Today, Friday, in Mexico, singer Juan Manuel Serrat received an honorary doctorate awarded to him by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), in recognition of his career and efforts. To strengthen the “string of love” he feels towards this Latin American country.
Serat is part of the Barcelona delegation The city is the guest of honor of the 39th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), which concludes on Sunday in the capital, Guadalajara, where she was one of the figures who attracted the largest audience to the fairgrounds.
And in the Enrique Díaz de León Hall, which includes majestic murals by José Clemente Orozco, Serrat emphasized that it is possible to be in music and songs. “The results are definitive” as in science and “have therapeutic effects among people.”
The Princess of Asturias Arts Award 2024 alluded to what she considers her profession and her “vice” in singing, which He started doing housework with his mother. And he became stronger when he bought the pesetta song books that his grandmother gave him every Sunday.
There were no musicians in my family, there were workers and peasants
He remembered that there were no artists in his family, but rather workers, peasants, and children of workers And peasants who, yes, sang for the joy of singing, a legacy that led him to find his job and his happiness. He admitted, “I’m happy. I’m happy with this work that I love to do and for which I also pay tribute.”
The Catalan stressed that his success was not only possible through inspiration but through “hard work” that insists on making words the raw material to try to move others: “You have to work with words as a potter works with clay.”
The singer and songwriter emphasized that obtaining this distinction from a Mexican university is of great significance because Mexico is a country for which he feels “a mutual affection, a two-way affection” that strengthens the ties of the “chain of love” that began when he first arrived there fifty years ago and He was reinforced by being another exile in the 1970s.
The day will come when the Mexico of books wins over the Mexico of arms
“These days in Guadalajara, Mexico is committed to filling the FILI want to live with passion the world of literature, the world of books, I want to think, I want to be certain that the day will come when the Mexico of books will overcome the Mexico of weapons.”
The director of the Julio Cortázar Chair for Latin America and the person who promoted the honor, Dulce María Zúñiga, stated that Serat is “a key figure in the history of the composer’s songs in Catalan and Spanish” and that his career cannot be separated from “The Political and Cultural Development of Contemporary Spain.”
For her part, the Dean of the UdeG, Carla Planter, presented the Spanish musician with the medal and the corresponding parchment, acknowledging at the same time that his music “promoted the values of freedom, social justice and linguistic diversity,” and that “It reflects a deep-rooted commitment to memory, dignity and critical thinking.”
This Saturday the city hall of the capital of Jalisco state He will give Sirat the keys to the cityin one of his last public acts during this visit to Guadalajara, Mexico.