From this Friday until January 12, the National Library welcomes ‘Gonzalo Torrente Ballester. The journey of a creator’, an exhibition which, like a journey through Spain, pays homage to the Galician writer, who lived the last 25 years of his life in Salamanca, where, among other recognitions He was named “Adopted Son” of the city and “Doctor Honoris Causa” by Usal.
Thanks to this link, the Junta de Castilla y León participates in the organization of this exhibition, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, the Xunta de Galicia, the Ferrol City Hall and the Gonzalo Torrente Ballester Foundation. “Don Gonzalo is still alive among us and this exhibition proves it” remarked the President of the Junta de Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, during the inauguration of the exhibition held today in Madrid.
“Excellent narrator and unrivaled creator of his own universes”, underlined the president, who admitted to having known the writer personally “even before his literature”. “He was close and kind, blessed with a bright and alert intelligence, and a cultivated conversationalist. “The lord of words”, as his friend Víctor de la Concha defined him”, declared Mañueco, who wanted to send his “congratulations” to all the people and institutions who made possible an exhibition which “allows us to get closer to the The figure of Mr. Gonzalo already has his work, but he also brings us the wealth of a lifetime,” reports Ical.
The exhibition is divided into five sections like a path or a crossing, As the title suggests, it covers the different places crossed by the writer throughout his life, from his native Ferrol to his adopted Salamanca, showing how each stage contributed to the development of his literary and artistic work. In this sense, the President of the Council emphasized that Torrente Ballester, although he is Galician, He was able to capture in his work the “timelessness” of our cities and the beauty of the landscapes of Castilla y León.
Furthermore, regarding his more than two decades spent in the university town, Mañueco explained that Torrente Ballester He was “a great promoter of the cultural life of Salamanca”. “We remember him at the Nouveauté café or walking through the streets of Salamanca,” he said, before adding that because of “this strong link” with the Castilian and Leonese city, the inhabitants of Salamanca wanted to remember the Cervantes Prize and the Prince of Asturias “forever” by giving his name to different places in the city.
The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, highlighted that Torrente Ballester was a “key figure” in the country. And for this reason, he stressed that it is “comforting to know that we continue to recognize someone of the intellectual height and good nature of Don Gonzalo” with an exhibition like the one that can be seen at the Library national. “We need multifaceted personalities like yours, even if it is frowned upon in our times,” said Díaz, who wanted to be present at the opening of this exhibition dedicated “to a Ferrolano like me.”
Precisely, the mayor of the Galician city, José Manuel Rey Varela, shared with the vice-president of the government the emotion “on this very special day” for his city, while also wishing to thank the Junta de Castilla y León “for his collaboration “in the exhibition and in the activities linked to the writer, “son of Ferrol, but adopted son of Salamanca” who became “a leading figure in 20th century narrative”.
The president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda, also highlighted the writer’s roots both in his Galician land and in Castile and León: “He is a pure Galician, but with a great influence from Salamanca. And thanks to this mixture, he managed to influence universal literature.
“On this 25th anniversary of his death, we are organizing this exhibition which has a double objective: to pay a just tribute to Gonzalo Torrente Ballester and to bring his literary legacy closer to a new generation, because his work transcends his era,” declared the director from the National Library, Óscar Arroyo Ortega, on an exhibition commissioned by Professor Darío Villanueva and Dr. Carmen Becerra.
