With a remarkable attendance, the presentation of Los latidos del deseo, the most recent work by writer José Antonio Martín Corujo, was held this Thursday night at the "Agustín de la Hoz" House of Culture.
The author opened the event by sharing an excerpt from the speech he gave upon entering the Canary Academy of Language as a full academician. In it, he paid tribute to the islands that have marked his life: his native Lanzarote and La Palma, to which he emigrated as a child with his family. Through his words, he highlighted both the differences and the deep ties between the two islands, especially in relation to the experience of female solitude during the second half of the 20th century.
Martín Corujo evoked the absence of men, either due to their work at the Banco Canario Sahariano—in the case of Lanzarote—or due to emigration to Venezuela from La Palma. These absences, he pointed out, placed mothers in a crucial role in raising children and transmitting the language, granting them a fundamental prominence that is reflected in their literature.
Canarian vocabulary is integrated into the stories in a natural and organic way, giving authenticity to her tales. In Los latidos del deseo, many of them feature women as central figures, and address themes such as friendship, family, emigration, and desire, always with surprising endings.
During the presentation, the writer Belén Lorenzo praised the narrative sensitivity of Martín Corujo, whom she defined as "an artisan of words." According to Lorenzo, his stories construct island landscapes populated by real and moving characters, whose decisions strongly affect the reader: "We are shaken by the plots of these stories along with their protagonists, witnessing the evolution of lives that could be our own. Without realizing it, we end up involved in them, feeling the beating of desire."
