Ignacio Díaz Galán is a lawyer and writer from Estepona who, in September 2023, wrote a book encomium titled A book for everyone. This time, the text, far from remaining in the privacy of his meditations, decided to share it with the La Vanguardia Readers Network through the page of the La Huella de Salduba readers group, a space that the newspaper reserves for independent creators. .
What this jurist did not expect was that, time after the publication of the article, he would be rewarded with the 2023 José Luis Tobalina Prize for journalistic articles, awarded by the Ateneo José Román de Algeciras.
As a writer he works multifacetedly between the essay, the short story and the aphorism, but above all he cultivates an ardent love for poetry. Thus, to his credit he has already published three books of poems: Twenty Poems and Three Hundred Sentences in 2010; The Heart of Water, in 2020; and Brevity, in 2022.
Your article A book for everyone has been recognized with the José Luis Tobalina 2023 Prize. How did you receive the news?
Well, I received it from a member of the jury, Juan Emilio. He called me on the phone and told me the news and I was very happy. However, as maestro Paco de Lucía, the guitar genius, says, when someone is given an award he always thinks that someone else deserved it. And that's a bit of the feeling I have. You always think that someone has written something better and that it was your turn by luck. Which doesn't mean that there isn't work behind it, an effort, but that feeling remains a bit.
You participate in the La Vanguardia Readers Network through the group La Huella de Salduba, what has been your experience?
For now, I have only participated with this article and the experience has been very good. The article is very well illustrated, very beautiful. It is an article that is in the digital newspaper, but it is a pleasure to see it published there and to see that it has been considered, that people have read it and that it has a reach and resonance. It has been a very good experience.
Has contributing to La Vanguardia been the gateway to receiving this award? Do you recommend it?
Of course. It is an open section for readers, obviously with quality filters and so on, anyone who has the possibility of writing, whether or not they are a writing professional, because they can somehow launch their expression and their way of feeling and thinking to the world. , which is quite nice, beautiful and important.
How did you get started in the world of literature? Where would you like to go with his writings?
Well, I started reading one day out of boredom when I was 16 years old. I read a novel by Gabriel García Márquez, and I saw that I wanted to be a writer. Later I learned that it is a long career, a long-distance race, that there are no easy things along the way, that you have to work very hard, you have to distinguish yourself, do quality work, have contacts, be lucky, but I decided that it was going to be novelist. I have not yet written a novel, I have only started one, but I have dedicated myself to writing poems, aphorisms, stories, articles and essays, with a philosophical touch, which is a bit of the path I have been following.
In his award-winning article he writes that a book is "a paper country." If we were all nationals of one book, which one would you be?
It is very difficult to choose a single book, but perhaps the books that I have reread the most have been two, the canonical Gospel of Mark, John, Matthew and Luke, and the Dào Dé Jīng by Lao Tzu. They are the books that I have meditated the most and breathed the most.
You also talk about the dichotomy between classics and contemporaries, which do you prefer?
Well, I started out being very demanding in aesthetics and tastes and I only read classics. I understood that a classic has been filtered by time, by a community of readers, it has passed through many filters, and a classic is a book that, whether you like it more or less, has a guarantee of quality, because it has been there, through that whole process. I didn't want to find passages that were weak or not so consistent or not so strong that they bored me or didn't contribute to me.
But, however, I have been discovering that if I read contemporary authors you see the soul of the times, you have to see what is being done at that time and there are very interesting people. An author, even if he is not brilliant, whenever he sets out to write he does it from the heart, he is not like someone who works in a trade because he needs to earn money. So everyone who writes with more or less talent always has something important, a brilliance, a radiance, an unexpected turn always suddenly appears. So you have to read the classics but also the contemporaries, for those reasons.
You cultivate poetry, essays, short stories and aphorisms. What is your favorite literary genre?
If I had to choose only one, it is poetry. Poetry is the literary genre that undoubtedly brings me the most satisfaction.
What type of poetry do you cultivate?
Perhaps I am a poet of love and love is the ultimate sublimation, it is the most cherished breath of the word, it is the point where one finds calm, rest, security and where it merges with everything and problems and problems dissolve. the concerns. My love poetry tries to give back all the love I find in the world and it is where I feel most complete, fullest.
Today, do you think there is more or less interest in reading and literature?
Well, I would say that we live in an immediacy society, where people want something fast, something intense. So, those people who write aphorisms or small poems or small articles can reach people very easily. However, we live in a paradoxical time, because the novel, which is the most extensive product, continues to sell and is the literary genre where there may be greater opportunities to do a job and earn a living. But we live in times of immediacy and I believe that the two forms are combined, both the long extension and the short one.
How do you combine law with writing?
The truth is that there is always time. There are many people who say "I don't have time", but we all have time, what we have are priorities to use it. And if you try hard to look for holes, you always find them. And it is not difficult to bear fruit and do something vocational, such as writing, like dedicating time to reading, another time to meditate, another time to reflect... As one feeds on books and experiences and life, there always comes the inspiration, some mix of work, reading and life experience. And you can always combine everything. Above all, it is easy to find time for what is vocational. If you have passion you always find time.
Is there poetry in the courts?
Yes, there can be. There are cases where you, through your impressions, through your sensations, realize that there are people who have implicated you in a matter without their involvement being completely clear, and through their way of speaking, through their gestures, through their annoyance. that they express, due to their almost helplessness, you realize that they are really innocent or only knew a little about the subject, but have not gotten involved. Poetry is seeing that there is someone who really hasn't committed a crime, and that you have to help them. The judge must have the sensitivity to see that he is innocent through gestures, something so difficult to know for sure, but we all have the intuition and the feeling of knowing when someone is telling the truth. That is the poetry that could be found in law, because law is very logical, it is very linear, where the argumentative, the allusions to the law, the foundations weigh so much. Nothing is taken for granted, everything has to be proven and pointed out in a very clear way and you have to tread carefully so as not to say something you don't have to say and say what you have to say and in the order you have to say it.
Do you believe in poetic justice?
I think so. Any author who makes an effort and distinguishes himself and creates a work of heart and quality, sooner or later will reach its echo and resonance. However, there are times when there are authors, we know them from history, even geniuses, who have not been recognized in life, but then recognition comes and their work finally finds the dawn of the first light. It's not about trying to play at being a genius or anything like that, but you have to give your all and you have to offer the best you have and only with this will it reach someone. Only if your message reaches one person and transforms them, perhaps into a single reader, only with this has art fulfilled its objective.
What is needed in life, more justice or more poetry?
It is a very good question and it is a question that must be weighed. If we were all excellent beings in morality, in balance, in sensitivity, in empathy, in understanding, justice would not be necessary, because offense would not even be used. And if this offense could appear, it would be so small that forgiveness would erase it. So, I understand that justice is only necessary in a world like ours, where we are human and have flaws, we are fallible and have imperfections. But in a world that was a little more spiritual and more advanced, only love would reign and love would be complete and the only thing truly necessary.
