Article by Angelina Muñiz Huberman
Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
It is an honor to present the new book by Beatriz Saavedra Gastélum, which includes my prologue and the introduction by Adolfo Castañón, as well as the back cover blurb by Javier Garciadiego, all of whom are great connoisseurs of the work of Alfonso Reyes. Cartography means guide or maps, and we know that Beatriz belongs to the National Academy of History and Geography, as well as institutions such as the Capilla Alfonsina. She has received national and international awards and distinctions, and her work has been translated into several languages. This book, published in Spain by Sial Pigmalion, received the 2025 Aristotle International Prize for Thought and Essay.
Throughout the essays collected in “Cartography of the Spirit and the Word”, Beatriz Saavedra has managed to identify the central theme of Alfonso Reyes’s work. It is exile, with its multiple variations, contributions and losses, substitutions and discoveries, that determines the actions and creations of his prolific career. The parallels with other exiles highlight the figure of María Zambrano in her poetic-philosophical dimension. Reyes and the philosopher engage in dialogue and embody the word for a greater understanding of the world itself. “Both understood that exile is an ambiguous space: division and openness, pain and possibility.”
Regarding exile, Beatriz Saavedra says: “Life in exile, marked by the feeling of estrangement, resembles in many ways a life of fiction, where the boundaries between the real and the imaginary become blurred.”
Finally, “Cartography of the Spirit and the Word” concludes with a reflection on the metaphysics of absence in relation to the friendship between Borges and Reyes. Both were experts on absence and admirers of each other’s work. Both agreed on the essence of poetry and knowledge. Image and metaphor as suggestive projections and openness to free interpretation. Poetry as “a necessity of the soul.” Poetry in the realm of revelation where time and space are transcended.
The fitting way to end *Alfonso Reyes: Cartography of the Spirit and the Word* is with the transcription of the poem “In Memoriam,” written by Borges upon Reyes’s death, whose final lines read:
Let not my tear profane this verse
That our love inscribes in his memory.
In “Cartography of the Spirit and the Word”, Beatriz Saavedra has achieved an ideal overview, providing the reader with a panoramic view of Alfonso Reyes’s work. Thank you, Beatriz.
