The Alicante Provincial Council has issued a statement in response to the words that the writer Jovi Lozano Seser, winner of the Enric Valor Novel Award in Valencià 2022, shared last Sunday.
In it, the organization affirms that it maintains "firm support for Valencian as its own language and one of our main hallmarks of identity, as well as recognition of all the authors and scholars who contribute to enriching the literary and research heritage around it" .
As a way of supporting his words, the Provincial Council has listed some of the initiatives that recognize the language, as well as activities and subsidies for its promotion, such as the Teatre Breu Award in Valencià Evarist Garcia and the call for subsidies to town halls for the promotion of Valencian. With this, the institution intends to dismantle "any interested attempt to question the commitment of the provincial institution for the promotion and defense of our language."
To this, they add to guarantee "maintaining the new calls for aid next year" from their Culture area, which will allocate "26 million euros in 2023 to guarantee support for the cultural sector and the development in all municipalities of their own programming ».
County Council's response
Finally, as a form of direct response to the writer Jovi Lozano, the Alicante Provincial Council has referred:
Regarding the Enric Valor Award, the Culture area has expressed the intention of holding the award ceremony in Castalla whenever possible. Since this literary contest was established in 1995, it has been held in this municipality four times.
The first alternative considered this year was for the winner to receive the Award at a public ceremony in Castalla on December 12. It was canceled at the initiative of the City Council itself, which suggested looking for another date. Given the proximity of Christmas and to guarantee the collection of this recognition within the current year, the Government team decided, in good faith, to organize a reception at the Palacio de la Diputación with which the selected author was shown in agreeable first moment.
The provincial government team demands maximum respect from the socialist group for the Premi Enric Valor de Novel·la in Valencià and all that it represents and is also asked to act responsibly to prevent a personal complaint from being used to question all the work developed in favor of culture and the preservation of the Valencian language.
The writer's reaction
After knowing the answer that the Diputación has made to its message against the way to manage the delivery of the Enric Valor Award, Jovi Lozano wanted to respond again to the institution through various points. The letter is reproduced below:
1) When you, the heads of the provincial body, called me on Friday 16/12/2022 I was on my daily program that I direct and present on public radio and I did not understand at first what you were suggesting. That he accepted this type of reception at first has nothing to do with the fact that in reviewing the entire format and bases I realized that his proposal was degrading in relation to the importance of the prize won. It only took me three hours to give them a definitive answer. You, on the other hand, have spent 7 months postponing or not planning the delivery of the prize.
2) I am not supported or represented by any political party. I am only a journalist and writer who has won an award endorsed by a qualified court. I am grateful to the Provincial Council of Alicante for the award received but this does not exempt me from demanding the complete resolution of the call, which is a proper delivery and not an express collection of the trophy similar to an order for hamburgers in a McAuto. What's more: since October he has asked the Department of Culture on several occasions (I have the emails with a date and no response on his part) without obtaining any response. That is to say, they have not even listened to me and despite the fact that it is not my job to remind them that a literary prize culminates with a delivery in conditions, also media and minimally dignified from the organizational point of view. Leaving this award for the end of the year shows that you had no interest in scheduling this event, unlike what you do with the Azorín Award and all the corresponding pomp, including accompanying the winner of the contest at her presentation in Madrid and contributing to the promotion of the book by a publisher outside the Valencian Community such as the Planeta group. Their grievance shows that they have not respected or valued me as an author or as a winner of the aforementioned award. On the other hand, there are more dates than December 12 to celebrate the act, with which his way of shelving this edition seems to me a flagrant violation of the honor of Enric Valor and writers from the province like me.
3) Mrs. Parra, before the communiqué from the Provincial Council, I would like you to have sent me a communication at least to ask for my forgiveness since there are a series of errors and grievances here that I do not deserve and that are not justified in your agenda. I remind you that a new statement from the AELC, Association of Writers in Catalan Language, is published today, in which the neglect of your institution and the marginalization of Valencian, a co-official language in the province of Alicante, despite the fact that you do not use it in your media in breach of the law. I have no interest in these media tribulations but circumstances have forced me to do so since it has been impossible to obtain a response for a whole year from your entity and, the only time, it was an email (I have the copy) to tell me that the delivery It would be on December 5 at Carlos Arniches. You were referring to the Evarist García Award, with whom I have nothing to do. Was so much disinterest necessary? Have you really not had time to book a decent awards show in these seven months? I still can't get out of my astonishment and bewilderment. An entity with such a number of technicians and resources cannot have carried out this botch of protocol without the prior intention of making my mother tongue and my work invisible. It is only possible to reiterate the comparative grievance between Azorín and Enric Valor: same trophy but two absolutely different treatments and management of the event and the call. Reflect and reconsider. You are public servants and solely responsible for this fact.
