Cervantes Award: King and Queen visit Oliva poet Francisco Brines at home

KING Felipe and Queen Letizia visited the Valencia-province coastal town of Oliva for the first time ever to present one of the nation's most prestigious awards to a former Oxbridge lecturer.

Francisco Brines, 89 – who has a street named after him in Oliva, where he was born – was named 2020 winner of the Miguel de Cervantes Literature in Spanish Prize, which comes with a gold medal and a pot of €125,000.

Poet Francisco has been writing and publishing his works for 60 years and is the last author standing from the famous 'Generation of '50' – the fourth in a series of cultural movements defined by a specific year, starting from the late 19th century with the Generation of '98 and followed up by those of '27 and '36.

He was named as the 2020 prizewinner in November, but due to his frailty, he was unable to travel to the University of Alcalá de Henares in the Greater Madrid region for the awards ceremony on April 23, which is International Book Day in tribute to Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare.

Instead, King Felipe and Queen Letizia visited 'Paco' personally at his country estate, L'Elca, in his home town.

Whilst there, the reigning monarch called the villa and its grounds, surrounded by orange groves, 'a miniature paradise'.

Seated on his terrace outside, HRH Felipe thanked Brines for 'welcoming them into his home', and greeted his niece, Mariona, who was present with his carer, friend and fellow author Fernando Delgado, and head of the Francisco Brines Foundation, Àngels Gregori, who is one of the greatest experts on the poet's works.

“No, don't get up,” HRH Letizia said to Francisco Brines, who attempted to stand to attention for the Royal couple when they placed his medal round his neck.

They also gave him a medallion, which was much larger, and Felipe VI put it on the table next to the writer, saying, “It's a bit heavy, we'll leave it here.”

King Felipe called for a round of applause for Brines, and Brines gave the King and Queen an anthology of his works and 20 hand-signed prints.

Also present were Spain's minister of culture and sports, José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes; Oliva's mayor David González; director-general of the Book and Reading Promotion association María José Gálvez; director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), which standardises the language and writes the dictionary, Santiago Muñoz Machado, and Comunidad Valenciana regional president Ximo Puig.

In total, there were 10 people on site and all outdoors, in keeping with the current maximum group size allowed in the region due to the pandemic.

Also as a result of the pandemic, the King and Queen did not attend any official reception at Oliva town hall, nor meet the public in the street, as would normally have been the case with a Royal visit, but went straight home to the Zarzuela Palace in Madrid after the presentation.

Both posed for a picture with Brines, each holding an arm, since his age means his movement is restricted and he sometimes has to use a wheelchair.

Francisco Brines was born in Oliva, the southernmost town in the province of Valencia, in 1932, and studied law, philosophy, humanities and history at university.

He holds an honorary doctorate from Valencia Polytechnic, and has been lecturer in Spanish literature at Cambridge University and professor of Spanish at Oxford.

He was named a member of the RAE 20 years ago, which he formally took possession of five years later.

Brines' romantic, pastoral verse has a 'Mediterranean feel' about it and 'leaches freedom, peace and harmony', according to Puig, who expressed his delight at a Cervantes Prize recipient being a writer from the Comunidad Valenciana.

The author's works take their inspiration from his native surroundings and, in particular, from the 'poetic refuge' of L'Elca, said David González.

They described him as 'a universal poet, but one with roots'.

Puig said Brines is 'totally grateful' to his parents, who allowed him free rein to explore his vocation as a poet 'at a time when it was not easy to make such decisions'.

Tributes to 'Paco' have been on display all over Oliva since he was named 2020 Cervantes Prize winner in November – almost every shop window in the town now has the same line from one of his poems printed on the glass: “Yo sé que olí un jazmín en la infancia una tarde, y no existió la tarde,” which roughly translates as: “I know I could smell a jasmine during my childhood one evening, and the evening did not exist.”

In the past few days, a giant banner with a sketch of Brines' face and the words, '¡Enhorabona!' across it has been hanging up in Oliva's central street, just a few metres from the poet's own namesake highway.

The Passeig Francisco Brines is the dual carriageway which leads from the town centre to the beach two kilometres away.