The day before, the opening panel on the life and work of Juan Eduardo Bernal Echemendía (Juanelo) was held before an audience gathered at the Rubén Martínez Villena Provincial Library, one of the three architectural jewels of this patrimonial city, founded in 1514.

The most important cultural event in the country is dedicated in this central territory to Bernal Echemendia who is a poet, writer, and researcher of the music of Sancti Spiritus, and also an outstanding intellectual and president of the branch of the José Martí Cultural Society in Sancti Spiritus.

During an break with the press, Juanelo confessed feeling very recognized by his people and grateful at the same time, in “a place where I was born and where I am going to die”, he declared.

He sees the Book Fair as a joy and the book as “a persistence and not only a companion, it is a demand. Something that no one can ever erase despite other alternatives, because they are platforms for the book”.

Identified with the his nearly 510 years old city, where he was born, this writer who revived popular characters and intangible spaces, through his texts, bets on approaching the work of the National Hero José Martí (1853-1895).

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