He leaves the FCE legacy in the Instituto Cervantes’ Box of Letters

Madrid. The director of the Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE), Paco Ignacio Taibo II, deposited the legacy of the publishing house in the Caja de las Letras of the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, which was given as a gesture of memory and resistance of thought and literature. The books chosen by the director of the FCE were the first edition of Juan Rulfo’s novel, Pedro Paramoin addition to a copy of The Burning Plainalso by Rulfo; You will go and not returnby José Emilio Pacheco; Diary of a resurrectionby Luis Rosales; Dreams of constancyby Ida Vitale; Old gringoby Carlos Fuentes, and the Historical catalogue from 1934 to 2009.

The headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes is a building that once housed a bank and houses a huge safe that was reused to safeguard the legacy of writers, musicians, artists, journalists and, in this case, a historic institution such as the FCE, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary as puente between the two shores. In fact, Taibo II, who took office six years ago and announced his continuation for another six, claimed precisely the existence of those solid bridges between countries and cultures; in this case, Mexico and Spain.

The novelist and historian also explained that it was difficult for them to define what legacy to bring to the Caja de las Letras: “We thought it had to be something that had a symbolic weight. We found great works of illustrations, of economics, but after much thought, we decided on the first edition of Pedro Paramoso then we just stole a copy from the FCE library.”

Following the election, Taibo II recounted that they discovered some details of the history of Rulfo’s book with the publisher. We found out that the first critical comments made about Rulfo’s work in Mexico were absolutely negative and the second review was even worse, more offensive and disqualifying, and was also signed by the general manager of the FCE. Even the third review, by Valadés, spoke of one of the best novels in the history of the language, with references to Kafka and magical realism. So as you can see, one of the best works in our language was born overshadowed by the mediocrity of its own publishing house. With a bit of bad luck, the book would not have been published, which confirms that at the FCE we have had dark times, of bureaucracy, of editors doing favors for their friends.explained Taibo II.

The FCE director also referred to his own history between Mexico and Spain: My father used to say that an ocean unites us and a language separates us. But deep down what he was saying is that the bridges that build the relationship between countries or nations are cultural and that was one of the meanings of his life. My father left Spain upset, uncomfortable, attacked by a world in which there was no oxygen for him and he discovered it by being a cycling reporter. His arrival in Mexico was like closing a door and he told us, his children, that we were Mexican. And with great pride..

And one of the great teachings of his father, the journalist and writer Paco Ignacio Taibo, was to create those bridges, as he now does from the FCE: My father spent his whole life creating literary, musical and cinematic bridges under the idea that there was one that he could not give up, which was Hispanicism. His Hispanicism was very much of the poor first, he sees the world from the point of view of the disappeared, the oppressed, the disadvantaged. It is that same idea that López Obrador rescued in his government and Claudia Sheinbaum now in the last elections, in which we have swept away the right..

Taibo II explained that from the FCE’s catalogue of 34,000 titles, they usually reprint about 14,000, but that during his administration he has also published new works. He added that when he took office, the average price of a book published by the FCE cost 280 pesos and now, after six years under his direction, it has dropped to 120 pesos.

Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, celebrated the legacy of the FCE, as it is This time in Mexico, a country that celebrates the unity of our language, which already has over 500 million speakers, and that knows how to respect the diversity of the language, which is a shared language. Also because the FCE is an essential reference and that is why it is so important to celebrate its 90th birthday.García Montero recalled the good relationship that the FCE had with the Spanish exile community, citing some examples, such as José Gaos, Enrique Díez Canedo, Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez and María Zambrano.

The ceremony to present the legacy was attended by the Secretary of State for Culture of the Spanish government, Jordi Martí, and the Mexican ambassador to Spain, Quirino Ordaz Coppel, among others.