A hundred representatives of the world of Letters have met this Tuesday at the Royal Palace of Madrid. Convened by the King and Queen, they have celebrated the lunch after the delivery of the Cervantes Prize, a distinction that was received yesterday by the Venezuelan writer Rafael Cadenas.
After a hand kiss in the Gasparini room, Don Felipe thanked the writers for their work and their “extraordinary service to Spanish”. The Monarch recalled that the event celebrates “the enormous vitality of the Spanish”, to which writers contribute so much.
Don Felipe also recalled that Spanish “lives happily in a fruitful exchange of voices, realities and cultures in which we all recognize each other”. The language, he has insisted, “is the vehicle for the progress of communities and cultures and, in turn, is forged at the rate at which they develop, assumes the contributions of all and opens up to new spaces for growth.”
The guests at this lunch, held in the Royal Palace’s gala dining room, enjoyed a menu based on salmorejo, snapper loin and frisuelos. Among the attendees was the director of La Lectura, Maite Rico and famous writers such as Ángel Martín, author of Por si las voces vuelven; Juan Gómez Jurado, Ildefonso Falcones, Rai Loriga, Javier Gomá or Meghan Maxwell.
As an anecdote, Felipe VI has finished his speech inviting everyone to toast. However, before raising his glass, he had to rectify, since the cava had not been served and he asked to postpone the toast until when they had served.
On Monday, many of the guests met in Alcalá de Henares during the Cervantes Award ceremony, which this year went to Rafael Cadenas, a Venezuelan author who was accompanied at lunch by his two sons, his son-in-law and his granddaughter.
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