The Argentine writer and journalist Martín Caparrós was distinguished with the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Guadalajara (UdeG), in a ceremony held at the seat of the Mexican Cultural Institute in Madrid. This is the highest honorary distinction granted by the Mexican institution, which recognized in the author his “ethical and intellectual commitment to truth, memory, and human dignity,” as well as his “extraordinary contribution to narrative journalism and contemporary literature.” During the event, the rector of the UdeG's CUCEA campus, Mara Robles, defined Caparrós as a “sower of doubts,” a quality that, she noted, the university seeks to foster in its students. In recent years, the distinction has been awarded, among others, to Joan Manuel Serrat, Sergio Ramírez, Leonardo Padura, and Miguel Ángel Navarro Navarro. The public closed the event with a prolonged applause in recognition of his career. Upon taking the floor, Caparrós confessed that Mexico was a pending subject in his life and that he had always wished to live in that country, influenced by the work of Carlos Fuentes and the early ties he forged there more than four decades ago, when he began to adopt his characteristic mustache. The University of Guadalajara grants the Honorary Doctorate to eminent personalities, Mexican or foreign, for exceptional contributions in the field of knowledge, the arts, or for a life's work linked to the noblest causes of humanity. In this context, he read a fragment from “Hunger,” one of the author's most emblematic books, whose initial reflection on the daily experience and the distance from structural visibly moved the honoree. The ceremony brought together some thirty people, including journalists and writers such as Alex Grijelmo, Jorge Volpi, and the former director of the newspaper El País, Javier Moreno. Family, friends, and University of Guadalajara fellows also participated, who will now be symbolically “under the tutelage” of Caparrós.
