There are many reasons to distinguish Martín Caparrós as an honorary doctor from the University of Guadalajara (Mexico). Some of them were exposed this afternoon during an act at the Instituto México in Spain (Madrid): “His extraordinary contribution to narrative journalism and contemporary literature”, or for his “ethical and intellectual commitment in favor of truth, memory and human dignity”. It is for this reason and for his career as a writer, columnist and essayist that the Mexican institution awarded the medal to the author of America Yes The room. “You are one of the most relevant voices in the Ibero-American sphere,” explains the institution.
Martín Caparrós “failed in Mexico in his life,” says the writer. The Argentinian “wanted to live there at some point.” For the inspiration that Carlos Fuentes was for his first novel or because he went to this country where, 45 years ago, he began to display his characteristic fanaticism.
The room where the act was celebrated, located on the second floor of the Instituto México in Spain (Madrid), hosted an exhibition of around fifty multicolored illustrations from Mexico and a selected group of just over 30 people. Among them are journalists and authors like Alex Grijelmo, the Mexican writer Jorge Volpi and the former director of EL PAÍS, Javier Moreno. He also helped friends and family of the winner and some academics at the University of Guadalajara who are now “under his tutelage.” Everyone welcomed the Argentinian with warm and sustained applause.
Of all the reasons read by Mara Robles, dean of the University of Guadalajara, Caparrós cited one in particular: “It’s a question mark.” This semester is the one that is planted every year among students, according to Robles, who began listening to the first lines of The room: “We know the hambre, we are accustomed to the hambre: we feel the hambre, three times a day. There is nothing more frequent, more constant, more present in our lives than the hambre and, at the same time, for many of us, nothing more read than the hambre is true.” This reading surprised and moved Caparrós.
The Doctorate Honoris Causa is the honorary title and the most important award that the University of Guadalajara grants to “eminent” personalities. They are Mexicans or foreigners, with “exceptional” merits for their contributions in any field of knowledge, arts, or for the “exceptional contribution of their life and work to the noblest causes of humanity”.
Martín Caparrós (Buenos Aires, 68 years old) and his work have traveled around the world. He has over 40 books published in over 30 countries. Among its most recent deliveries, we find First of all (Random House), which brings together the memories of more than 50 years of profession, as well as the consequences of ALS, a disease which affects the motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord, diagnosed three years ago. He was also a journalist and columnist for EL PAÍS which published last November Boo (Random House), where he talks about the diversity and authenticity of cities. In this case, it is Buenos Aires, which was named an “illustrious citizen” in 1957.
The winners honored in recent years have been: the Spanish singer and composer Joan Manuel Serrat (81 years old), “for the song that transformed the language in the street and not at the border”; the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez Mercado (81 years old) — exiled in Madrid because in 2021 the Nicaraguan inspection issued an arrest warrant against him — in recognition of his “invaluable legacy and his contribution to Spanish-American culture and literature”; the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura (70 years old), for a work which “gave voice to his generation marked by silence and hope”; and Mexican scholar Miguel Ángel Navarro Navarro (74) — who was rector general of the merit-awarding institution — for his “defense of higher and higher education as a means to achieve social justice.”
Last July, the University of Buenos Aires carried out a similar reconnaissance this afternoon in Caparrós.
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