Cristina Magdaleno |
Tías (Lanzarote).- When Jose Saramago (1922-2010) wrote “La balsa de piedra” he did so imagining that the Iberian Peninsula was breaking away from Europe and embarking on a drifting journey across the Atlantic in search of other worlds and other cultures . Those who can visit “A Casa” do the same, the place, or the raft, in the middle of Lanzarote from where the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner looked abroad.
This Tuesday the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, and the Portuguese Prime Minister, António Costa, did it, who together with the widow of Saramago and president of his foundation, Pilar del Río, toured the house-museum of the Portuguese writer, whose figure involves the Spanish-Portuguese summit that begins this Wednesday in Los Jameos del Agua.
Precisely the Atlantic and the ability of this ocean to unite both countries with Latin America, Europe and Africa is the central idea from which this bilateral meeting will start, where both countries are expected to advance on issues related to the European agenda, where there are ” full harmony”, culture and cross-border policies.
cultural basin
Thus, Pilar del Río highlighted in statements to EFE the great cultural content that will be addressed during the summit and points out that Saramago always lived and assumed the two Iberian cultures “to the fullest” from the defense of this “cultural basin” of the South Atlantic where situates Portugal and Spain.
This allows, he adds, to shake hands with the 850 million people who live in Latin America, which makes that basin also have an “economic and humanist” aspect from which it is possible to “intervene in the world.”
Asked about the good relations between the two countries and that idea of the Iberian union to which Saramago alluded so many times, Del Río recalls that the writer was never interested in being a single country, but rather that that utopia responded to a more federalist idea, in the one that both states understood each other and had multiple relations, without the mistrust promoted by the dictatorships of Salazar and Franco.
A house with many doors
Faced with those who oppose democracy, continues Del Río, “A Casa” de Tías, despite having many doors and windows, will always be closed to those who champion intolerance, xenophobia and closedness.
“Not everyone fits, obviously. Here we make a defense of culture, of the public, of encounter and dialogue. For those who represent harassment and hatred… this house is not theirs because it is built with books, with closeness, with affection, in short,” reflects del Río, who insists that this type of person would never be happy in “A Casa ” because reason, conscience and especially books “are going to yell at them”.
Regarding the enormous number of events held around the world on the occasion of the centenary, and which culminate in a certain way with the handshake of the highest representatives of both countries in the house-museum, Del Río celebrates the multitude of ways in many countries who have celebrated the figure of Saramago, in his opinion all “in a wonderful way.”
Regarding whether he has ever perceived that there are politicians who can approach the figure of the Portuguese Nobel Prize winner without having “internalized” him, Del Río expresses that he prefers not to prosecute anyone and that he celebrates these approaches without ever describing them as “bastard interest”.
“If a politician wants to approach from anywhere, anywhere, bless him. I will never judge him. I’m here for whoever comes close, especially if they represent millions of people, whether they are progressive or conservative,” concludes Pilar del Río. EFE