“Your father’s voice continues to challenge us,” the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, said yesterday to an emotional Carmina Andrés, daughter of Vicent Andrés Estellés and president of the Centennial events for the poet’s birth. Urtasun traveled to Valencia on Tuesday and visited the Fallas – where he already spoke with Andrés at the foot of the falla that, in the Plaza de la Reina, a commission dedicated to the poet – and yesterday he staged the support of the Executive for a celebration that in the The Valencian Community has not been exempt from controversy due to Vox’s veto. “It was the Ministry’s obligation to join in. If other Administrations have decided not to do so, they are the ones who have to give explanations,” said the minister, without wanting to go further.
His presentation, more than specifying the events to be celebrated – which his cabinet did do afterwards – became a sample of the Executive’s public support for a “capital” figure of Valencian “and Spanish” literature, the minister remarked. “The Government of Spain is clear that Vicent Andrés Estellés is a great heritage of our literature and that is why we want to pay him a tribute worthy of what he deserves,” he added.
With the presence of representatives from Compromís and PSPV, the division between left and right was evident. “If they want the culture to be white, we are going to tell them that Valencian culture is plural and diverse like that of the Spanish State,” said the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, who accused the Consell of the Popular Party and Vox of applying “policies retrograde” in the face of which the Government will act as a “containment dam”.
Meanwhile, yesterday in Corts Valencianes, the president of the Generalitat Valenciana, Carlos Mazón, praised the figure of Vicent Andrés Estellés and pointed out that it is not so important to create an “Estellés Year” if later, as has happened with the “Sempere Year”, It is not provided with content and budget.
The program of events planned by the Ministry of Culture will begin today, Poetry Day, with a reading of poems on social networks both by Estellés and other poets whose lives and works are also celebrated this year such as Joan Salvat-Papasseit, Vicente Aleixandre and Rafael Alberti.
On March 27, the 31st anniversary of Estellés’ death, the Estellés inside and outside round table will take place in the Library of the Ateneo de Madrid. The activity, which will be streamed, will feature the participation of the Valencian writers Paco Cerdà and Puri Mascarell, the musician and biographer Pau Alabajos, and the poets Àngels Gregori, Raquel Lanseros and Mario Obrero.
In collaboration with the Town Hall of Oliva, the Ministry of Culture will carry out between April 12 and 13 the ‘Poefesta’ festival and a recital about Estellés, curated by Àngels Gregori, in which Miren Agur Meabe, Manuel Forcano, Jaume Pérez Montaner, Yolanda Castaño, Berta Piñán, Marc Granell and Mario Obrero, as well as a concert by Martirio, Premio Nacional de Músicas Actuales 2016.
And together with the Gandía City Council, a poetry recital dedicated to the author will be held on June 7 in all the languages ??of the State by women (Leire Bilbao, Àngels Gregori, Yolanda Castaño, Marta Mori and Rocío Acebal), followed by a concert by Borja Penalba
The second half of the year will feature a large part of the scheduled events and some especially notable ones, such as the one on September 4, when the poet’s legacy will be deposited by his family in the Caja de las Letras of the Cervantes Institute. .
In addition, in the framework of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Mexico), of which Spain is the Guest of Honor, the Ministry of Culture and the Association of Publishers of the Valencian Country (AEPV) have scheduled a recital in December and a concert by Pau Alabajos. In addition, the Ministry will support the creation of the Vicent Andrés Estellés Reading Club in the Municipal Public Library of L’Alfàs del Pi.
The promotion and dissemination of Estellés’ work abroad will be another of the purposes of the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture in the Cent d’Estellés. For this reason, it will announce the different editions of his work in other languages, such as L’ hotel París in English and German, or his poetic anthology in Spanish; will promote events at international book fairs and universities abroad; and will promote monographs in publications specialized in literature and cultural television programs in collaboration with RTVE.
However, Minister Urtasun did not quantify the budget that he will allocate to this celebration nor did the Ministry contemplate it a posteriori in its note. And as this newspaper has learned, the context of the extension of the general budgets of the State could also condition the contributions to the party for Estellés.