The Diplomat in Spain

Photo: luisgarciamontero.com

The Diplomat. 20/07/2018

The Granadan writer and poet Luis García Montero has been appointed director of the Cervantes Institute, reported yesterday La Moncloa.

García Montero, who will be officially appointed by the Council of Ministers today, becomes the ninth director of this institution since its foundation in 1991.

He was preceded by Nicolás Sánchez-Albornoz (1991-1996), Marqués de Tamarón (1996-1999), Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente (1999-2001), Juan Juaristi (2001-2004), César Antonio Molina (2004-2007), Carmen Caffarel (2007-2012), Víctor García de la Concha (2012-2017) and Juan Manuel Bonet (2017-2018).

García Montero, named Son of Andalusia in 2017, is a literary critic, essayist and professor of Literature. Among his awards in the world of letters are the Adonis Poetry Prize in 1982, the National Poetry Prize in 1995 and the Critique’s National Prize in 2003.

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The former IU candidate in Madrid will meet on Monday with directors of the institution

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In addition, in February 2015 it was presented as a candidate by Izquierda Unida for the presidency of the Community of Madrid, in elections in which the leftist formation, in the midst of internal crisis, lost the thirteen deputies it had in the regional Parliament. He has lived with the writer Almudena Grandes since 1994, with whom he has three children.

Garcia Montero will debut in his new position this coming Monday, on the occasion of the annual meeting of directors of the Cervantes Institute’s offices around the world, which will gather in the towns of Orihuela and Alicante. The bulk of the meetings will be held at Casa del Mediterráneo headquarters.

The Cervantes Institute is a public body that currently has 87 centers distributed in 44 countries across the five continents and two more locations in Spain: Madrid and Alcalá de Henares. Apart from the teaching and promotion of the Spanish language, the Institute promotes and disseminates the culture of Spain and Latin America.