The Cuban writer Leonardo Padura This Wednesday he received the honorary doctorate awarded by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), in recognition of his “extraordinary contribution” to the Ibero-American literary and cultural heritage.
Within the framework of his participation in the Mexican International Book Fair (FIL) of Guadalajara that takes place in the capital of the state of Jalisco, Padura emphasized the relationship he has had with Mexico since he came for the first time in 1990 invited by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and for now Cervantes Prize 2025, Gonzalo Celorio.
The Havana writer recalled that Mexico was the country where he managed to publish his novel Past perfect, which was censored in the Revolution Anniversary Novel Contest organized by the Cuban Ministry of the Interior.
“I was left with that novel in my hand without knowing what to do with it, the novel was typewritten and Paco Ignacio Taibo was passing through Havana in those days and I told him (about the novel). Paco is coming to Mexico and at the end of the year I come to a festival and Paco gives me a printed copy of past perfect”he recalled.
Padura, 70, added that the Mexican writer explained to him that the UdeG had had the initiative to publish a collection of contemporary detective novels and that he did not hesitate to recommend the work in which the iconic character of the Cuban narrator, detective Mario Conde, appears for the first time.
“It was a shock for me. (…) That was important because it is the book that allowed me to have the idea that it was possible to continue working with that character of Mario Conde who broke with so many things regarding the detective novel,” he explained.
Mexico is also the country where Padura found the seed to create his most representative book, The man who loved dogs, in which he linked the story of León Trotsky and his own experience of living in a communist country.
Dulce María Zúñiga, director of the Julio Cortázar Latin American Chair and promoter of the distinction, pointed out that Padura’s is one of the most lucid, coherent and universal voices in contemporary literature.
Zúñiga highlighted that the Cuban writer’s literary career is unique because he has known how to overcome the “restrictive social, political and economic conditions of his country and has remained faithful to his place of origin”, a fidelity that is both “moral and political”, and has been a form of coherence “to look from within and to write from the roots.”
The rector of the UdeG, Karla Planter, recalled that Padura is a friend of this institution and of the FIL, to which he is a regular attendee, which is why in 2020 the fair awarded him the Carlos Fuentes Medal in recognition of his career.
“Effective, but lyrical; endearing, yet implacable, Padura is one of the greats of contemporary literature and we are also honored to say that he is an old friend of the FIL,” Planter stressed.
