The Foundation that preserves the legacy of the writer for the last ten years, delivered four pages of the text, ‘Una vida vivida’ (A Life Lived) to the Cervantes Institute.

Miguel Delibes wrote on lined paper in a ring binder: “Here I am, in this historic city of Alcalá de Henares, trying to say my last words in a few words, three hundred and seventy-eight years after Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, born in this very city, discreetly said the last of his words before being forever silent. Forever? The simple fact that we are meeting here today, in this prestigious University, to honor his memory, proves the opposite, which means Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra has not been silenced.  That even through the passing of time his words are still alive, in accordance with the yearning for immortality that moves the hand and the heart of the artist ”.

They were the first sentences, written in blue ink in very tight handwriting, including cross-outs, of the speech he gave on Monday, April 25, 1994, at the Auditorium of the University of Alcalá de Henares, on the occasion of the 1993 Cervantes Prize, and which he titled “La vida vivida” (The Life Lived). These cross-outs to change some words, and add others, are on the four pages, not seen until now, that the Miguel Delibes Foundation deposited this Friday in the Caja de las Letras (Box of Letters) number 1,683 of the Cervantes Institute. The deposit was made by the President of the Foundation, Elisa Delibes de Castro, daughter of the author.

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