The award ceremony was attended by the President of the Government, Mariano Rajoy; the Minister for Education, Culture and Sport, José Ignacio Wert; the State Secretary for Culture, José María Lassalle; and numerous figures from the world of politics and culture.
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport bestows the Miguel de Cervantes Award (plus 125,000 euros) to those writers who contribute through works of outstanding quality to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy.
The prize was bestowed for the first time in 1976, to Jorge Guillén. In 1979, the prize was given ex aequo to Jorge Luis Borges and Gerardo Diego. Since then, the rules state that the prize may not be divided, declared void or awarded posthumously.
The jury that awarded the prize to José Manuel Caballero Bonald on 29 November 2012 consisted of: Ana María Matute, laureate in 2010; Darío Villanueva, who acted as chairman-elect of the jury and was appointed by the Royal Spanish Academy; Arístides Martínez, by the Panamanian Academy of Language; Rosa Navarro, by the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Spanish Universities (Spanish acronym: CRUE); Malena Mijares, by the Union of Latin American Universities (Spanish acronym: UDUAL); Montserrat Iglesias, by the Director of the Cervantes Institute; Valentí Puig i Mas, by the Minister for Education, Culture and Sport; Fernando Urbaneja, by the Spanish Federation of Journalists' Associations (Spanish acronym: FAPE); Ernesto Carmona, by the Latin American Federation of Journalists (Spanish acronym: FELAP); and Patrizia Botta, by the International Association of Hispanists.
As stated in its conclusion, the jury awarded the prize "to the poet, novelist and memorialist, José Manuel Caballero Bonald, for the body of his works, which, as this prize recognises, has contributed to enriching the Hispanic literary legacy".
Biography
José Manuel Caballero Bonald (Jerez de la Frontera, 1926) studied Sailing and Astronomy in Cadiz and received a Degree in Philosophy and Humanities from the University of Seville. He worked as a professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature for ten years at the National University of Colombia and at Bryn Mawr College.
After returning to Spain, he ran a publishing company, was secretary and deputy editor of the magazine Papeles de Son Armadans and worked at the Seminary of Lexicography of the Royal Spanish Academy. He was president of the PEN Club Español until 1980 and is correspondent member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language.
A poet, novelist and essayist, he published his first work entitled "Las adivinaciones" in 1952, which immediately placed him among the group of most important poets of the 1950s that centred in Barcelona around such figures as Jaime Gil de Biedma, Carlos Barral, Josep María Castellet and José Agustín Goytisolo, and to which Ángel González, Carlos Bousoño, Francisco Brines, José Ángel Valente and Claudio Rodríguez also belong.
He is the author of the theatre adaptations of "Abre el ojo" by Rojas Zorrilla, launched in 1979 by the National Drama Centre Company; and "Don Gil de las calzas verdes", by Tirso de Molina, launched in 1994 by the National Classical Theatre Company. He has also written scripts for the documentary series "Andalucía de Cine", directed by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, for Radio Televisión Andaluza.
In 1998, he created the Caballero Bonald Foundation that is based in the building where the poet was born. The institution aims to be a benchmark for literature and poetry in Jerez.
