The American author Ernest Hemingway was acquitted in the framework of a parodic popular trial held yesterday in Navarra of all responsibility for distorting the Sanfermines, the famous festivity in which a crowd runs in front of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona, which made known in the world in his novel “The Sun Also Rises”, known as “Fiesta” in Spanish.
Hemingway (1899-1961) was subjected to a humorous mock trial as part of an event held in Pamplona to commemorate the centenary of his first visit to this Spanish city in 1923.
For years, there has been a debate in Spain about whether Hemingway and his novel have actually harmed Pamplona by attracting onlookers from around the world and distorting its festivities, or whether they have had a positive impact on the city’s economy and tourism.
The jury, made up of experts in the figure of Hemingway, concluded that “he is not guilty of causing the overcrowding of the festivities or of seriously misrepresenting the Sanfermines, but rather, in a positive way, he contributed to making them known throughout the world.”
However, the verdict also found that the image of the city presented in his 1926 novel is somewhat “ridiculous and offensive”.
In this mock trial, the prosecution requested, in an ironic gesture, a change in the title of his work to “Don’t go to Pamplona and leave its people”, the removal of the statue dedicated to the writer near the bullring in the city, and that all memories of his figures in the streets be erased, to leave his legacy relegated to the history of American literature.
During the public trial, Miguel Izu, author of the book “Hemingway in the Sanfermines”, defended that the writer “integrated perfectly” into the festivity and considered it “exaggerated” to attribute the avalanche of foreign visitors to him alone.
In addition, Tim Pinks, an Englishman in love with Pamplona and its festivities, opined that “San Fermín would not be the same without Hemingway”, and exonerated the author of macho attitudes, since the work was written in the 1920s with a different mentality. to the current
Source: Ambito
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