A Pair of Glasses and Three Poems: Part of Juan Gil-Albert's Legacy to the Caja de las Letras in Madrid

The underground vaults beneath the Gran Vía in Madrid are steeped in legends and secrets. One such tale is the connection, through a network of pipes, between the Cibeles fountain and the Bank of Spain as a security measure against any robbery or attack on its vault. Beneath the footsteps of countless travellers on this street lie the legacies of great literary figures.

These are stored in the Caja de las Letras at the Cervantes Institute. It is in the basement, after descending the impressive staircase of the caryatid-adorned building located between Alcalá and Barquillo streets, where numerous lockers with distinguished names await. They safeguard various items belonging to renowned authors.

Two of those already residing in the room, accessible through a large armored door guarding these unique treasures, are from Alicante, namely Miguel Hernández and Vicente Martínez Foix; they will be joined by a third, the legacy of Juan Gil-Albert to the Caja de las Letras at the Cervantes Institute in Madrid.

The Alicante Provincial Council has promoted this initiative as part of the 121st anniversary of the birth of author and thinker Juan Gil-Albert. Thus, the Alicante Institute of Culture will deposit his legacy, consisting of personal and artistic items of the intellectual, next Tuesday, April 1st, in the Caja de las Letras.

The legacy to be deposited in this iconic space of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid consists of a pair of glasses belonging to the poet and essayist, and three handwritten poems: 'Epitalamio a la hermana', dated 1935; 'Despedida de un año', dated 1936; and 'Mi nostalgia, homenaje a Játiva', from 1964. All of this has been donated by his great-niece, Claudia Simón Aura.

Additionally, the Alicante Provincial Council will deliver a copy of the magazine 'Canelobre' dedicated to Juan Gil-Albert along with a photograph. Meanwhile, the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, will entrust the vault with some first editions of the Alcoyan author that are his property.

After depositing the legacy, actor Toni Misó will perform a reading of a brief part of the work 'Valentín', in the theatrical version by Juan Ramón Torregrosa, while a video with images of the writer Juan Gil-Albert is projected.

The president of the Alicante Provincial Council, Toni Pérez, has stated that having Juan Gil-Albert as part of this educational and cultural proposal "is a source of pride for our province and for the provincial institution, both for what this means for the dissemination and recovery of the Alcoyan author's figure, and for the visibility of our Alicante Institute of Culture on a national level."

Meanwhile, the Deputy for Culture, Juan de Dios Navarro, has detailed the process followed to carry out this proposal, which began through conversations with the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero. "In 2024, negotiations were opened and by the end of the year, the agreement and the event were finalized," detailed Juan de Dios Navarro, who highlighted García Montero's admiration for Gil-Albert's work.

As detailed by the president of the Alicante Provincial Council, it is "about opening and expanding his figure beyond our province and recovering his memory in the city where he developed part of his work, Madrid." Additionally, the director of the IAC Juan Gil-Albert, Cristina Martínez, has noted that the proposal "represents a milestone for the IAC, for the Provincial Council and for the province, and also in a city, Madrid, that meant so much to Gil-Albert."

The Caja de las Letras, this historic armored vault, houses more than 1,800 safety deposit boxes, some of which are occupied by the legacies of intellectuals such as Francisco Ayala, Antoni Tàpies, Margarita Salas, Luis García Berlanga, Cristóbal Halffter, Manuel Alexandre, Ana María Matute, Juan Marsé, Gabriel García Márquez, Luis de Pablo, Buero Vallejo, Eduardo Mendoza, Benedetti, Delibes, Unamuno, Francisco Brines, Joaquín Sabina, Ángela Molina, Enrique Morente or Marisa Paredes.