The melancholic look at the memory of the Mexican writer Gonzalo Celorio (Mexico City, 1948) received the 2025 Cervantes Prize this Monday. This was announced at the ministry’s headquarters in Madrid. An award that goes to the essayist, writer and critic “for his exceptional literary work, profound and sustained by Hispanic culture,” noted the jury, which highlights that Celorio “combines a critical lucidity that explores sentimental identity and loss.” Celorio thus wins the highest award for literature in the Spanish language, created in 1976 and endowed with 125,000 euros. The award will be presented on April 23 at the University of Alcalá de Henares.
The jury in this edition has been made up, among others, of the last two winners of the award in 2023 and 2024, the and , respectively; the academic Aura Egido, the critic Constantino Bértolo and the writer Manuel Rico, as well as Mauricio Carrera representing the Union of Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean (UDUALC).
The awarding of the award to the Mexican writer seems to be a new cultural gesture towards Mexico, when relations between both countries have been at a low point following former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s demand for a pardon from Spain for the excesses of the conquest. In mid-October, the Princess of Asturias Foundation presented the Concord recognition to the National Museum of Anthropology and the Arts to the Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide.
Celorio is one of the most prominent essayists, narrators and academics of contemporary Mexican literature. His work is characterized by a deep love of language, a melancholic look at memory and a constant reflection on culture and the craft of writing. He himself has defined his works as “memorial novels”, because in them he delves into family history, but also about the life and creations of writers with whom he has interacted.
In his most recent book, That pile of broken mirrors (Tusquets), the writer has decided to talk about his own life, in a memoir in which he delves into his literary vocation, his intellectual training and his academic work. The title of the work, the author explains in his prologue, is a verse by Borges that for him “correctly defines memory.” Celorio narrates: “This book accumulates scattered memories that are reflections of some sections of my life. And only reflections, because language, inescapably and paradoxically, distorts what it intends to retain in memory, even more so if what it is trying to preserve occurred in remote times. But in no way have I intended to make an autobiography; if anything, just record certain significant aspects of my life.” It is, he adds, a memory of what he defines as his “exultant passions”: “The word, literature, theater, popular music, parties, celebrations, domestic rituals, the baroque, architecture, teaching, friendship, love and its simulations.”
Trained in Literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he has been a professor, director of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and member of the Philological Research Institute, Celorio has dedicated his life to thinking about and teaching Mexican literature. He has also been director of the Mexican Academy of Language, where he has promoted the care and renewal of the language.
As a narrator, he achieved wide recognition with Self-love (1992) y And the Earth trembles in its centers (1999), autobiographical novels that combine irony, memory and social criticism. His prose—cultured, elegant and at the same time approachable—oscillates between erudition and personal confession, between literary essay and sentimental evocation.
In the last two years, the Cervantes was awarded to Spanish authors, something that broke the traditional alternation between Spanish and Ibero-American authors, which in the last decade has become every two years. The two previous winners of Luis Mateo Díez were the Venezuelan poet Rafael Cadenas (2022) and the Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi (2021). In the 2020 and 2019 editions, the Spanish poets Francisco Brines and Joan Margarit won, respectively, while in 2018 and 2017 the Uruguayan poet Ida Vitale and the Nicaraguan Sergio Ramírez won.
The candidates for this award are proposed by the plenary session of the Royal Spanish Academy, by the Language Academies of Spanish-speaking countries and by the winners of past editions. This year’s applications closed on October 21.
