Winners of the 2024 National Prize for Arts and Literature announced

▲ Antolín Vázquez. Photo: Ministry of Culture

▲ Leonrado López Luján Photo by José Antonio López

▲ Gerardo Tamez Photo María Luisa Severiano

▲ Vicente Quirarte. Photo by Cristina Rodríguez

Reyes Martínez Torrijos

La Jornada Newspaper, Friday, June 6, 2025, p. 3

The 2024 National Prize for Arts and Literature, in the field of Popular Arts and Traditions, was awarded to textile artist and traditional cook Juana Bravo Lázaro and to Antolín Vázquez Valenzuela, promoter of the Mayo-Yoreme tradition; in Linguistics and Literature, it was awarded to writer Vicente Quirarte.

The other winners of the award granted by the Mexican government, announced this Thursday in the Official Gazette of the Federation, are ethnohistorian María Teresa Rojas Rabiela and archaeologist Leonardo López Luján, in the categories of History, Social Sciences, and Philosophy, and guitarist and composer Gerardo Tamez, in the Fine Arts category.

The award, which will be presented in Mexico City, recognizes exemplary conduct or career, the significance of valuable or relevant acts or works, which, through their productions or teaching, research, or dissemination work, have contributed to enriching the country's cultural heritage or the progress of art or philosophy, as well as artistic expressions in general .

Global significance

Purépecha Juana Bravo is one of the main representatives of Michoacan cuisine, whose role was essential in its declaration as intangible cultural heritage of humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2010.

She co-founded and currently chairs the Purépecha artisan group Tejedoras de Santiago Angahuan, which brings together hundreds of artists.

The sixty-year-old artist has won numerous textile design awards and has taught numerous courses on traditional cuisine and weaving techniques.

Researcher Antolín Vázquez Valenzuela has worked to make visible the presence of the peoples of the north of the country through oral tradition and its effects on the preservation of Yoreme culture.

The producer and cultural manager is the co-author of Words of the Yoreme World: Traditional Tales of the Mayo People. He collaborated for 35 years with the Regional Unit of Popular and Indigenous Cultures of Sonora.

Originally from Navojoa, Sonora, Vázquez Valenzuela is a promoter of the indigenous cultures of that territory and is the founder of the Blas Mazo Cultural Center in Júpare de Huatabampo, as well as the driving force behind the Francisco Mumulmea Zazueta Mayo Cultural Center in Buaysiacobe, Etchojoa.

Vicente Quirarte has cultivated literary genres such as essays, fiction, poetry, and playwriting. He is a member of the Mexican Academy of Language. In his inaugural address to that institution, he spoke of poetry: "It is the center of my endeavors, a magnet that determines the behavior of other voyages. Poetry is inevitable delirium, but also harmony that combats chaos ."

▲ Teresa Rojas. Facebook photo

His poetic work includes more than 20 titles, such as "Name Without Air," "Scars of Various Geography, " and "The Notebook of Aníbal Egea." He is also the author of some thirty essays. A collection of his poetry appeared in 2000, entitled "Razones del samurai."

His work has earned him the José Revueltas Literary Essay Award in 1990; the Xavier Villaurrutia Award in 1991 for his book El ángel es vampiro; the Ramón López Velarde Ibero-American Poetry Award in 2011; and the National University Award for Artistic Creation and Cultural Extension in 2012.

Academic Teresa Rojas Rabiela (Mexico City, 1947) has specialized in the ethnohistory of the societies of late Mesoamerica and early New Spain, with special attention to agriculture, hydraulics, technology and social organization of work, in addition to historical photography of indigenous peoples and peasants in our country.

She has held commissions and collaborated with institutions such as the Center for Research and Advanced Studies in Social Anthropology, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the College of Ethnologists and Social Anthropologists, and the National Archives. She has published six books solo and 13 co-authored, and 32 as editor or coordinator.

Archaeologist Leonardo López Luján is considered one of the most important researchers on the politics, religion, and art of the pre-Hispanic societies of central Mexico, whose stories he promotes.

Last year, the director of the Templo Mayor Project at the National Institute of Anthropology and History was awarded the title of Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor of France, the highest recognition that nation grants to a foreigner.

Leonardo López Luján has curated the exhibitions Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler at the British Museum in London; Our Blood, Our Color: The Polychrome Sculpture of Tenochtitlan at the Museo del Templo Mayor; and Mexica: Gifts and Gods at the Templo Mayor at the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac. He is the author or co-author of more than 40 books and catalogues.

Meanwhile, performer and teacher Gerardo Tamez was the founder of the group Los Folkloristas, the Mexico City Guitar Terceto, and the Tierra Mestiza Ensemble.

The author of pieces such as Percuson, Dos Dalias , and Aires de Son maintains that the boundaries between so-called classical and popular music are blurring these days. There is a healthy exchange between these two great tributaries of sound art .

In 2018, she received the Fine Arts Medal for her career and contribution to the development and dissemination of art, and the training of future generations.