The Galician publisher Kalandraka, one of the most recognized in the field of children’s books and illustrated albums, has announced that it is separating from the International Poetry Prize for Girls and Boys of the Ciudad de Orihuela, which it has organized with the City Hall of Orihuela (Alicante) since 2008. He explained his reasons in a press release: “It is a consequence of the decision of the municipality of this city to reject the request of the family of Miguel Hernández to cancel the summary trial which sentenced him to death.” The votes of the Popular Party and Vox during the municipal plenary session overturned the initiative.
“After the plenary session of the corporation on September 26,” the note continues, “the publisher considered that the conditions were not met to continue its collaboration with this town hall with absolute respect for the figure of the distinguished poet and his heritage. human, intellectual. and moral. Miguel Hernández, whom literary historiography usually places in the so-called generation of 36, although he maintained close ties with the authors of 27, was committed to the republican cause to the point of fighting on the front against the uprising Franco’s fascist. Books of poems like The lightning that doesn’t stop, city wind either Collection of songs and love book of absences They decisively influenced later Spanish poetry, and not only that. Hernández was arrested in Portugal in April 1939. Salazar’s police handed him over to their Spanish counterparts. He was released for a few months, but in March 1940 he was sentenced to death by court martial. Ill and without medical care, he died in Alicante prison on March 28, 1942.
“To disassociate his work from the historical context in which he lived and the ideas for which he lost his life is to distort his literature and betray the memory of the author,” says Kalandraka, who won the National Prize in 2012 of the Ministry of Culture. for the best cultural Labor editorial, “faced with the refusal of the local government to grant the just historical reparation that Miguel Hernández deserves, and as long as there is no rectification of the plenary opinion, Kalandraka dissociates itself from this competition “. The Ciudad de Orihuela Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes dedicated to children’s poetry, has rewarded 16 authors throughout its history and, according to the publisher, who was also responsible for publishing the winning works, ” It has become a reference for Ibero-American literature, with hundreds of works from many countries.
