The municipal plenary session of Orihuela refused, with the votes against PP and Vox, to adhere to the request made by Miguel Hernández’s family to the Government to annul the summaries that sentenced the poet to death. The decision of the City Council of the author’s hometown of The lightning that does not stopthe only one registered in the Valencian Community, already has consequences. Kalandraka, the publishing house that published the winning works in the Ciudad de Orihuela International Poetry Prize for Girls and Boys, dissociates itself from the award. After the plenary session held on September 26, “the conditions are not met to continue” the collaboration with the City Council, “with absolute respect for the figure of the distinguished poet and his human, intellectual and moral legacy,” the publisher states in a statement.
Kalandraka has participated since 2008 in this children’s literature award, organized by the Oriolana Culture Department, which in 2023 passed into the hands of Councilor Gonzalo Montoya, from Vox. The publisher’s contribution consisted of the publication of “the winning works” with “national and international” projection. However, the municipal government’s refusal to sign the petition promoted by the Hernandian expert Joan Pàmies and signed by the poet’s living relatives, “has been a turning point that fractures the relationship between the publisher and the council,” they say. sources. “Given the local government’s refusal to provide the just historical reparation that Miguel Hernández deserves, and as long as there is no rectification of the plenary ruling, Kalandraka dissociates itself from this contest,” they say.
The request to annul the summaries was brought to a plenary session on September 26 through a motion from the PSOE. The socialists, with the support of Compromís and Ciudadanos, presented a document that included references to the Republic and Francoism, within the historical context in which the arrest of Miguel Hernández took place, his “trials without legal guarantees”, his conviction and his subsequent imprisonment. The poet died in Alicante prison at the age of 32, from tuberculosis. PP and Vox, who govern Orihuela in coalition, proposed an alternative in which they joined the family’s request, but only because of the international relevance of Hernand’s work. Without political overtones. The socialist Carolina Gracia denied them the amendment and the vote was negative. The votes of PP and Vox rejected the proposal.
“Works like Town wind, The man stalks o Songbook and romance book of absences“, quotes the Galician publisher, “they represent Miguel Hernández’s political commitment to the republican cause from the front trenches and the defense of the weakest through words and poetry.” For those responsible, “dissociating his work from the historical context in which he lived and from the ideas for which he lost his life is to distort and betray the author’s memory,” they say. The publisher has already communicated its determination to the mayor, José Vergara, in a letter in which they thank the Department of Culture for its collaboration in the 16 editions held together. In them, they maintain that the literary award “has become a benchmark for Ibero-American literature, with hundreds of works arriving from numerous countries.” “The award-winning poetry collections,” they continue, “have been ambassadors of the hometown of Miguel Hernández and of the ‘people’s poet’ throughout the world.”
After Orihuela’s refusal, the plenary session of Elche, the city where Hernández’s widow, Josefina Manresa, lived and where PP and Vox also govern, debated a similar motion. The change in the popular vote, led by Mayor Pablo Ruz, who abstained, did allow the document, which also cited the Republic and Francoism, to go ahead, with votes in favor of Compromís and PSOE and only three against, those of Vox. A day later, on Tuesday, the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, presented to the Valencian Cortes a proposal to adhere to the petition signed by the daughter-in-law, the grandson and two great-nephews of the author of Perito en lunas. The Government, through the Secretary of State for Democratic Memory, has agreed to make an institutional declaration of reparation and recognition of the figure of Miguel Hernández on October 31.