Zaragoza (EFE).- Aragon and Spain are indebted to the Huesca writer Ramón J. Sender, “one of the greatest that the Spanish language has given”, according to the Aragonese president, Javier Lambán.
During the inauguration at the Zaragoza Museum of the exhibition ‘Ramón J. Sender. Leap Memory’, which highlights the validity of his work and the great issues that inspired him, Lambán has made “self-criticism” for “not having lived up to it” last year to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the death of the multifaceted author Huesca.
Sender, an “immeasurable” figure
Born in Chalamera in 1901 and died in San Diego in 1982, Ramón J. Sender was, according to Lambán, an “immeasurable” figure, with whom Aragón has been “unfair” for not including him along with recognized names that have “dazzled the world ” like Goya, Buñuel or Saura, and to whom “Spain as a whole” is also indebted.
The president, who recalled that Sender won the National Literature Award in 1935 with “Mr. Witt in the canton”, thanked the Huesca Provincial Council and the Institute of Altoaragonese Studies for having allowed this exhibition to be brought to Zaragoza.
It can be seen until June 25 and “enriches with new works” the one that was already shown at the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid last year.
An author with more than a hundred books who always wanted to return to Huesca
The curator of the exhibition, Chus Tudelilla, has recalled that the writer, author of more than a hundred books, died in exile although he always wanted to return to Huesca. Sender remained “alone but dignified” because he “took a position from the beginning to the end” and despite the fact that he was afraid that he would forget it, he has pointed.
The need to define evil, the changing condition of the human being, the enigmatic relationships between the individual and the world, or the depravity that war entails are issues that are addressed in the exhibition.
leap memory
The exhibition recovers the title of a book of essays that Sender wrote in 1981 and in which he recognized the impossibility of exhausting reality despite the attempts to turn it into a subject of permanent analysis and reflection.
Thus, he makes a chronological and thematic journey through the author’s work and life with nine stops: ‘First concerns (1901-1922)’, ‘Morocco and Spain (1923)’, ‘In Madrid (1924-1929)’, ‘ Time of militancy (1930-1935)’, ‘Counterattack (1936-1939)’, ‘Exile (1939-1982)’, ‘Sender today’, ‘Correspondence’ and ‘Sender painter’.
Part of this exhibition are first editions, translations and reissues of his books, among which the first editions of three of his main publications deserve special mention: “Imán” (1930); “Mister Witt in the Canton” (1935) and “Requiem for a Spanish peasant” (1960), originally published in Mexico in 1953 under the title “Mosén Millán”.
It also collects letters from artists and writers who shared experiences and affections, such as Max Aub or Carmen Laforet, among others.
The exhibition is also accompanied by the publication of a book with numerous testimonies and images, attentive to Sender’s experience and his work, which show the relevance of his thought.
Thus, José Domingo Dueñas proposes a general vision of the writer and journalist in the context of his time, while Lorenzo Silva attends to the importance of the Moroccan world in the author’s production.
Andreu Navarra, to whom we owe a recent and exhaustive essay on the relationship of European intellectuals with Soviet communism, reveals significant nuances and intricacies of Sender’s temporary relationship with Soviet Moscow.
And Donatella Pini, who has consecrated essential studies to Sender throughout her prolific academic life, defines certainties while pointing out some doubts about the writer’s journey through decisive periods in his life, such as the Civil War.
Chus Tudelilla, for his part, delves into a little-attended facet of Sender’s creative personality, his side as a painter and art scholar.
