“I have been prosecuted for my words, for the fact of writing, for showing the reality of a country subjected to the violence of tyranny and for imagining,” said Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize, upon receiving the Medal of Gold from the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid this Monday. “The invention also has a price, because in the eyes of absolute power, the novel becomes subversive,” said the novelist.
Ramírez, who is in exile accused of alleged crimes by the Prosecutor’s Office controlled by the Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo regime, which issued an arrest and search warrant against him, thanked the recognition and denounced “the excessive power of the tyrannies ”.
“Literature is a dangerous profession when it faces the excessive power of tyranny, which never ceases to feel threatened by words,” said the writer who recently presented his latest novel “Tongolele did not know how to dance” (Alfaguara), which she is kidnapped in Nicaragua.
“I speak in front of you as a writer forced into exile and under an arbitrary prison order, the same that has fallen on the heads of more than 150 of my compatriots, imprisoned for thinking differently, for dissenting, for asserting their right of opinion , for believing in democracy and for defending it “, denounced the author.
Thanks to the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid @cbamadrid for this enormous honor of awarding me your Gold Medal. pic.twitter.com/W0juXosgNv
– Sergio Ramírez (@sergioramirezm) October 25, 2021
Sergio Ramírez: No one will be able to exile me from my language
On his speech, Ramírez recalled how several writers, like him, have also been victims of persecution for their way of thinking: “That tradition of paying a high price for words, but no one will be able to exile me from my language, which knows no borders,” he said.
The author of “Divine Punishment”, He also recalled the case of the Roman poet Ovid, one of the great classical authors, who during his time also had to suffer exile: “The Emperor Augustus who secretly judged him and sentenced him to exile where he would die afflicted by the calamities of the loneliness and ostracism missed ”.
“When a writer is sent into exile, the intention is to turn him into a stranger in his own land, in his own life, in his own memories,” Ramírez quoted.
With this recognition, Ramírez shares honors with other prominent authors who have also received the medal, such as: Salman Rushdie, India-United Kingdom; Eduardo Galeano, Uruguay; Umberto Eco, Italy; Ana María Matute, Spain; Jürgen Habermas, Germany; Gunter Grass. Germany; Ernesto Sabato, Argentina, among others.
Commitment to freedom of expression
The Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid highlighted in its resolution of recognition the “commitment and courage of Sergio Ramírez, both in his literature and in his fight for freedom of thought and expression” to grant his highest distinction.
“These fundamental values are integrated into the manifesto of the newly constituted European Alliance of Academies, the transnational European cultural alliance of which the Circle is a part ”, assured the cultural institution.
“Tongolele did not know how to dance”, his latest novel, has been the trigger for the persecution of the Ortega regime against Ramírez, as explained by the writer to the journalist Carlos Fernando Chamorro in the program This Week: “Tongolele did not know how to dance appreciates this prohibition because there will be a lot of curiosity and a lot of intrigue from people who, perhaps, did not think to read the book, because they know what this book says to have been banned, “said the writer with irony about the prohibition of the novel In Nicaragua.
“With my language I travel an entire continent, I cross the sea and they will always be listening to me and if my books are banned in Nicaragua, the clandestine paths of social networks make them reach thousands of readers, as happened before with registered books on the blacklists of the Inquisition, ”Ramírez said in his speech on the subject.
