Laura Rodríguez is the founder and editor of El Colectivo and organised the Certamen de Relatos. If you have any comments, ideas or questions about this, please contact her at laura@elcolectivolondres.com
This is the beginning of the story. It started in May with a conversation over a beer with Javier Fernández, one of the directors of Ibérica Food and Culture, and culminated last 8th of November with an award ceremony at his restaurant. The reason: the I Certamen de Relatos El Colectivo, the first short-story competition in Spanish about London.
Organised by El Colectivo, the new Certamen de Relatos aims to stimulate and capture the different experiences of Spanish-speaking people living or visiting the English capital and to support new writers. This first year almost 150 short-stories were received from all over the world on the theme "London: a real and imaginary city". People from Spain, South America, North America, Europe and even from the Middle East participated with stories that dealt with a wide range of subjects, from personal stories about how to adapt to British culture and the immensity of London to adventures set in future and past worlds.
The inaugural event was a great success and was attended by many writers and cultural figures from the Spanish speaking community in London. Jimmy Burns, president of the jury, announced at the ceremony the two winning stories that, he said, had remarkable moments of brilliance. Dos hombres y un destino is a comic short story about the alleged intervention of Franco at the Eurovision contest that took place in London in 1968 and won by the Spanish singer Massiel. Azul negro is an intriguing narrative about the special relationship between a man and his English student.
The two winning authors, the Spanish writer Miguel Paz Cabanas and the Argentinian journalist and writer from Buenos Aires, Horacio Covertini, will receive ₤500 and ₤200 respectively, generously donated by Ibérica Food and Culture and Instituto Cervantes. Along with Jimmy Burns, the jury consisted of Juan Blas Delgado Ramos, Head of Culture at the Instituto Cervantes of London, Iñigo Gurruchaga, London correspondent of media group Vocento and the well known Spanish writer Lala Isla.
The first prize, won by Miguel Paz Cabanas, who unfortunately could not attend the ceremony, was collected by Eduardo Suárez, the London correspondent of El Mundo. He relayed his heartfelt message that prizes like this one stimulate him to keep writing. "It is extremely rewarding to see that one day, thanks to a combination of hope and luck, your words have crossed frontiers", he said.
The stories can be read on the website www.elcolectivolondres.com. El Colectivo is a new Spanish language cultural platform that was launched last September at the Instituto Cervantes. The magazine, that started as a personal website to create a document about the diversity of London, has now become one of the main platforms about London in Spanish and has published the work of more than thirty photographers, journalists and writers. As well as founding the Certamen de Relatos, El Colectivo also organises the Grupo de Lectura at the Instituto Cervantes.
The I Certamen of Relatos has been possible thanks to the sponsors: Ibérica Food and Culture, Instituto Cervantes, The European Bookshop and the Spanish fiction magazine THELunes.
Plans are already being made for next years Certamen so this is only the end for now. To be continued…
