Vargas Llosa receives the Madrilenian of the Year Award from Almeida with “pride of Spanish heritage”

Mario Vargas Llosa received this Monday the Madrilenian of the Year Award, granted by the mayor of the city, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, with a passionate defense of the pride with which Latin Americans should enjoy their “Spanish heritage.” The writer has argued: “Have you thought about the advantages of that heritage, which is that of so many Latin Americans? What would happen if we (Latin Americans) were Europeans, with that difficulty of orienting oneself in a world of so many languages? The same if we were Africans, because there the languages ​​are also numerous », pointed out Vargas Llosa during his intervention in an act at the Teatro Real.

The Peruvian writer has made a defense of Spanish, where “except for Brazil, a wonderful language is spoken that has been making its way around the world without any government having worked in that direction.” “It has been that ease of the language that has facilitated its expansion throughout the world,” he remarked.

the author of The city and the Dogs -a novel he wrote in Madrid- has defended both Spain and its capital. “Spain is experiencing the problems of modernity and is a deeply democratic country that will gradually find formulas of calm and friendship.” “Our role, as Latin Americans in Spain, is to help make it a large and important country in the world,” he pointed out.

In addition, he has emphasized the importance of «continue together with the Spanish brothers in this beautiful battle for freedom». “I have seen how freedom has been curdling in Spain until it has become a source from which all Spaniards suck, without exception, and also those who intend to move away from Spain suck from these sources,” he added.

In this sense, Vargas Llosa, who acknowledges feeling “profoundly Madrilenian”, has made another defense of the city, reiterating that “Madrid and freedom are inseparable”. “Freedom is our best guarantee for the future and it is the perfume that is breathed in the streets of Madrid,” he concluded.

Almeida celebrated that Vargas Llosa “has decided that Madrid is the best city to live in”

He was preceded in the award ceremony by the previous winner, the president of the Teatro Real, Gregory Maranon, who has highlighted in allusion to Vargas Llosa that there are “recognitions that honor those who grant them”. “Mario Vargas Llosa is not only one of the best writers of our time, but also an intellectual committed to the civic causes in which he believes from his liberal thought,” he added.

For his part, the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, has celebrated “with pride” that Vargas Llosa “has decided that Madrid is the best city to live in”. “The universality of Madrid is called Mario Vargas Llosa”, he has defended, to conclude by recalling his “passionate defense of the freedom and unity of Spain and the rule of law” in an act of October 2017.

The winner of this edition has been chosen as ‘Madrileño of the Year’ “in recognition of his love for the capital and for having been Madrid’s ambassador on multiple occasions”. The Madrid Award of the Year is an award organized by the magazine Live Madridfrom the publisher Sganmedios.