In March 1995, the poet and critic José Luis Cano and Alejandro Sanz, president of the Association of Friends of Vicente Aleixandre (AAVA), started a protest campaign with a group of friends to denounce the unfortunate abandonment suffered by the historic Velintonia property. 3, since the death of the poet and Nobel laureate Vicente Aleixandre, in 1984. That was a campaign in which signatures of intellectuals were collected and it was the beginning that made the situation of that historic house known internationally.
Ten years later they called a rally on Calle Velintonia, which was renamed after the poet, and the media echoed that action and, for a few weeks, it attracted the attention of the Madrid City Council, the Community of Madrid and the Ministry of Culture. However, in the plenary session of the City Council held a few days later, the proposal of the Association was rejected, which boldly requests the acquisition of the property to transform it into the headquarters of the Vicente Aleixandre Foundation and a center for documentation and study of Spanish poetry of the 20th century, that is, in the House of Poetry. But the three administrations decided, through a brief statement sent to the media, not to go ahead with the project.
Memory
Through Velintonia, and in the warmth of Vicente Aleixandre, passed the most relevant poets and intellectuals of the moment, —Cernuda, Salinas, Alberti, Neruda, Lorca—…, and so did the young people of that time such as Gil de Biedma, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ayala, Nieva, Hierro…, or the last, those of the generation of 70 —Luis Antonio de Villena, Molina Foix, Javier Marías…—, the latter wrote on October 8, 2006 in The country: “The politicians of 1977 [año de la concesión del Nobel] they turned to salaries, and even changed the name of their street, against their will, to call it theirs. The Minister of Culture and the kings bothered to visit him, because then, without a doubt, it was beneficial for them to do so, apart from the fact that the feelings of admiration and respect for him were sincere, it is most likely. But Aleixandre has been dead twenty-two years [hoy ya son 38] and, unlike his friend Lorca, he did not leave relatives jealous of his memory or combative. Today no politician has anything tangible to scratch in Velintonia, and so they let it rot or be sold to private individuals & rdquor ;.
From 2011 to 2019, the Association organized evenings in Velintonia in memory of some of the poets who frequented the house and in which writers, actors, actresses and musicians such as Luis Eduardo Aute, Miguel Poveda, José Sacristán, Charo López, Julieta Serrano have participated. , Carmen Linares, Miguel Molina, Patxi Andión, Amancio Prada, Juan Diego…
Today everything continues as it was, or worse, since so many years later the politicians involved in the Velintonia case either do not dare to say anything coherent in favor of culture, or, like Mr. Iceta, minister of culture, who would say Umbral , makes a speech to the tiktokers: “The great merit that you have tiktokers it is that you become important for many people; interested to know your opinion. If you recommend a book, a movie, a show, people tend to go because they trust, because they trust…”.
And for now this is the level.
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