Entering the so-called Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid is the closest thing to feeling like a robber from Money Heist trapped in the jaws of the Bank of Spain. When the institution that protects Spanish in the world moved to its current headquarters on Alcalá Street in 2006, they found that there was an imposing vault in the basement (the building had been designed in 1918 to house the Spanish Bank of the Río de la Plata). Those responsible decided to allocate the 1,700 safe deposit boxes – which are accessed after passing through a huge circular steel door, like those in heist movies – to preserve the legacy of creators of Spanish and Latin American culture, with a time limit, after which what was deposited there in these time capsules becomes part of the center’s library or returns to the family, as stipulated in each case.
The person honored this Tuesday was the editor Juan Grijalbo (1911-2002), someone capable of editing at the same time the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin, the comics of Asterix or Spirou, novels such as The Godfather, sexual education manuals or encyclopedic dictionaries. A communist and millionaire (thanks to his efforts) who went into exile in Mexico and, upon his return to Spain, built bridges between opposing sides.
What has been kept in Grijalbo’s box? Decorations, drawings, everyday objects, notes… and, of course, books. The legacy was chosen by her daughter Poppy, who deposited it accompanied by her mother, Dinath de Grandi; the director of Cervantes, Luis García Montero; from the editor’s grandson, Juan Vives Grijalbo; and the ambassador of Spain in Mexico, Juan Duarte. Browsing among the objects – which will remain sealed for twenty years – you could see a silver cigar cutter for big occasions and another simple pocket one to carry in your jacket, a red silk handkerchief that the editor carried in the pocket of his jacket or the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic. “My father’s only concern when Minister Josep Piqué called him to grant it to him was: ‘What if they discover that I am not Spanish?’ Because he died as a Mexican citizen, of the country that welcomed him.”
Luis García Montero recalled that Grijalbo, “in the middle of the Civil War, being a UGT delegate, stopped a burning of religious books from the Gustavo Gili publishing house by some anarchists, which earned him promotion to delegate of the Generalitat in the Chamber of the Book of Barcelona”.
He not only founded the publishing house that bears his last name, but also others such as Atlante (the first), Crítica, Serres… “He felt as Mexican as he was Spanish,” García Montero continued, “and he was one of the first to be pan-Hispanic.” Upon his return to Spain, he “was one of the few capable of seating Manuel Fraga and Santiago Carrillo at the same table, even with Franco alive.”
Poppy Grijalbo was moved twice when she spoke, but she explained why she had selected those titles that will now become part of the institute’s heritage. “The book Spain. The country and the inhabitants by L. Martin Echeverría, from 1940, is one of the first publications of the Atlante publishing house, and represents the beginning of the modernization of geography books to the way we know them today.
The journalist Víctor Fernández, who helped in the editing of his posthumous book of memoirs, The Last Word, highlighted the honoree’s links with the Franco-Belgian comic industry, as he introduced into Spain, allied with Dargaux, characters such as Asterix, Gastón , Lucky Luke, Spirou… and he took Ibáñez and other cartoonists from Bruguera to found the magazine Guai!, hence one of the items in the safe is a drawing by Ibáñez dedicated to him. “He also published Joan Didion, Kurt Vonnegut, Mario Puzo or Gay Talese when no one knew them here.”
“He was humble and recognized his gaps in knowledge of the publishing sector,” Poppy revealed, “so he sought the advice of Daniel Cossío Villegas, founder of the Mexican Economic Culture Fund, who recommended that he subscribe to Publisher Weekly magazine, where Bestseller lists appeared weekly in the US. He did it, despite not speaking English, and thus found several of his greatest hits.
“At the same time,” he continued, “he had the courage to publish Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, a bold work that once again caused a stir in the conservative Spanish society of 1975 but which, thanks to it, promoted Spain’s literary opening to the world,” Therefore, the family has delivered the first edition of that work to Edibolsillo. His daughter also pointed out him as “a pioneer in the then unexplored terrain of self-help, in Spain, by publishing Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer. Once again, he demonstrated his skill, as this book reached an estimated sales figure of 35 million copies.”
Another book deposited was, of course, the voluminous Great Grijalbo Encyclopedic Dictionary, from 1986, with a prologue by Jorge Luis Borges that he did not manage to see when he died when the work was in print.
Anyway, there, in the vault, Grijalbo’s objects already rest, along with those of 160 other people such as Carmen Balcells, Ida Vitale, Ian Gibson, Paul Preston (two authors, by the way, who were published by the editor of Gandesa) …The opening dates of each box are different, as stipulated by the interested party or their heirs. Thus, Francisco Ayala wanted his documents – which included some secret letters – to be opened at the age of fifty. The frontispiece by Jorge Herralde clearly indicates: February 14, 2044. And that of the Venezuelan José Balza, which also contains documents, establishes that the opening will be in 2059. See you there. And glory to Juan Grijalbo.
