The award was collected by the actress Ceclia Roth, as the winner was unable to attend the ceremony for health reasons.
The event, which was held in the auditorium of the University of Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares), was attended by the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez; the Minister for Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta; and numerous personalities from politics and culture.
The Ministry of Culture and Sport awards the Miguel de Cervantes Prize to writers who contribute with works of notable quality to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy.
The jury awarded the prize to Peri Rossi for "recognising in her the trajectory of one of the great literary vocations of our time and the importance of a writer capable of expressing her talent in a plurality of genres. Cristina Peri Rossi's literature is a constant exercise in exploration and criticism, without shying away from the value of the word as an expression of a commitment to key issues in contemporary conversation such as the condition of women and sexuality. Furthermore, her work, a bridge between Latin America and Spain, must remain a perpetual reminder of exile and the political tragedies of the 20th century".
Cervantes Prize
The Cervantes Prize was awarded for the first time in 1976 to Jorge Guillén and since then a total of 47 authors have been awarded it. In 1979, the Prize was awarded ex aequo to Jorge Luis Borges and Gerardo Diego. Since then, the order of convocation stipulates that the Prize may not be divided, declared void or awarded posthumously.
The awarding of this prize, endowed with 125,000 euros, is an annual public testimony of admiration for the figure of a writer who, through their work as a whole, has contributed to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy.
The Cervantes Prize may be awarded to any author whose literary work is written entirely, or mostly, in Spanish. Candidates for the Prize may be put forward by the Academies of the Spanish Language, by authors who have won prizes in previous editions, by institutions which, due to their nature, aims or content, are linked to literature in the Spanish language, and by the members of the Jury.
Cristina Peri Rossi
Cristina Peri Rossi (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1941) studied Biology, but graduated in Comparative Literature. At a very young age, she obtained a professorship, which she held until she had to leave the country for political reasons.
From the beginning she used her second surname as a tribute to her mother, who taught her from an early age to love literature, music and science.
She published her first book in 1963, winning the most important prizes in Uruguay. In 1972, her work and the mention of her name was banned in the media during the military dictatorship that ruled Uruguay until 1985. That year she moved to Barcelona, where she began her activity against the Uruguayan dictatorship, writing in the legendary magazine Triunfo.
Once again persecuted, this time by Franco's dictatorship, she went into exile in Paris in 1974. She returned definitively to Barcelona at the end of that year and obtained Spanish nationality. Since then she has lived in Spain.
She has been a literature teacher, translator and journalist, and is a regular lecturer at Spanish and foreign universities.
She has cultivated various genres such as the novel, with works like 'La nave de los locos' (1984), 'El amor es una droga dura' (1999), 'Todo lo que no te pude decir' (2017) and the autobiographical novel 'La insumisa' (2020); the short story, with books like 'Habitaciones privadas' (2012) and 'Los amores equivocados' (2015); the essay with titles like 'Acerca de la escritura' (1991) and 'Cuando fumar era un placer' (2003); and poetry, with titles like 'Descripción de un naufragio' (1975), 'Babel bárbara' (1992), 'Playstation' (2009) and 'Las replicantes' (2016).
She has received prestigious awards such as the City of Barcelona Prize, the Loewe Foundation International Prize, the NH Mario Vargas Llosa Prize for short stories and the Ibero-American José Donoso Prize for Literature 2019.
Jury
The jury, which met on 10 November 2021, was chaired by José Manuel Sánchez Ron, appointed by the Royal Spanish Academy, who also acted as a member. María José Gálvez Salvador, Director General of Books and Reading Promotion, acted as secretary, with voice but without vote, and Begoña Cerro Prada, Deputy Director General of Book, Reading and Spanish Literature Promotion, acted as secretary of the minutes, also with voice but without vote.
The jury was also made up of the members Cristina Maya, appointed by the Colombian Academy of Language; José Francisco Asís Montero Reguera, for the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); Ana Rosa Domenella Amadio, for the Union of Latin American Universities (UDUAL); Ignacio Peyró Jiménez, for the Cervantes Institute; Laura Revuelta Sanjurjo, for the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE); Ciro Francisco Bianchi Ross, for the Latin American Federation of Journalists (FELAP); and Maja Zovko, for the International Association of Hispanists.
List of other award winners
The list of Cervantes Prize laureates is undisputed evidence of the significance of the award for Spanish-language culture:
1976 Jorge Guillén
1977 Alejo Carpentier
1978 Dámaso Alonso
1979 Jorge Luis Borges y Gerardo Diego
1980 Juan Carlos Onetti
1981 Octavio Paz
1982 Luis Rosales
1983 Rafael Alberti
1984 Ernesto Sábato
1985 Gonzalo Torrente Ballester
1986 Antonio Buero Vallejo
1987 Carlos Fuentes
1988 Maria Zambrano
1989 Augusto Roa Bastos
1990 Adolfo Bioy Casares
1991 Francisco Ayala
1992 Dulce María Loynaz
1993 Miguel Delibes
1994 Mario Vargas Llosa
1995 Camilo José Cela
1996 José García Nieto
1997 Guillermo Cabrera Infante
1998 José Hierro
1999 Jorge Edwards
2000 Francisco Umbral
2001 Álvaro Mutis
2002 José Jiménez Lozano
2003 Gonzalo Rojas
2004 Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio
2005 Sergio Pitol
2006 Antonio Gamoneda
2007 Juan Gelman
2008 Juan Marsé
2009 José Emilio Pacheco
2010 Ana María Matute
2011 Nicanor Parra
2012 José Manuel Caballero Bonald
2013 Elena Poniatowska
2014 Juan Goytisolo Gay
2015 Fernando del Paso
2016 Eduardo Mendoza
2017 Sergio Ramírez
2018 Ida Vitale
2019 Joan Margarit
2020 Francisco Brines
Non official translation
