No one better than the academic Rogelio Reyes Canowho was accompanied by the academic Eva Diaz Pérezto close the days this Wednesday “Sánchez Mejías, illustrated bullfighter of the Silver Age”that the Royal Sevillian Academy of Good Letters … dedicated this week to the right-hander as an essential figure of the 27 generation.
During the conversation he had with the writer and journalist, Reyes highlighted that Sánchez Mejías had, like the young poets with whom he maintained a great friendship, a dual aspect. On the one hand, “he was part of the avant-garde, notably the poetry of this group, which was not at all sentimental or realistic and which sought resources such as synesthesia. But apart from the modern ones, those of the 27 “They were looking for the neo-popular and transferring the patterns of popular poetry to cultured poetry.”. Likewise, the professor emeritus emphasized that “Ignacio was looking more for the telluric as Federico Garcia Lorca. The last He was not a great reader, but he touched the soul of the popular like Lope de Vega. Ignacio integrated cultured and popular people like the men of 27.
Asked about the importance of friendship within this group, Reyes Cano emphasized that Jorge Guillén He spoke of friendship in a poem. “Sánchez Mejías played a big role. Too much emphasis has been placed on the folkloric and playful vein of the young poets’ trip from the 27th to the evenings organized in Seville on December 16 and 17. He also recalled that upon their arrival in the capital Seville “Gongorism was diluted” and that this trip “had a lot to do with the literary atmosphere that reigned in the city, since the magazine ‘Grecia’ had been founded there in 1918. The presence of Pedro Salinas At the University of Seville this was also essential, as he transmitted his maturity to Cernuda, Romero Murube and Collantes de Terán, among others.
For this academic, the figure of the doctor and poet José María Romero Martinezwho was president of the literary section of the Ateneo de Seville, was also indispensable. “It was a very sad case because for a few days he became acting governor and with the repression of Queipo de Llano he was shot. Eloy Navarroone of my disciples, discovered in the papers of José María Romero the desire to exalt Góngora. This is added to the arrival of Salinas and all this explains why the poets of the 27th went to the Athenaeum of Seville.
Díaz Pérez also recalled a fundamental book by Reyes Cano, “Seville in the generation of 27”. In this work, the academic returns to the important role that the Ateneo played in the famous literary evenings. In this sense, The Athena institution paid the poets’ travel expenseswhich amounted to 1,300 pesetas. Likewise, he paid for his stay at the Hotel Paris, which cost 745 pesetas and 60 cents. The last of the expenses was related to maintenance, assuming 222 pesetas more. That is to say that In total, it assumed a cost of 2,267 pesetas and 60 cents.. “I wanted to point out in my book that the Ateneo paid for everything and then Ignacio entertained them,” Reyes explains. The professor emeritus also indicated that Juan Ramon Jimenez He criticized the poets’ trip to Seville, something Jiménez Caballero also did in “La Gaceta Literaria”.
This academic also points out that Sánchez Mejías “He must have been a man of prodigious natural intelligence”. Lorca depicted him in “Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías”: “It will take a long time to be born, if at all, / an Andalusian so clear, / so rich in adventures.” “The term “clear”, according to the DRAE dictionary, designates first of all that which is pure and also that which is lucid. “Lorca bets on the mental clarity of Ignacio’s Romanness.”
Reyes Cano also points out that the two bullfighters who had “literary luck” after his death were “Juan Belmonte, for the fantastic book that Chaves Nogales dedicated to him, and Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, for the elegy of Lorca. Belmonte also has a certain mythical dimension, but Lorca’s elegy is immortal. Joselito was not so lucky to be immortalized in literature. update on the risk of bullfighting by Sánchez Mejías. “He gestured inside, meaning the part near the boards, not the center of the arena. Another exceptional thing is that he received the bulls sitting on the stirrup. From a bullfighting perspective, he is not as well regarded as Belmonte or Joselito. But Lorca’s work is decisive. In the history of bullfighting, Ignacio Sánchez Mejías has his place, but his great place in history comes through the elegy of Lorca.“, he commented.
Concerning the controversy which surrounded the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasunfor wanting to exclude Sánchez Mejías from the events of the 27th centenary, Reyes Cano declared that “it seems to me that this is not due to ignorance. These people are sectarian and when they come to power they believe that for the first time everything must happen with them. It is a sign of the totalitarian left. The minister responds to this ideology, but not out of ignorance. Bullfighting is a sign of the Spanish. The 27 poets were the first to highlight the bullfighting art. The writers of 98 were more critical of the bullfighter, but the young people of 27 continue to Manuel Machado and they proclaim that bullfighting is an art like other artistic manifestations,” he concluded.
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