"We will spend this day each one at home, but with united souls." The writer of Xàbia Pepa Guardiola, trusts that the words will continue to be present, although each one will pronounce them from their corner, in the media, by video call or on social networks. Normally, Book Day and the weeks that surround it are very special moments, full of presentations, activities, meetings with readers, fairs in the towns ... We speak with a profound connoisseur of literature and culture, who has done so well is doing us during this quarantine.
Although Guardiola does not need a presentation for many people, she is a well-known writer in the Valencian literary field. She began her activity as a writer in the mid-80s, combining it with her work as a teacher. He has published numerous stories based on the oral tradition transmitted by his own family, and more than twenty children's and youth books. She defines herself as a "feminist and committed woman".
"In reading is the future"
As Guardiola explains to Xàbia.com, the Valencian book culture is constantly in crisis, and "Surely now this crisis will increase. Fortunately, we are many writers and we would like to be supported by many readers: the reading public fails us. But we are willing to continue to always encourage reading, and reading in Valencian, because reading is future". Before confinement, the literature in the Marina Alta I lived a moment of great union, of a continuous campaign to grow in reading. As Pepa Guardiola calls it, "a nice moment to conquer readers", which has now been interrupted.
How to recover the cultural fabric lost in this crisis
According to Guardiola, culture will need financial help to rebuild itself: "I need books to live, but not materially, but spiritually. I have the retirement my profession gave me, but there are many people who want to dedicate themselves exclusively to creating, and have to live on something. Today, the great The patron must be the public administration. In order for the cultural good not to be a small number of a few, but rather a community good, it must have the economic support of the whole of society. "
"The great patron must be the public administration"
"The birds have returned to Montgó and the air is cleaner: what do we have to learn?"
Pepa Guardiola defends that quarantine is a turning point for a new society: "Many habits will change, especially skin-to-skin, which I hope will be only one season, until the fear of embracing us passes. The economy will also mark us, but I would like this to be a time to build new lines for everyone: environmentalism, proximity production and sustainability ". The writer believes that we should make a great reflection from the point of view of respect for nature. From your home, notice that "The birds return to Montgó and the air is cleaner. Humans are living on planet Earth and it is not only ours, the Earth can continue without us, but we cannot continue without it".
