Unpublished near Castelao

Any unpublished text by this extraordinary writer must be greeted with joy, even if such a text is not a novel, an essay on art, or a political discourse. On this occasion, we are talking about two letters to the mayor of Guarda, that is, to the honorable Manuel Álvarez Vicente, written on March 23 and May 19, 1933. he Deputy Cortes de Pontevedra, so it was written on the memorandum of the famous Galician parliamentarian. They are kept in the Archivo do Concello together with the second, the first, on January 12 of that year, where they were found and photocopied by José Antonio Uris. I owe a photocopy of the second and third to his civic generosity.

Why this correspondence, this little epistolary treasure? In Concello da Guarda, as in many others in Spain these days, the mayors of the two municipalities tried to set fire to the gates of Madrid, the seat of government and court, so that the authorities of the capital would somehow cooperate, with economic aid that solves or alleviates the problems suffered by certain sectors of the working class . We are not aware — the same or the very industrious Uris — of a special request formulated by the mayor of Guarda, to which Castelao responded with these words: «My dear friend: with what pleasure I would work for the benefit of your city! But my political situation and the numerical scarcity of representatives of our party prevent me from receiving services…».

After this sad statement, Castelao proposes: «Wishing to be useful to you and knowing that in this case my intervention can be effective, I am interested in whether the establishment of a city public library is suitable for that City Council». Give other considerations about libraries and, Verbo da Guarda, states that «It has a very interesting museum… and I want to know».

But O great Castelao, intelligent materialistic voice of Castelao, I am aware of the fragility of his writing; by iso writes: «I understand that you can’t eat books and on this occasion the most acute problem is the one formulated by the stomach». And say goodbye to this little boy: «Today it seems almost comical to offer books, but…“.