MADRID.– There are many reasons to award Martín Caparrós an honorary doctorate from the University of Guadalajara (Mexico). Some of them were presented yesterday at an event at the Mexico Institute in Spain (Madrid): “His extraordinary contribution to narrative journalism and contemporary literature” or for his “ethical and intellectual commitment to truth, memory and human dignity”. For this reason and for his career as a writer, chronicler and essayist, the Mexican institution awarded the medal to the author of America And The hunger. “He is one of the most relevant voices in the Ibero-American region,” explains the institution.
Martín Caparrós “missed Mexico in his life,” said the writer. The Argentine wanted to “live there at some point”. Because of the inspiration that Carlos Fuentes felt for his first novel, or because 45 years ago in this country he began to grow his now characteristic mustache.
The room where the event took place, located on the second floor of the Mexico Institute in Spain (Madrid), hosted an exhibition of about 50 colorful illustrations from Mexico and a select group of just over 30 people. Among them are journalists and authors such as Alex Grijelmo, the Mexican writer Jorge Volpi and the former director of EL PAÍS, Javier Moreno. Also present were friends and family of the laureate as well as some scholarship holders from the University of Guadalajara, who have been “under his care” since today. Everyone received the Argentine with warm and loud applause.
Of all the reasons that Mara Robles, rector of the University of Guadalajara, read, Caparrós agreed with one in particular: “He sows doubt.” They plant this seed for the students every year, said Robles, who first listened to the first lines Hunger: “We know hunger, we are used to hunger: we feel hunger two or three times a day. There is nothing more frequent, more constant, more present in our lives than hunger and at the same time, for many of us, nothing is further away than true hunger.” This reading surprised and delighted Caparrós.
The Honoris Causa Doctorate is the honorary title and the most important award that the University of Guadalajara awards to “outstanding” personalities. Whether Mexican or foreign, with “extraordinary” merit for their contributions in any field of knowledge, the arts or for the “outstanding contribution of their life and work to the noblest causes of humanity.”
Both Martín Caparrós (Buenos Aires, 68 years old) and his work have traveled halfway around the world. He has published more than 40 books in more than 30 countries. Recent deliveries include First (Random House), which collects the memories of more than 50 years of work as well as the consequences of ALS, a disease that affects the motor neurons of the brain and spinal cord, diagnosed three years ago. The journalist and columnist from EL PAÍS also published last November Wow (Random House), where it tells the diversity and authenticity of the cities. In this case his: Buenos Aires, which named him an “Illustrious Citizen” in 1957.
The youngest winners in recent years were: the Spanish singer and composer Joan Manuel Serrat (81 years old), “for the song that turned language into a bridge and not a border”; the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez Mercado (81 years old) – exiled in Madrid after the Nicaraguan Public Prosecutor’s Office issued an arrest warrant against him in 2021 – in recognition of his “invaluable legacy and contribution to Latin American culture and literature”; the Cuban writer Leonardo Padura (70 years old) for a work that “gave a voice to his generation marked by silence and hopes”; and the Mexican researcher Miguel Ángel Navarro Navarro (74 years old) – who was Rector General of the institution that awards the merit – for his “defense of upper secondary and higher education as a means of achieving social justice”.
Last July, the University of Buenos Aires awarded Caparrós a similar recognition to this afternoon’s.
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