The Cervantes Institute and Alfaguara will remember Mario Benedetti in a poetry recital

The Cervantes Institute and the Alfaguara publishing house are organising a tribute to the Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti (1920-2009) next Monday (7pm) at the Cervantes headquarters in Madrid, with the participation of Luis García Montero, Pilar Reyes, Joaquín Sabina, Marwan, Elvira Sastre, Leiva, Vanesa Martín, Chus Visor, Rozalén, Benjamín Prado and Juan Cruz, among others. On the centenary of his birth and on the occasion of the publication of 'Mario Benedetti. Poetic Anthology', prepared by Joan Manuel Serrat and published by Alfaguara, this event will be held around the memory and legacy of the writer.

Luis García Montero, Director of the Cervantes Institute, and Pilar Reyes, Editorial Director of Alfaguara, will discuss this anthology, which will be in bookstores from 10 September. This will be followed by a poetry recital by singer-songwriters Joaquín Sabina and Leiva, writers Benjamín Prado and Elvira Sastre, composer and musician Marwan, singer-songwriter Vanesa Martín and singer-songwriter Rozalén.

Mario Benedetti (Paso de los Toros, Uruguay, 1920 - Montevideo, 2009), the son of Italian parents, was the author of novels, short stories, poetry, theatre and literary criticism. He published over 50 books and has been translated into 23 languages. He was awarded, among others, the Reina Sofía Poetry Prize in 1999 and the José Martí Ibero-American Prize in 2000.

He is one of the most beloved poets, his verses continue to be recited and sung, and his poetry has transcended the literary sphere and is felt, on both sides of the Atlantic, as part of a popular heritage that is passed on from generation to generation.

The Poetic Anthology combines the figures of Benedetti and Joan Manuel Serrat, who has been called "the most Latin American of Spanish singer-songwriters". In 1985, the poet and the singer-songwriter worked together to compose the album 'El sur también existe' (The South also exists) with songs set to music by Serrat which are mostly versions of Benedetti's poems and which would become one of Serrat's most emblematic albums. That was the starting point of a friendship that both of them kept intact until the death of the first one in 2009.

Now, 35 years after the beginning of that period of joint creation, Benedetti and Serrat meet again in this volume with a dialogue as intense and enriching as it was then. The fruit of that "conversation" is an anthology selected and prologued by Serrat that gathers some of the best poems of the Uruguayan author. This Friday Alfaguara is re-editing 'Un mitoísimo discretísimo, la gran biografía de Mario Benedetti' written by Hortensia Campanella, president of the Mario Benedetti Foundation. 

On the occasion of this reminder of Mario Benedetti, Luis García Montero referred to the great author: "He taught us that poetry is not about inventing a rare language on the fringes of society but about treating the language of the tribe as respectfully as possible. The need for a civic and ethical dimension to words seems important to me and that is the teaching of Mario Benedetti".

Joan Manuel Serrat also praised Benedetti's work: "I am passionate about his poetry and his attitude to life. He has bequeathed to Latin America the ideals of freedom, justice and solidarity. Benedetti will never leave us, there will always be his poetry".