International
Argentine Jorge Fernández Díaz wins the 81st Nadal Award with ‘El secreto de Marcial’
The Argentine writer and journalist Jorge Fernández Díaz has won the 81st edition of the Nadal Novel Award, endowed with 30,000 euros, with his autobiographical work ‘El secreto de Marcial’, which the winner of the award, Editorial Destino, will publish on February 5.
In the proclamation ceremony, Fernández Díaz, who had presented himself to the award under the pseudonym of Daniel Ocampo, has won the Nadal with a novel that had the provisional title of ‘Marcial’.
Previously, in the same evening, the winner of the 57th edition of the Josep Pla Prize for Catalan Prose was announced, endowed with 10,000 euros, which has fallen to the scientific popularizer and educator David Bueno, hidden behind the pseudonym of ‘Carro de Foc’, for ‘L’art de ser humans’, an essay that proposes a fascinating journey through the arts, neuroscience and education, which he had presented with the fictional title ‘Quan l’esser humà despierta’.
After the jury’s verdict was made public, Fernández Díaz, whose name coincidence with the former PP Minister of the Interior has not prevented any jokes, recalled that Nadal “is one of the world’s great prizes.”
“I am the son of two Asturians who emigrated to Argentina in the midst of hunger and fear of the post-war period after the Spanish Civil War and who built an epic emigrant in an immense Spanish community, forgotten and today in the process of extinction,” confessed the Argentine journalist, who wants to dedicate the winning novel precisely to “that forgotten community in which I grew up.”
A few years ago, in 2001, Fernández Díaz wrote the successful novel ‘Mamá’, which he dedicated to his mother Carmina, an Asturian who was sent to Argentina at the age of 15 to flee poverty in the post-war period of Francoism.
The author now focuses on ‘El secreto de Marcial’ on “the most mysterious person”, his father, Marcial Fernández, who in ‘Mamá’ was “a secondary character, a chapter, because for some reason he was a hermetic person, who was present in an exceptional way.”
For the winner of the dean of the Hispanic literary awards, “there is only one mother, but every father is an enigma” and, for that reason, he decided to solve it: “My father did not have the tools to communicate with me, and his only way, the only sentimental education he bequeathed to me was to watch together some of the classics of old Hollywood, some films that I have later revisited.”
Since Marcial Fernández died in 2005, his father became “a kind of literary ghost” who challenged him to try to write about him.
“My father gave me for lost when he found out that I wanted to be a writer and it is an ironic turn that my father returns to Spain in the form of a novel and tonight,” he said excitedly.
In Fernández Díaz’s opinion, his father was the archetype of “those tough men not trained for the paternal-child relationship, a facet that he left exclusively in the hands of the mother.”
Although he tells the life of Marcial, the writer has also wanted to narrate the life of the Spanish community in Argentina, which “had great importance at the time and is on the verge of extinction with some of its members already in the ages.”
The novel, the author points out, takes place in a different Buenos Aires from that of Marcial, where a family investigation takes place looking for the secrets of this enigmatic man, a research that takes the reader to Asturias.
In the same evening, previously, the 57th Josep Pla Prize for Catalan prose was presented to the biologist, researcher and science popularizer David Bueno, for his work ‘L’art de ser humans’.
After knowing the verdict, Bueno said that “this award is not the end of anything” and about the award-winning work he commented that it is “a fascinating journey through the arts, neuroscience and education, which redefine the way we perceive the world and ourselves.”
In the usual evening that opens the literary course of the year every January 6 in Barcelona, which this year has remembered the centenary of Ana María Matute, personalities from the cultural, political and economic world have attended, headed by the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun.
International
Venezuelan official urges migrant youths to come back and build the “future we deserve”
The President of Venezuela’s National Assembly (AN, Parliament), the chavista Jorge Rodríguez, invited all migrant youths to return to the country and, as he said, help build the “prosperous homeland” during a speech on Wednesday before hundreds of supporters who were commemorating Youth Day.
“We extend a hand to all the young people, anywhere in the world, and we tell them, come back sisters, come back brothers, this is your land, this is your homeland, we welcome you with open arms,” said Rodríguez in a speech outside the Legislative Palace in Caracas, where the demonstration concluded.
Rodríguez urged young people to return with their knowledge and strength to help build the “prosperous homeland” and the future they deserve.
“Here we want you, here we love you (…) come on, we are waiting for you to build together the homeland we deserve, the future we deserve,” he said, recalling that 190 migrants deported from the United States arrived in Venezuela on Monday, who, as he stated, came from “sadness, persecution, and shame.”
International
Colombian president appoints new minister of Labor amid government crisis
Colombian President Gustavo Petro appointed a new Minister of Labor on Wednesday, following the resignation of the former head of the ministry amid the ongoing internal government crisis, which has seen the departure of seven ministers and high-ranking officials.
The appointed minister is Antonio Sanguino, a sociologist and former senator from the centrist Green Party, who will face the main challenge of advancing the labor reform through Congress. This reform is one of Petro’s key political initiatives, as he promised to support the most vulnerable after being elected as the country’s first left-wing president.
“Antonio takes on the responsibility of implementing the pension reform and advancing the labor reform for the dignity of Colombian workers,” Petro stated on X, previously known as Twitter.
With this appointment, Petro begins to restructure the cabinet, which was left weakened by a series of irrevocable resignations from five ministers and one senior official, following internal tensions that became public over a week ago during an unprecedented live broadcast of a private ministerial meeting, where Petro demanded accountability and received criticism in return.
International
Mexico’s president rejects DEA interference after Terry Dale’s nomination
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum stated on Wednesday that she “will not allow interference” from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) following the nomination of Terry Dale as the new director of the agency, with whom she has had prior interactions in Mexico.
“We will not allow interference or violations of sovereignty. What exists is coordination and collaboration with U.S. government agencies, the State Department, and all U.S. government Secretariats, with the White House and President Donald Trump himself,” she expressed.
The Mexican president responded in her morning conference to questions about the nomination of Dale, announced by Trump on Tuesday. Trump has labeled Mexico’s drug cartels as terrorists and warned of possible bombings on Mexican territory and covert operations with U.S. troops.
Dale worked for 21 years with the DEA, with missions in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Mexico, and now, as Secretary of Security for Virginia, he leads 11 state security agencies with over 19,000 employees, as outlined by the Republican leader on Truth Social.
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