In the same hall where Jacinte Verdager was honored the previous afternoon, Barcelona municipal groups summoned the media on Monday, November 1, with some ambiguity to announce the recognition. The Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Colboni, and the Councilors Jordi Martí Galbes (Junts x Catalunya), Pau Gonzalez (Barcelona en Comú) and Jordi Castellana (ERC) will propose awarding the Gold Medal of Cultural Merit of the City of Barcelona to the Director General of FIL, Marisol Schulz. Colbone stressed that this decision was taken unanimously, given his career “very close to the city, and his biography committed to freedom and democracy.” The recognition will become official during the first months of 2026.
Marisol Schulz (Mexico City, 1957) has had a long career linked to the world of publishing. She was the director of Alfaguara in Mexico, where she had to “be a shadow” of authors like Carlos Fuentes or Vargas Llosa himself, and she has directed FIL since 2013. She expressed her gratitude for the recognition, saying hello in Catalan, “It’s my mother tongue because my mother was Valencian, when I was a child I didn’t I speak it, but I was speaking it.” “I listened to him.”
Schulz’s grandfather, from Valencia, arrived in Mexico as a political refugee after passing through concentration camps in Africa. But his wife and daughters, one of whom was Schulz’s mother, remained in Valencia and did not move to Mexico until after the war. “My family took in all these political refugees who needed to survive,” he explained, and in this way he became well acquainted with Luis Lasch or Francesc P. de la Serra.
He also explained his connection to Barcelona, which he met when he was fourteen years old through his grandmother: “It is part of my cultural and literary life. I read Salvador Espriu in the Catalan language.” He also devoted a few words to “all that Barcelona has done for Latin American writers,” referring to the prosperity and transatlantic relationship “that we see continuing these days.”
Schulz recalled the first dealings with Jordi Valls within the framework of the REACT 2022 conference, which was the origin of the idea that ended with Barcelona as guest of honour, in which Javier Marcy, Advisor for Culture and Creative Industries of the Barcelona City Council, and Patrici Teixes, Director of the Planeta Group, also participated.
In a press conference marked by the controversy that arose after the Barcelona City Council announced residencies for Latin American authors, representatives of the rest of the municipal groups spoke in Catalan and agreed to thank him for his role in the cultural promotion of Barcelona. They reiterated that this was an admission “from the city, not the city council.”