Elena Poniatowska Is 2013 Cervantes Prize Winner, Says Recognition Is ‘For Old Age’

Elena Poniatowska, the Mexican journalist and novelist who on Tuesday won the 2013 Cervantes Prize - an honor which ranks second only to the Nobel in the world of Spanish letters - took a light-hearted tack in her remarks to CNN during an interview on Thursday, joking that she had been surprised to receive the award in part because she didn't realize she was old enough for it. "I thought, 'maybe within about 10 years that they'll give it to me, but maybe by then I'll come for it in a wheelchair'," she said before adding that she hadn't considered the possibility that she would win the award. "Generally those prizes come when you've got white hair and you need reading glasses," she said.

"It seems like the kind of award which rounds out a very well-recognized biography," said Poniatowska. "Well, all that's very nice, you say, but in the end it's an award for old age. Think of it - I'm 81, and in May I'll be 82." Born in Paris, Poniatowska has lived most of her life in Mexico, and much of her work grapples with the social and political difficulties in that country. "Massacre in Mexico" ("La noche de Tlatelolco"), perhaps her best-known book, chronicles the 1968 massacre of 325 unarmed Mexican students who were peacefully protesting police repression a week before the Olympic games in Mexico City.

In receiving the honor, which includes €125,000, the Mexican-born author joins the ranks of Carlos Fuentes and Nobel prize winners Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru and Spain's late Camilo Jose Cela, among others. She's also the fourth woman to win the prize, after María Zambrano (1988), Ana María Matute (2010) and Dulce María Loynaz (1992). In announcing their selection, the jury highlighted her "exemplary dedication to journalism" and "strong engagement with contemporary history", calling her "one of the most powerful voices in Spanish language of these days".