This Thursday, Vargas Llosa became the first Hispanic writer to be part of a select club of intellectuals who defend and watch over the language: the French Academy. Among those attending the inauguration ceremony was the emeritus king of Spain, Juan Carlos I. In his first speech as a member of the renowned academy, the writer criticized “Vladimir Putin’s Russia” and defended the free novel.
The chair 18 of the 40 in which only members of the French Academy can sit already has a name: Mario Vargas Llosa. And it is that the writer born in Peru made history by officially joining a select organization that included names such as Victor Hugo, Louis Pasteur or Montesquieu. He is already an “immortal”, as the illustrious who have been part of this society are called.
For the occasion, the Nobel Prize winner also arrived dressed in a black suit with olive leaves embroidered in green and gold. At his waist, the sword of the French academics. This particular one was forged in Toledo, Spain, by a long-established gunsmith family.
The solemnity of the event was also marked by an honor guard at the gate of the venue to watch over, in that part of the world, one of the main treasures of the human race: language.
Accompanied by his family, including his ex-wife, and by guests such as the emeritus king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, the acceptance ceremony was held at the headquarters of the Institute of France, to which the Academy belongs.
In his speech, Vargas Losa defended the role of the novel as another expression of democracy. “Now let me present my theory, which is worth what it is worth,” he stressed. “A little more and, without a doubt, a little less, than so many others that circulate in our era of literary theories. The novel will either save democracy or spoil with it and disappear, ”he concluded.
It was a long speech, in which he also defended the free novel, one that survives everything and not “the caricature that totalitarian countries sell us as novels,” he said. In this sense, Llosa linked to a tangible example today, in his view.
“They only exist after having gone through the censorship that mutilates them, in order to prop up the phantasmagoric institutions of pantomime of democracy such as the ones that Vladimir Putin’s Russia gives us,” he stressed. “No one is safe if we are not all free. That is the great teaching of French literature, ”he said at another time.
France, a key country in the life of Mario Vargas
Mario arrived in France in 1959. There he reflected, he realized that they had discovered writers like “Borges, Cortázar, Uslar Pietri, Onetti, Octavio Paz and, later, Gabriel García Márquez before him” (…) ” Therefore, it was in France – what a paradox! – where I began to feel like a Peruvian and Latin American writer”, outlined the intellectual.
He also affirmed that, “thanks to France”, he discovered “the other face of Latin America, the problems common to all its countries, the horrible legacy of military coups and underdevelopment, the guerrilla and the shared dreams of liberation.”
His work plan is unique in the world. He belongs to two language academies, the Spanish one and now the French one, so his work will not stop being complex. “My hope is to come for 15 days so as not to neglect the Spanish Academy either, to come to the French Academy for 15 days and to the Spanish Academy for 15 days,” he said.
The emeritus king, the antagonist applauded by Vargas Llosa
The emeritus Spanish king Juan Carlos I took much of the attention during the ceremony. When he entered the venue, he was received with an ovation along with his daughter, the Infanta Cristina.
When dismissing him, Vargas personally accompanied him to the car that was transporting him. The image could not be left out of the main media posted there, so it became a pitched battle to immortalize the moment. “This is crazy,” reacted one of the officials of the institution of the French language.
Then, the recently elected member of the French Academy made some comments about the monarch’s presence at the reception. “I think there should be a little more understanding and gratitude towards a king on whom the freedom we enjoy today in Spain depends to a large extent,” he stressed.
mixed opinions
The historical fact did not fail to generate different opinions on whether the author of ‘La fiesta del Chivo’ should enter the French Academy. First of all, because he has never written a book in French.
Another of the aspects outlined to object to his entry was the age of the Peruvian writer. The institution’s rules establish that the maximum admission age is 75 years, but Vargas Llosa is 86, so it will be an exception to the rule.
Other detractors also recriminate him for his political positions, associated with the extreme right.
The French Academy, more than 300 years of history
The French Academy is a creation with a vast history. It is considered one of the oldest in France. Your membership is for life and space is limited: 40 seats. Those who take these positions are known as “The Immortals”, a reference to the society’s motto: “To Immortality”.
Among those who will be companions of the Spanish-Peruvian Nobel Prize winner are Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, “perpetual secretary” of the group since 1990, or the Bishop of Angoulême, Claude Dagens. At the Academy, there are currently 35 members. Vargas Llosa will occupy the position of the philosopher Michel Serres, who died in 2019.
The work of its members is not simple. They must meet every week, specifically on Thursdays at three in the afternoon, to contribute to the improvement of French.
In addition to the public ceremony, another more private ceremony was held, in which the initiate was assigned a word from the dictionary. With it he must improvise a reflection so that later he is given the institution’s medal. The word assigned to Vargas Llosa was “xérès”, or sherry in Spanish.
with EFE
