2016 is the year of the 100th birthday of one of the greatest Spanish writers. We will remember his personality and briefly review his body of work, without forgetting the main events that will celebrate the author.

Camilo José Cela (1916-2002) was many «Celas» throughout the 85 years of his long life –Cela the hiker, the novelist of manners, the provocateur, the master, the sage, the gentleman, the erotic writer… the globetrotter. This last facet, mainly seen in his exceptional travel books, is the one that his son, Camilo Cela Conde (Madrid, 1946) wants to single out this year, when we celebrate the 100th birthday of one of the greatest Spanish writers, of whose death we also celebrate today the fourteenth anniversary.

The anniversary of his birthday (death worried Cela very little, for he considered it “a mere vulgarity,” and was of the opinion that its arrival should be awaited “as calmly as possible”) has been declared by the government «an event of exceptional public interest», and thus a tribute program has been conceived.

Events to celebrate Cela’s 100th birthday

There are numerous events planned (the pomp will start May 11th in Galicia, and the circumstance will come to an end exactly a year later, the same day, in Madrid). And, although it will correspond to the minister of Culture, Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, to make public the details of the agenda through the appropriate decree, Cela Conde confesses, in conversation with ABC, that their main goal is «to vindicate his most important facet: the writer.»

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