woman who wanted to be first and foremost a quality author, “he said.
José Antonio Gómez said, among other things, that “we wanted to honor Almudena Grandes because he deserves it. We want the people to be a spear and reference point throughout the Alpujarra region, and Luis García Montero, I am sure it will continue to help us so that our cultural project is a reality. I appreciate the assistance of all the people who have come to this act, but fundamentally, the presence of Luis García Montero, who is making the Castilian letters an international reference as director of the Cervantes Institute. My thanks for its presence in our land. Almudena Grande was a great woman and a great literature and from now on she has a space in our municipal library so that she is always remembered and read in our municipality, ”said the mayor of Alpujarra de la Sierra, a municipality formed by Mecina Bombarón, Yegen and El Golco and the Village of Montenegro.
In the III Book Fair there was also a Moorish breakfast; Presentation of literary novelties by its authors; books of books and crafts; A theatrical literary route through the streets of Mecina Bombarón with a special tribute to Federico García Lorca and its presence in the Alpujarra with reading poems by the president of the Juan Gutiérrez Padial Cultural Association, Fernando Rubio and Musical Fund of Guitar by the Great José Vílchez, of Cáñar; Mixed rice prepared by Ohanes chefs for the benefit of the Commission of the Fiestas de San Miguel and the Virgen de los Remedios de Mecina Bombarón; Ludoteca with children’s activities; Performance of the great flamenco picture ‘Nazarí Duende’, composed of great singer José, Rafa, Antonio. Pili and Isa; the musical group ‘Why not’ and concert of versions by the musical group ‘Funkorama’. There was also a photographic exhibition entitled ‘Cal y Luz’ and the presentation of the book ‘Coordinates’, written by J. Ruiz Munuera. In all acts, the deputy mayor, José Antonio Múrcia, was also present.
