Hugo Mujica and Leonor Pataki collect the XXXVIII Loewe Poetry Prize, “celebrating” in a “dark” world of “pain”

The Argentine Hugo Mujica and the poet Leonor Pataki This Wednesday they received the XXXVIII Loewe Poetry Prizein an event held at the Ritz Hotel in Madrid, led by the president of the Loewe Foundation, Sheila Loewe, and the honorary president of the entity, Enrique Loewe.

Mujica, who has received the Loewe Poetry Prize for his work ‘The leaves, the breeze, and the light dances the shadows’ at the hands of the poet María Ángeles López Pérez, has assured that this award is a space of “free” and celebration of something “as useless” as “poetry” in a “dark” moment in which the world is ruled by “pain.”

“This is a free space, celebrating poetry here, in a world that is always pain and joy, but now we are in a dark moment. It is a space for celebrating something as useless as poetry. It is an event,” he assured.

The poet has recited some of the verses that make up the award-winning work and, in that sense, has reflected on the act of creating before those present.

“Creating is the most initial act that a human or a God can perform.. Or the act in which one and the other are the same event, the same fertility. Whenever I write I discover something about myself, about myself or about everyone, as if knowing, understanding – and even achieving – were not an immediate relationship that I can establish with my being or with my nothingness,” Mujica recited and then “claimed” the “most original” event.

For his part, Pataki has collected the 2025 Loewe Prize for Young Creation for the book ‘A skein of yarn’his first published work. It was given to him by the poet Jaime Siles – who is part of the jury and who won this same award in its second edition in 1989 -.

Pataki began by stating that there are things that “happen as a miracle” and that this recognition is about one. Furthermore, he added that in Mexico, his native country, where “poverty lurks around every corner,” dedicating time to poetry is “a little suicidal.”

“For those of us who live in Mexico, where poverty lurks behind every corner, dedicating time to poetic creation is a bit suicidal.to. But since the inspiration for the book that brings me here comes from cats – we usually know about their seven lives – I have launched myself like one of them like a kamikaze from the roof of my house without thinking about landing here in Madrid, where the popular nickname of being a cat is a source of pride,” he explained.

The Mexican has dedicated the award to cats, which are protagonists in her collection of poems as an object of analysis, remembering authors such as Cervantes, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti and the felines that appear in the works of all of them. “I never wanted to be a writer, but I think now you have turned me into a“, he thanked.

Precisely, the symbol of the cat is imposed in the text and its figure, “in its body made for stealth”, has been used by Pataki as a metaphor for all the things that “should never be touched.”

The event was closed by Sheila Loewe, who recalled the origins of the award, in 1988 at the hands of her father, Enrique Loewe, who managed to “make one of his dreams come true.” “That Loewe supported culture. Almost four decades later, it is a source of pride for the Foundation and for Loewe to be able to continue dedicating ourselves to projects that inspire the soul,” he concluded.

THE AWARD RECORDS THE HIGHEST NUMBER OF REGISTRATIONS IN ITS HISTORY

The jury of the 38th Loewe Foundation International Poetry Prize, which was chaired by Víctor García de la Concha and composed of Gioconda Belli, Antonio Colinas, Aurora Egido, Juan Antonio González Iglesias, Raquel Lanseros, María Negroni, Carme Riera, Jaime Siles, Luis Antonio de Villena and Javier Velaza, decided on the awards during the deliberation that took place last October 2025.

As stated by the Foundation, this call has been submitted 3,150 participants from 45 countriesthe largest number of entries in the history of the award.

Thus, 53% come from Latin America, with Argentina, Mexico and Colombia being the countries with the highest participation. In Spain, the provinces with the highest number of works presented are Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Valencia and Seville. Of the participants, 23% are under 33 years old and a total of 36 works have been finalists.