La Caja de las Letras could be compared to a large matryoshka: this unique space in the basement of the Cervantes Institute in Madrid (Calle de Alcalá, 49) is a safe that houses many others. But it is, obviously, much more: it is the place where some of the most prominent names in Spanish and Latin American culture have deposited their legacies in the form of personal objects. And although it is normally closed to the public, a free exhibition now makes it possible to see some of the contents that have remained hidden and under lock and key for years.
To better understand the dimension of this event: once these boxes come to house the legacy of protagonists in the field of culture, they cannot be opened until the date they themselves establish. And its content is -unless it is revealed by its owner beforehand- an unknown until that moment.
Therefore, the highlight of the occasion is that, for the first time, the exhibition The Greatest Wealth. Legados escogidos de la Caja de las Letras gives the public the opportunity to learn the secrets of this vault.
what can be seen in the exhibition?
This room of the building constructed by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi has a total of more than 1,800 cases. Thanks to the exhibition, the contents of some one hundred of the bequests deposited there are now on display.
The Cervantes Institute refers to them as follows: “These deposits, which have never left their boxes in the Box of Letters the book is the symbol of a whole life dedicated to literature, art, music, cinema, theater, journalism and science, in short, to culture in Spanish”
Symbols that take such diverse forms as manuscripts, drafts, new and old books (“What can I leave if it is not a book? Literature is my life”, said Ana María Matute), pens, glasses, Nicanor Parra’s typewriter, the first notebook of protocols of the scientist Margarita Salas, press clippings, photographs and drawings, folders, hats, dresses…
The exhibition also dedicates a section to in memoriambequests: Buero Vallejo’s pipe and one of the pens with which he wrote his dramatic works, a first edition of Miguel Hernández and a chest that holds soil from Gabriel García Márquez’s birthplace in Aracataca.
Time: 🕒 Time: of the expo at the Caja de las Letras
The exhibition can be visited until next June 16, 2024 during the following hours:
- Tuesday to Saturday: from 11am to 8pm
- Sundays and holidays: from 11h to 16h. Monday closed.