Two diametrically different diplomatic and cultural decisions were taken this week by the two most important cultural organizations in the country, the federal government and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), on the future view of the historical, political, academic and cultural relations between Mexico and Spain.
In the morning conference on Wednesday, February 9, the President of the Republic, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, spoke in favor, albeit informally, of pausing relations with the Iberian country. He believed that for at least three consecutive six-year terms there was “a conspiracy at the top, an economic-political promiscuity at the top of the governments of Mexico and Spain.”
Thereafter, he applied National Palace, “It is better to give us some time, a pause. When the government changes and relations are reestablished, I would like, when I’m not here, that they were not the same as they were before”.
This juncture occurs in an act followed by a series of turbulence in diplomatic affairs between the cultural attaché office of the Embassy of Mexico in Spain and the presidency, which included the dismissal of the writer Jorge F. Hernandez as owner of the same; later, the rejection of supporters of the 4T to the appointment in her place of the writer Brenda Lozano, who has been openly critical of the federal administration, and the resignation of Enrique Marquez as Director of Cultural Diplomacy at the Secretary of Foreign Relations. All this, accompanied by a murky argumentative dispute on social networks.
UNAM, to strengthen relations
Practically at the same time, within the conjuncture, last Monday the UNAM announced and presented in Madrid the writer Jorge Volpiwho was coordinator of Cultural Diffusion from 2016 to January 2022, as the new director of the Center for Mexican Studies UNAM-Spain (CEM Spain), by appointment of the rector Enrique Graue Wiechers.
The presentation took place at the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute and was headed by its director, the poet Luis Garcia Monterowho recognized UNAM as the owner of a decisive role in the effort to concretize the weight of Hispanic culture in the world and highlighted the importance of the link with Mexico as this is the country with the most Spanish-speakers.
At that time, Volpi Escalante agreed with García Montero that “countries and nations are fictions, great, wonderful and terrible fictions, which we serve and which we use”. He stressed that the fictions that have been Mexico and Spain have had “a complex and rich relationship” of 500 years, as well as detailed the mutual cultural enrichment between both nations thanks to their travelers, including writers such as Alfonso Reyes and Martín Luis Guzmán, or later, Octavio Paz and Elena Garro, but also the cultural enrichment in Mexico due to the Spanish exile and the peninsular country from the Latin American Boom.
Finally, Volpi declared that he came to Spain to expand those round trip paths for students from both nations, to accentuate the institutional relationship between UNAM and Spanish universities, but also, he remarked, “with all Spanish cultural institutions, so that These round trip paths never close, they always remain open, always porous and fruitful”.
The relief to Volpi
On January 24, the rector of the UNAM announced that the writer and professor Rosa Beltrán would take over from Jorge Volpi in the coordination of Cultural Diffusion. The rector of the highest house of studies stressed that the writer’s administration contributed to consolidate UNAM Culture as the second cultural force in the country. There he announced that the author of “A criminal novel” would deal with another commission that would be announced shortly.
ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.