When he was 19 or 20 years old, Germán Delibes Caballero wrote a few pages telling some anecdotes that he had shared with his grandfather, Miguel Delibes, during a few days of hunting. Much later, while cleaning out the storage room, he found these texts. … forgotten, which ended up becoming a book, ‘Grandfather Delibes’ (Destiny)in which he poured out memories (his own, those of his cousins) shared with one of the names of 20th century Spanish literature. About him – the book, the grandfather, the writer – he spoke in the ABC cultural classduring an event organized at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and presented by Carlos Aganzo which functioned as an intimate and very close portrait of Delibes. Like a really close-up.
It was a more or less chronological journey: it began with the Civil war (“in a war, no one wins, everyone loses”) and continued with his arrival at “Northern Castile”. He presented himself to the editorial office with some drawings: the director found them funny and published them. signed as MAXIMUM: the M for Miguel, the A for Ángeles, his girlfriend at the time and later his wife, and the X for the uncertain future they had before them. It was in this editorial office that he learned of the Nadal Prize for his first novel. It was 1947 and the title was “The Shadow of the Cypress is Long.”
“For us, he was a grandfather who defended us in front of our parents and gave us advice”
German Delibes Caballero
From “El norte de Castilla”, where he ended up becoming director, he denounced the very bad situation of the peasants of Castile. He had a lot of problems with censorship, so he followed up his complaints with a book, ‘The rats’viewed with suspicion by the regime. “Fraga didn’t like it at all,” he said.
The most important year of his life, the grandson said, was 1974. That’s when he was named Academic RAEbut especially when his wife, Ángeles, died, aged 51. He stopped writing for a while. During his entrance speech to the Academy, he wrote a few words of tribute to his wife: “With his disappearance, he died the better half of myself“. Then came this immortal book, “Lady in red on a gray background”which he published 17 years after his death: he has not forgotten. “It’s his grandchildren’s favorite novel,” Delibes Caballero said. “Grandma Ángeles knew Elisa (another granddaughter) and me, but we were barely a year old when she died.” He was always present in the dedications he signed to his grandchildren. An example: “May you be as happy as the woman in red, but with more time.” » Another: “The lady in red would gladly come back to life just to meet you.” He wrote this in 2008. I never forgot.
Delibes maintained that a novel needed a man, a landscape and a passion. Once the man was defined, his grandson reviewed some of the landscapes of his life. Their homes too. As Sedano Manorwhere the family gathered and they cheered Indurain or declaimed against Julio Salinas when he missed that very clear goal in the 94 World Cup against Italy. “For us, he was a grandfather who defended us in front of our parents and gave us advice,” insisted Delibes Caballero. And he remembered: “He was a hunter who writes, not a writer who hunts. “He passed on to us his passion for nature, sport, the Tour de France, tennis.” He also loved poker and Real Valladolid. Was a man with many passions and many novels. Everything is handwritten. “I can’t put a machine between my head and the newspaper,” he repeated. When he sent letters to his grandchildren, he would draw little animals between the words. “We loved them.”
Moreover, his latest novel, “The Heretic”he dedicated it to Valladolid. “He wrote ‘El Camino’ in 3 weeks. But it took him 3 years to write ‘The Heretic’,” the grandson said.
More than 20,000 people fired Delibes. And of course his whole family. Delibes Caballero ended the act as he finished his book: “Thank you, Grandpa. I love you, Ger.
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