Mexican writer Gonzalo Celorio, recipient of the 2025 Cervantes Prize, presented two new books at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. With renewed vigor after a period of delicate health, he defended honesty in his literary work. He discussed his career as an academic and his passion for books.
In good humor and with renewed energy, writer and academic Gonzalo Celorio (Mexico, 1948) arrived at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) to give a conference. There he presented his two new books, which he called “his children”: Un montón de espejos rotos and Mi amigo Hernán.
In a press conference, Celorio acknowledged that the Cervantes Prize and the publication of these books have given him renewed vigor after a period of weakened health. “The reader is a kind of masochist who seeks others' conflicts to feel part of the human genre,” he said. He delved into the Mexican literary tradition, which he considered “quite modest” in contrast to the frankness of his work, especially in his memoirs. He defended his right to honesty: “I dress in my nakedness. That's the way I have of having attire to go out naked on the street”.
He said he was “very moved and impressed” by the Cervantes Prize, which he accessed “without the slightest idea” of winning it. He is the seventh Mexican to receive this recognition for his “exceptional literary work and intellectual labor”. About Un montón de espejos rotos, he described fragmentary memoirs of five hundred pages that cross his public and private life, including family formation and institutions. Mi amigo Hernán is a homage to his friend Hernán Lara Zavala, who died in March 2025, with whom he shared a close friendship as neighbors and travel companions.
Celorio highlighted his teaching career after 49 years at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of UNAM: “I believe the best way to learn is to teach,” though health and retirement have kept him from the classrooms. He recalled his directorship at the Fondo de Cultura Económica and 30 years in the Academia Mexicana de la Lengua, where he is the second most senior. He will receive the Homage to the Bibliophile, coinciding with his bibliomania, started with his first salary to buy a grammar book, despite having ten siblings and inheriting everything. His library is dedicated to literature in Spanish and Hispanic American languages.
He concluded that writing is an inquiring process where one discovers oneself, launching into the sea without knowing the destination.