Words from the jury of the Palabra Nueva magazine Journalism Contest
In his book Mocedades, the then young José Ortega y Gasset recognized as an old traveler: “When an old city becomes a place full of history, a lot of dry years, the only thing that remains alive in it are its old fountains, which continue singing and running. as in the youth of the town.” In it the pilgrim was warned to know how to stop in time to observe the most recognized and even silent details of the city, all of them accessible. Tradition and modernity, matter and spirit, above all spirit, emerge from the historical and therefore surviving city: “There are cities that have supreme energy of durability, and are built once and for all” Ortega also said and one as a reader feels that it is as if it were referring in the same way to Havana.
Perhaps it will be blamed on us: why turn to Spain, if this capital had its own chroniclers, writers of epistles and poets? There are many reasons why we should not abandon Spain, as well as Africa and other regions. Keep in mind what we are today because of those confusing but influential past. In the same way it is the time we live in.
On the occasion of the fifth centenary of the founding of the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana, the magazine Palabra Nueva called again for the edition of its contest, this time, number twenty-three. Together with the Havana Culture Commission and the jury appointed by the magazine, numerous works were attended to, both those that came to us in articles and in photographic technique. We have to recognize the disposition and respect in relation to a contest that, although it varies in themes and genres, always considers quality and originality above circumstantial reports or manuals (not to say the buzzword). Fashion is fleeting and there are texts that deserve to be read at any time like the city, that testimonial document. The city, Havana, writing itself, causes like a cyclical event, because we come and go changed. For some, permanence is longer; For others, it is transitory but equally significant. When we read in La Calzada de Jesús del Monte, by the very observant traveler that Eliseo Diego was, we recognize the following: the city, although it changes, can be configured as it once was. It is enough to contemplate it and write about it, of course, those who want or can.
Fortunately, it has not been less this time in a contest that welcomes diverse participation, but has had to reward the proposals that best support the spirit of celebration of a settled and dissatisfied capital, since it expects more from its inhabitants.