The Generalitat (Catalan government) recovers the Blanquerna award and grants it to Luis García Montero.

BarcelonaThe poet, critic, professor, and current director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, has been awarded the twentieth Blanquerna Prize, the Catalan government announced Tuesday. This is an honorary recognition that the Generalitat (Generalitat) has revived after seven years without awarding it and that recognizes the careers of individuals or entities that have contributed to projecting Catalonia at the state level. For the government, it is an award that "helps forge ties between Catalonia and Spanish civil society in general and that of Madrid in particular." In fact, it will be presented by President Salvador Illa on November 18 at the Neptuno Palace in Madrid.

For the award jury, García Montero (Granada, 1958) represents "a commitment to all of Spain's literature" and has turned the Cervantes Institute into "a bridge to foster dialogue between all Spanish cultures in a commitment to diversity." From progressive ideological positions, whether from the press (he is a contributor toThe Country and SER) as well as from Cervantes himself, García Montero has been prominent in his defense of linguistic diversity within the Hispanic context and in the Spanish state. Last week, in the Forum Europa, he argued that "it makes no sense to call yourself a patriot and go to Europe to boycott Spain, its wealth and its diversity," referring to the official status of Catalan, Basque, and Galician. And he insisted on defending "the diversity of all the languages of the State" against the "annoyance of not recognizing what a wealth it is." Likewise, the Andalusian poet defends "the pride of the Spanish language, spoken by 600 million people." In fact, the director of the Cervantes Institute since 2018, who has led some controversies statements against the president of the RAE, is currently in Arequipa, Peru, the hometown of Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, where the tenth congress of the Spanish language is being held.

The jury for this year's Blanquerna Award was chaired by the Minister for the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, and included the Government Delegate in Madrid, Núria Marín; journalists Jordi Amat, Àngels Barceló, and Enric Juliana; actress Irene Escolar; former Secretary of State for Culture José María Lassalle; director of the Felipe González Foundation, Rocío Martínez-Sempere; and editor of Alfaguara, Carme Riera Sanfeliu.

The Blanquerna Award was established when the Blanquerna Cultural Center opened in Madrid in 1993, with the aim of promoting Catalan culture throughout Spain. Previous winners of the award range from Lázaro Carreter and Adolfo Suárez to Jorge Semprún, during the Pujol years; During the years of the Socialist presidency, names such as Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, Esther Koplowitz, and Iñaki Gabilondo were awarded. Under the Mas government, in 2010, this award was discontinued, but it was revived in February 2017, when the Puigdemont government created two categories, for individuals and entities, awarding the coach Vicente del Bosque and the New Economy Forum chaired by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.