Pura López Colomé and Verónica Murguía awarded the Fine Arts Medal in Literature

The poet and essayist Pura López Colomé and the narrator Verónica Murguía received this Thursday the Bellas Artes Medal in the discipline of Literature in the 2023 and 2024 editions. Lucina Jiménez, head of the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal), thanked his commitment, career and those words that weave together with such depth and integrity.

The cultural promoter highlighted that the work of both authors It has a powerful resonance that transcends the limits of the individual to connect us deeply as human beings in dialogue with the universal..

The writers were welcomed in the Manuel M. Ponce Hall of the Palacio de Bellas Artes with a festive and loud ovation from writers, friends and admirers.

López Colomé thanks to this incredible country that rewards its poets, writers and artists like no other. He then read a text about his literary career, in which he said that since his upbringing he had refused to receive any distinction, as he linked it to the disappearance of his mother after receiving a school medal. An honest and emotional speech about his learning and the admiration he felt.

He expressed his gratitude to Alejandra Frausto and Lucina Jiménez, who head the federal Ministry of Culture and the Inbal, respectively, professionalism and vitality, by supporting, strengthening and motivating artistic creation in all its aspects.

She extended her gratitude to her loved ones, who have accompanied her in her strange and metaphorical way of seeing the world and poetic inquiries. Without them, nothing, because thanks to their presence I have been able to see up close the meaning of my own work..

López Colomé mentioned that in poetry he tried to sow, As Jorge Aguilar Mora would say, in this land without reason and powerful, in these lands of my language and tradition, a musical seed, expressive, explosive and plural.

The editor and writer Fernando Solana acknowledged the emotion and respect for the work of the translator: great poet, which is a fair description and a mere literalness; his creation reaches cathedral dimensions and his poetry It resembles a flame inside a glass.

He also highlighted his incessant search for the secret thread of language and that in his poetics There has never been rhetoric or ornaments, which are crime and surplus, worn-out words, useless bridges to nowhere. Poet without concessions, tight and austere.

In her turn, the 2024 winner, the novelist and short story writer Verónica Murguía, emphasized that Art is not only necessary, it is perhaps what makes us more human. It is above us..

Continuous: Art is the only form of permanence we have found. It is indispensable, and without it societies lose their minds. We have been told that there are more urgent things. Books, culture, choreography, and music are placed in one corner; on the other side, the needs of living with a roof, education, and bread. It is not fair. We have a right to both..

Finally, she dedicated the medal to her husband David Huerta (who died in October 2022), without whom she I wouldn’t be here.

For her part, the short story writer Ana García Bergua commented on her pride in presenting Murguía at the ceremony, describing her as “a unique writer in Mexican literature. A historian by training, with an exquisite and profound culture, focused on antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Arab world.

He exalted his concern for humanity, tenderness and charity, which does not leave aside descriptions of the deepest horror and the strongest pain, combined with his vast ancient culture, which in his case encourages the fantasy genre with a rare refinement..