Last April 23rd, the Senior Associate Professor of the department of Philology of the University of Navarra, Miguel Zugasti Zugasti was present at the submission of the award Cervantes to Elena Poniatowska, since she invited him. The event took place in the auditorium of the University of Alcalá.

"I met her about 15 years ago at a congress in Mexico," Professor Zugasti explains. "There I told her that I was explaining her book 'Hasta no verte Jesús mío' in my Universal Literature classes and she was pleasantly surprised, as she didn't reckon that she was so well known here. The contact has continued to be active - we have seen each other more times in other congresses - and she has a better report than I could have suspected".

Elena Poniatowska is the first Mexican woman to win this award and the fourth woman writer to be awarded in 37 years. Previous winners were Spain's María Zambrano (1988) and Ana María Matute (2010) and Cuba's Dulce María Loynaz (1992).