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🇪🇸 Spain /Culture & Society

Catalan cultural advocate in exile Rosa Maria Duran, awarded Creu de Sant Jordi, dies in Mexico

From La Vanguardia · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Outcome reported
  • Rosa Maria Duran i Gili, a Catalan professor, translator and cultural advocate in exile, has died in Mexico.
  • Born in Barcelona in 1927, she fled with her family after the Civil War and later studied in Mexico and at the Sorbonne.
  • Catalan President Salvador Illa praised her decades of work preserving and promoting Catalan language, culture and exile memory.

Rosa Maria Duran i Gili, a professor, translator and advocate for Catalan culture in exile, has died in Mexico. Mexico's National Center for the Arts announced her death on social media.

a prominent figure in the Catalan community in exile in Mexico

· Salvador IllaThe Catalan president used the phrase in a tribute to Duran.

Born in Barcelona in 1927, Duran and her family took refuge in Montpellier, France, after the Spanish Civil War. They later moved to Mexico, where she completed her university studies. She subsequently pursued postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Duran worked as an interpreter for the United Nations and spent more than six decades promoting Catalan culture through writing, translation and conference interpreting. Catalonia awarded her the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2022.

to preserving and promoting the language, culture and memory of exile, and to building bridges between Catalonia and Mexico

· Salvador IllaIlla described Duran's contribution to Catalan culture and relations with Mexico.

Catalan President Salvador Illa mourned her death and called her “a prominent figure in the Catalan community in exile in Mexico.” He said she dedicated her life “to preserving and promoting the language, culture and memory of exile, and to building bridges between Catalonia and Mexico.” Illa recalled meeting Duran during a visit to Mexico the previous year, describing the interview as memorable for her story of “uprooting, commitment and personal and collective reconstruction.”

uprooting, commitment and personal and collective reconstruction

· Salvador IllaIlla recalled what marked him about his meeting with Duran in Mexico.
About this summary

Originally published by La Vanguardia in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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