Awarded Alejo Carpentier Medal to Leonardo Padura

July 8, 2021

The presentation of the Alejo Carpentier Medal took place at the headquarters of the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, and the activity was attended by the president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture.

Padura has been a scholar of Carpentier's work, on which he has published several essays.

Due to the magnitude of his work, which encompassed literature, journalism, essay and other artistic manifestations, Alejo Carpentier has been considered the most important Cuban writer of the twentieth century and one of the exponents of the so-called "boom of the Latin American novel". With his conception of "magical realism," Carpentier also contributed to the characterization of a cultural territory that, through that narrative, brought so much literary richness to this continent.

That was one of the reasons why Leonardo Padura received the news with particular satisfaction that he would be presented with the Alejo Carpentier Medal, a decoration that the Ministry of Culture awards to Cuban citizens in recognition of their contribution to national culture.

The other reason is that Padura himself has been a scholar of Carpentier's work on which he has published several essays included in other collections, in addition to three books: Colón, Carpentier, la mano, el arpa y la sombra (Prize Essay "13 de Marzo"), Department of Cultural Activities Universidad de La Habana, 1989; Lo real maravilloso, creación y realidad, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1989; and the definitive Un camino de medio siglo: Carpentier y la narrativa de lo real maravilloso, Editorial Letras Cubanas, La Habana, 1994, a monumental essay that is required reading for Carpentier researchers.

"I am pleased that my literary work of all these years is recognized in Cuba with the medal that bears, precisely, the name of Alejo Carpentier" - said the author upon learning the news. "For quite some time I have not received any official recognition in my country, despite being National Literature Prize 2012. In fact, even my presence and my name have been excluded or limited in official media, as happened less than a year ago when they awarded me the prestigious "Carlos Fuentes" Medal given by the FIL de Guadalajara, in Mexico, and no mention was made of that fact in the media.

Perhaps this recognition implies a change in this policy that has been applied with respect to my work, my oeuvre and my person. In any case, this medal is a stimulus to continue doing work like the work I have done so far and in which I aspire to reflect in the most sincere way possible the contradictions and density of contemporary Cuban society," concluded the writer.

At the presentation ceremony held on June 28 at the Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, within the framework of the 60th anniversary of Palabras a los Intelectuales, the president of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and Alpidio Alonso, Minister of Culture, were in attendance.

In addition to Padura, writers Eduardo Heras León, Reynaldo González, Francisco López Sacha and Rolando Pérez Betancourt, among other artists and intellectuals, were also decorated with the Alejo Carpentier Medal, which they received from the hands of the Prime Minister.

For his part, the First Secretary of the PCC, Miguel Díaz-Canel, presented the Félix Varela Order to writer and playwright Antón Arrufat, among other artists.

Padura's work encompasses narrative, essay, journalism and film, with several screenplays to his credit. He has received important and numerous international awards, several Honorary Doctorates from Latin American universities such as the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and will soon reach the figure of thirty languages into which some of his works have been translated.

His novels Pasado perfecto, Vientos de cuaresma, Máscaras and Paisaje de otoño, which make up the tetralogy "Las cuatro estaciones", were adapted into a television series that had its world premiere on the Netflix platform and won in 2017 the Platino Prize for best Ibero-American miniseries or television film series.

His novel El hombre que amaba a los perros, several times awarded and recognized by critics and academia, already exceeds one hundred editions in Spanish, while his most recent novel, Como polvo en el viento, has been a success with both public and critics since its publication in Spanish in mid-2020. (2021)