Mexico and Spain
celebrate this year their 40th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations . In this context, the Aragonese cultural magazine Turia commemorated this friendship with its first presentation in Mexico. The event took place last Thursday in the Spain Cultural Center (CCE), located in Mexico City.
In order to reinforce the presence and diffusion of Turia in Mexico as a leading literature magazine which promotes reading , the government of Spain and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) opened a space to present this special edition. The main participants were the founder and director of Turia, Raúl Carlos Maícas , writer, and coordinator of cultural diffusion of the UNAM, Jorge Volpi , and Miguel Iranzo , cultural deputy of the Provincial Council of Teruel .
“We (in Turia) are still surrealist. We keep dreaming with open eyes and 3 decades later we still believe in the transforming power of education and culture , we still believe in the creative ability of our authors and in our reader's good criteria ,” said Raúl Carlos Maícas during the ceremony.
“It is a pleasure, an honor and a privilege being here in Mexico with all of you, especially if it involves the presentation of Turia in this cultural center,” added the director.
The founder also thanked Mexico for receiving the Spanish Republican exiles who were welcomed in this country and remarked that Mexico was the main receptor of Aragonese exiles .
For his part, Jorge Volpi introduced the magazine as a notable example of thought and creation from Teruel, as well as an emblematic publication.
“Turia is one of those magazines in which the tenacity of the creative team must be celebrated,” added Volpi.
The magazine's special edition is titled “Spanish and Mexican Letters” and it includes more than 100 writers from both countries . The protagonist in this particular number, the 123rd edition of Turia, is filmmaker Luis Buñuel , who not only was born in the same province where the magazine was founded, but also spent many years in Mexico. Thus, Buñuel is highlighted as a figure which connects Spain and Mexico.
The magazine is characterized by offering the reader unpublished and original writing. Among the poems, essays, interviews, and reviews contained in the magazine are works from Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, Gudalupe Nettel , Jorge Volpi, Tomás Segovia and many others in the more than 500 pages of the magazine.
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