• Cervantes Prize 2022 Rafael Cadenas, witness of the dignity of Venezuela
  • Opinion Rafael Cadenas, poems chanted against Chavismo

"This is an honor beyond me." It was said by the poet Rafael Cadenas, 93 years old, from the chair of the auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares. He is the first Venezuelan author (essayist, translator) to receive the Cervantes Prize. Cadenas appeared almost slight with his two children and aboard a suit without pomp, without a tie, with a vest, in pieces of two blues. And little else. "This is an honor that surpasses me," I insist. By then the Kings had arrived in the courtyard of Santo Tomás de Villanueva. It had also sounded and anthem of Spain.

The Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, had given the corresponding speech. The general director of the Book, María José Gálvez, read the certificate of awarding the Cervantes Prize. Felipe VI presented the accrediting medal and, then, yes, one of the most timid living poets in the world said that first sentence: "... an honor that surpasses me."

Cadenas is one of the leading poets in Spanish — "language is the first link," he says--. A silent teacher. An obsessive writer. A citizen who in his own way denounces abuses of the Chavista regime for two decades. At some point he thought about leaving Venezuela, like so many millions of women and men, but he considered that the place of his word was there. The word with which to denounce disappointments, abuses, crime, censorship. Cervantes also recognizes all this, not only writing, not only the trace of a soft and convulsive heart, but also resistance. And the complicity of a language from which Cadenas says everything he wants to say. "I'm full of Spain." To which Felipe VI replies: "The work of Cadenas is that of a great modern poet. That of someone who does not want 'style, but honesty', an invaluable ambition; An aspiration that involves 'rectitude of mind, integrity in action'... Poetizing about an extreme experience speaks of the mood of a poetry that would also like to understand, if there are any, the reasons for evil."

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Cervantes Prize 2023.

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  • Writing: ANTONIO LUCAS Madrid

Rafael Cadenas: "I can't talk about Venezuela, I'm fasting from information"

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Rafael Cadenas, witness of the dignity of Venezuela, wins the Cervantes Prize 2022

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Rafael Cadenas, witness of the dignity of Venezuela, wins the Cervantes Prize 2022

And he explains winds up his words with the immense cadence of his voice, with his hands somewhat vibrant, with his eyes under the usual bangs (arranged today to one side). "Language would be the first link, then in consonance with it, his literature that I have read assiduously." And he recalled how his Spanish widened with the friction with migrants who left the Canary Islands for Venezuela ("today the misfortune is reversed although not because of any war," he says).

Some of those Spanish exiles were teachers of the young Cadenas. "That was the best time of our education," he says. And remember how that educational 'revolution' of which Venezuela was the vanguard for a few years, and part of its "splendor", was falling to the ground. "Here comes the discouraging opinion of Karl Jaspers: he affirms that there is no valid conception of the world, which leaves us out in the open, but in turn forces us to investigate. He had two fears: one of totalitarianism and one of the bomb. It is paradoxical, by the way, that the most civilized nations are among the leading arms manufacturers. It's a very thriving industry."

And then Cadenas passes to Cervantes, and to 'Don Quixote', and to his squire with donkey, "which in my view," he explains, "has been underestimated by the Quixotists and represents the real, so probably our time enhances it since we are witnessing a revaluation of ordinary life, because in it is also the mystery ... The imprint of Don Quixote was on the believers of the utopia that would fix everything and ended in disappointment. It is known that nationalisms, ideologies and creeds divide human beings, but in this time the world should be cosmopolitan; it already in a way it is, but it is opposed by the factors I have mentioned, especially nationalism, which according to Einstein is the measles of humanity."

That is why Cadenas defends the strength of the language, because in it the traps and the best ideas travel indistinctly. And only in words do they make room. And only in words are they dismantled. The Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, highlights Cadenas as a creator "determined to give conciseness to a language that in his opinion demands to be attended, questioned, renewed, defended. He denounces the battered Spanish these days. And, as Orwell states, "the current political chaos is related to the decay of language and... we could achieve some improvement if we started with the verbal."

And from the verbal you get to what matters. Rafael Cadenas, the poet Cadenas, is weighed down by what matters to him. "It is important to defend democracy from everything that lurks and for this it is necessary to recreate it," says the author of 'Intemperie'. "It is needed in countries where there is a pedagogy that strengthens it. It must be internalized, become transparent, give primacy to the social by abolishing poverty, support culture. This is not a dream, but everyone's job." Hence the quote to that of Cervantes with which he closes the speech of reception of Cervantes: "Freedom, Sancho, is one of the most precious gifts that men gave to the heavens ...".

For these intentions and certainties, Iceta recognizes that Cadenas is, above all, "a man of radical ethics and integrity, both in his walk and in his literature. A committed voice, of a consequent honesty, that knows the exact words to defend the human being from authoritarianism, the lack of freedoms and the violation of human rights. His figure summons and brings together a country scattered throughout the world."

The Gaudeamos Igitur was missing and arrived before Rafael Cadenas now returns to the Patio de los Filósofos, where protocol falls very slowly and people talk to people.

  • Venezuela
  • Philip VI
  • Canary Islands
  • poetry
  • literature
  • Articles Antonio Lucas
  • Letizia Ortiz

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