An Olympia typewriter, legacy of the Cuban writer Severo Sarduy in the Caja de las Letras

The Cervantes Letter Box has received, on the occasion of LGTBIQ+ Pride Week 2024, the in memoriam legacy of the Cuban writer and artist Severo Sarduy (1937-1993), which includes an Olympia splendid 6 typewriter.

Also kept in box 1,288 is the catalog of the exhibition ‘El Oriente de Severo Sarduy’, which was presented at the Institute in 2008 and which brings together texts by Gustavo Guerrero (curator of the exhibition), Rubén Gallo, Juan Goytisolo, Roberto González Echevarría, François Wahl, Andrés Sánchez-Robayna, Nelda del Castillo, Jaime Moreno and Tania Pagola.

In addition, it is illustrated with photographs of his travels, reproductions of his pictorial work and objects from his personal collection. The event was attended by the director of Cervantes, Luis García Montero; the writer, editor and executor of Sarduy, Gustavo Guerrero; the general director for real and effective equality of LGTBIQ+ people of the Ministry of Equality, Julio del Valle de Íscar; the deputy director of International Relations of the Institute and representative of ‘Exteriores Diverso’, Philippe Robertet, and as an honorary witness, the director of Culture of the institution, Raquel Caleya.

García Montero has reviewed some of his works that cover various genres, with titles such as ‘Gestos’ (1963), ‘Big Bang’ (1974), ‘Flamenco’ (1969), ‘Daiquiri’, (1980) or ‘ Written on a body’ (1969). “He wrote and bore witness to his writing and reflected on the words, always with pride in his homosexuality,” highlighted the director of Cervantes.

Narrator, poet, essayist, theater and radio man, great traveler and versatile artist, Sarduy is considered one of the most unique and exciting figures of 20th century Hispanic culture.

Seven novels, eight books of poetry, six essays and five plays constitute, together with his plastic work, the essential part of a legacy that refers to horizons such as Afro-Cuban religions, Hispanic baroque, Taoist painting, structuralism or costume and tattoo art.

Before his death, Sarduy wrote a fiction novel in which he narrated how he faced the disease of AIDS, ‘Pájaros de la playa’, which would ultimately cause his death. There were recorded the exploratory overtones of the author who, with humor and self-confidence, gave an account of his own courage.