June 4 brought us sad news for the world in general and more particularly for the literary world, since Juan Goytisolo died at the age of 86 old in the city of Marrakech. This author belonging to the Spanish experimental novel of the 60s stands out for works such "Campos de Níjar" (1960) o "La Chanca" (1963) that are framed within social realism. Other much more experimental novels such as "Signs of identity" (1966), and others in which he tries to vindicate everything concerning suffocated minorities and cultures, especially the Muslim, as in his work "Vindication of Count Don Julián", published in the year 1970 or "Makbara"Of 1980.
Juan Goytisolo was given the Cervantes Award in 2014, which is distinguished by being the most important of the letters in Spanish. He lived in Marrakech, where he died, since 1997, where he went to live with Abdelhadi's family, a friend and his ex-partner. There, throughout his stay, he tried to ensure that the city had everything that concerned him by right, and among his feats, he highlights that the famous Plaza Yamaa al Fna, in the center of the city, was declared "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity" 2001 the year.
He was also part of the International Writers Parliament in addition to being part of the UNESCO jury whose function was to select the masterpieces of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity (among others), in addition to being an honorary member of the Union of Writers of Morocco (UEM) since 2001.
Author's phrases
As a last note we leave you with some of the most outstanding phrases of Juan Goytisolo:
- "The futility of exile and, simultaneously, the impossibility of return."
- «My literary education was very disorderly since there was no literary education at that time, but there was indoctrination that is very different. So, I forged my education against the current: French novels, Italian novels, the Anglo-Saxon novel ... Curiously, later I switched to Spanish literature, simply out of distrust towards teaching and the values they wanted to instill in us ».
- "The 'best sellers' don't catch me at all, because they don't reveal anything."
- "Don't criticize your enemies, they may learn."
- "Good literature is one that concerns the reader in some way and helps him discover something that affects him, our society or humanity as a whole."
- «I feel more comfortable when they declare me persona 'non grata' than when they award me. In the first case I know that I am right. In the second, fortunately very rare, I doubt myself ».