During the Altea Literature and Research Awards gala, Marisa del Romero Sánchez-Cutillas, daughter of the renowned writer Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, delivered a speech that deeply resonated with attendees. Her intervention emphasized the importance of remembrance and memory, not only of facts and people but also of the objects that surround us.
How important is memory, the memory of events, of people, and also of things!
Marisa del Romero's reflection centered on the idea that «things are a reflection of their owners' spirit», a sensibility that, according to her, her mother, Carmelina Sánchez-Cutillas, perfectly understood. This literary tradition and creative sensitivity is a constant in the family, as Carmelina inherited it from her maternal grandfather, Francesc Martínez i Martínez, who in turn inherited it from his paternal great-uncle, Francesc Martínez Rostoll.
“"Aside from the memory of facts and people, I would also speak of the memory of things. Because things are a reflection of their owners' spirit. The soul of things is the soul of the people who preserved and cared for them. Carmelina knew this. That's why she carefully kept so many things that her elders cherished in life. As if, by preserving them, she kept alive the souls of those she missed."
The speech culminated with an explanation of how this philosophy led to the preservation of the documents of Francesc Martínez Rostoll, a religious figure and intellectual from Altea, whose recovery has allowed for the reconstruction of a significant part of 19th-century Valencian history. The discovery of a package of handwritten sheets by Martínez Rostoll, preserved by Carmelina, was key to this rediscovery.
Marisa del Romero's career includes a distinguished trajectory as a journalist at Canal 9 and RTVE, in addition to being the author of several narratives such as Motín de Cuenteros (1979) and La travesía (2019), and award-winning poetry collections like El jardín de Armida (Jaén Poetry Prize 1982) and Singular (Bruno Alzola Memorial Poetry Prize 2008).
