It is urgent that support for culture be multiplied, she emphasizes
In a singular, surprising and unique evening, poet Elsa Cross, Mazatlán Literature Prize 2024, for her collection of poems “Isla Negra”, received the award and a check for 100 thousand pesos contributed by the Autonomous University of Sinaloa as a stimulus to her creative activity in the world of letters.
During the traditional Evening of the Arts, the Ángela Peralta Theater was filled with readers and audiences eager to listen to the winner’s work and enjoy tonight’s concert with a performance by the Camerata Mazatlán directed by Alexandre Da Costa, one of the most renowned Stehgeigers in the world.
Maestro Enrique Vega Ayala, host of the event, highlighted that the celebration of the Evening of the Arts has framed the Mazatlán Literature Award ceremony since 1996 and is a very important date for the history of Carnaval.
The award established by the Instituto Municipal de Cultura, Turismo y Arte de Mazatlán, awards those who in the previous year produced the most outstanding work in the domains of Mexican literature as judged by a jury of experts.
The award ceremony was presided over by the Municipal President of Mazatlán, Edgar González Zatarain and his wife María Teresa Apodaca Muñoz.
With the representation of the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, which renewed collaboration to preserve and strengthen the PML through financial support that stimulates the award-winning writers, the prize of 100 thousand pesos was presented by Dr. Iván Tostado Ramírez, representing Dr. Robespierre Lizárraga Otero, interim rector of the UAS.
Dr. Juan Salvador Avilés Ochoa, Director of the Sinaloan Institute of Culture, attended the ceremony as an honorary witness.
The award is part of the cultural program of Carnaval Mazatlán and therefore sovereign Carolina III and the Queen of the Floral Games, Siu Ling I, made an appearance.
Juan José Rodríguez, writer and coordinator of the jury, writer Braulio Peralta, and narrator and essayist, Eve Gil, both as members of the jury completed the personalities for the award.
The work Isla Negra by poet Elsa Cross was awarded, receiving a trophy from the Mayor of Mazatlán, Edgar González, and the Director of the ISIC, Juan Salvador Avilés. The financial award was presented by Dr. Iván Tostado Ramírez.
In her message, poet Elsa Cross thanked the authorities present and all those in attendance, and expressed:
“Any award, scholarship or support for culture is not only necessary, but urgent that they exist and multiply, so that they offer at least a minimum counterweight to the ignorance, vulgarity and violence that are sinking more and more with an alarming speed in our country”.
She added that receiving the Mazatlán Prize for Literature is a great gift for her among many that she has received since she arrived in Mazatlán two days ago, and shared a poem from her book Isla Negra titled “Poet in Front of the Sea”; At the end of her reading she thanked everyone again.
