The Vargas Llosa Chair has recognized the professional work of Juan Cruz, Deputy President of Prensa Ibérica, during the 36th edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), held in Mexico over the past two weeks. An endorsement of his “appreciated and copious” trajectory, as well as journalist as literary writer.
“For his more than six decades of pristine and diaphanous professional service in journalism practiced in free, plural and independent way; for greatly magnifying two of the most substantive freedoms of all democracy: that of expression and that of the press; and for supporting under his shoulders, in the course of different trenches of responsibility, the brave and delicate function of informing the robust and diverse Spanish-speaking society”, indicates the recognition given during the I Biennial of Journalism “The truth under threat” held this Saturday in Guadalajara.
A life dedicated to journalism and literature
Born in Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife) in 1948, Juan Cruz has accumulated a long career as a journalist, writer and editor. He studied Journalism and History at the University of La Laguna and began writing for the press at the age of thirteen, for the sports weekly Aire Libre. Shortly after, he joined the editorial staff of La Tarde and, later, El Día, a newspaper that today belongs to Iberian press where he grew up as a journalist. At that time he was also a correspondent in Tenerife for the newspaper The provincewhich was precisely the embryo of the Prensa Ibérica group.
He was one of the founders of The country, where he also carried out very diverse tasks: correspondent in London, head of Opinion, editor-in-chief of Culture or assistant to the Directorate. Until January of this year he was linked to Grupo Prisa, where he was also director of Editorial Coordination, director of Communication for Grupo Santillana and director of La Oficina del Autor.
He has also directed Alfaguara editorial and, as a novelist, he was awarded the Benito Pérez Armas Novel Award in 1972, with ‘Crónica de nada hecha piezos’; Azorín Prize with ‘El sueño de Oslo’ (1988) and has been awarded the 2000 Canarias Prize for Literature and the National Prize for Cultural Journalism. He has also been awarded the Comillas Award for History, Biography and Memories 2009 for ‘Egos revueltos. A personal memoir of literary life’.
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He has published ‘Age of memory’, ‘Orange’, ‘Smoke portrait’, ‘Sand knife’, ‘The barefoot boy’ and ‘On the roof’. Other of his books are ‘Serena’ (stories), ‘Excess baggage’ (essay), a ‘Memory of El País’, ‘The photo of the Swedes’, ‘The weight of fame’, ‘A pending story, ‘Against sincerity’, ‘The beach on the horizon’ (Destiny, 2004), ‘Hopefully October’, ‘Many times you asked me to tell you about those years’, ‘Journalism? This job is worth living for’, ‘Against insult’, ‘A crazy job’, ‘Trip to the Canary Islands’, ‘Memory of Mario, at odd hours and always with Benedetti’ (From the Publishing Center, 2013) , ‘Endangered Species’ and ‘Jaime Salinas. The office of Publisher’.
In 2017 he published ‘Un coup de vida’ in Alfaguara, an editorial in which he published his penultimate book last year, ‘First people’, about characters he met. Her latest book has been ‘Ciudadano Polanco’, about the businessman he promoted The country.