ROGELIO BLANCO MARTÍNEZ PhD in pedagogy, is also a graduate in anthropology and human sciences and degree in sociology and politics. He has been director of the Library and Information Studies Center, adviser of the Ministry of Culture and Education, vocal consultant and currently is general manager of Books, Archives and Libraries.

What book are you currently reading?

I am never reading only one book. I resort to several. I am currently reading Ibn Jaldún´s Introduction to universal history, Antonio Gamoneda´s This light (poetry), Rafael Escudero´s Leonor, mon amur (novel), and Ian Gibson´s Light luggage (a treat on Antonio Machado)

In your life, what book has impacted you the most?

More than one: Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes); Person and Democracy (María Zambrano); Juan de Mairena (Antonio Machado), The Bible; Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Paulo Freire).

Who is your favorite writer and why?

Antonio Machado. Is the poetic voice that comes closest to truth and men, men tangled with the necessity of understanding both what surrounds them and with the difficult comprehension of their equals. But it’s a being that needs to understand both in order to bear himself.

What advise would you give parents and educators to promote reading in Spanish among teenagers and young adults?

The family, the schools, the library networks and education institutions are the four pillars that support a good plan to promote reading. Parents and educators must set the example by reading themselves and demonstrating the richness that reading entails, and I am not referring only to the recreational benefits. They must demonstrate that reading is radically (by the root) anthropological, exclusive to men. Animals have no need to read, they get enough guidance from their instincts. And Gods, due to their implicit omniscience, don’t have any needs, neither the one to read. Only men needs to learn, in other words needs to read; by reading continually the reality that surrounds us, the face of the neighbor, oneself. And it’s the good and honest lecture of books that can help to carry on all these other readings.