Las Palmas De Gran Canaria (EFE) “Letras a Tiros” that he organized in literary appointments, some concerts read or music readings where they have remembered pieces of his works.
This event took place in a festive and fraternal atmosphere under the title “Read, damn it!”, the imperative that the writer used to promote among all audiences, including the smallest, to whom he dedicated works such as “Los perros de august ”, “Las ratas de noviembre” or “La historia del bufón Alegre Contador” which this morning have been in great demand at the stalls set up at the back of the Pérez Galdós Theater by the Sinopsis, Canaima and El Libro Técnico bookstores, as they have confirmed to EFE responsible for the latter.
The artistic director of this initiative, Mario Vega, has told EFE that it arose from the desire of a group of Alexis’s friends to hold a meeting around his figure on the occasion of Book Day.
“Being able to meet through his stories, the ‘Letras a tiros’ that he wrote, or the songs he chose with readings with all the people who loved him, creates a space for emotion and, above all, the possibility of to keep his commitment to literature alive”, said the theater director from Gran Canaria.
With a full Pérez Galdós Theater and the music of the Ornati string quartet, this tribute began with the reading of the manifesto “Book Day”, written by Alexis Ravelo in honor of reading, in which he stated that “books make the freest people”, although he criticizes “the persistence of a hint of imposture around this facet of culture that matters almost nothing to the majority”.
In this text, Ravelo also considers that there is only a small “sect or guerrilla that makes Book and Copyright Day celebrated every day and that knows that a book is a trench or barricade against the existing imposture” around reading.
The reading of texts by the writer from Gran Canaria to music, which was attended by institutional representatives such as the Canarian President, Ángel Víctor Torres, the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, or the regional Social Rights Councilor, Noemí Santana, was inaugurated on Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Antonio Becerra, who has chosen for this his friend’s first novel, written in 2006: “Three Funerals for Eladio Monroy”.
Becerra has been succeeded by Emilio González Déniz and, after him, numerous friends of Ravelo, such as Carlos Álvarez, José Luis Ibáñez, José Luis Correa, or the journalists Ángeles Jurado, Juan García Luján or David Ojeda, have been in charge of recalling the imaginary of Ravelo based on passages from his works.
This recital has been enlivened by musical pieces performed live by Piazzolla, Satie and a repertoire of jazz classics, which the writer from Gran Canaria has always liked.
In addition, the readings of his books have been accompanied by videos sent by national and international authors who were closely linked to Ravelo, such as Carlos Zanón, Carlos Bassas, Claudia Piñeiro, Esther García Llovet or Víctor del Árbol. EFE