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Monday brings a heavy weight, a reminder that life can feel fragile. The loss of Alberto Anaut, a visionary who built La Fábrica, an idea factory in Spain, leaves a gap in both culture and the world of books. He found ways to keep imagination awake, to spark conversation, and to connect diverse minds through art and inquiry.
With a generosity born from his character and his creative impulse, he helped shape the Between Us Festival and turned a simple letter into a bold center for personal, immediate engagement with the arts. In addition to his journalistic craft, he pursued a noble mission: to cultivate a living relationship with culture that anyone could participate in. I had the privilege to meet him in this same spirit of curiosity and collaboration.
Across his work, he was a patient teacher and a demanding critic all at once. In questions, Country, Curious acted as his compass. He never settled for the obvious; his aim was to extract the purest art from the work and from every person he encountered. In that regard he remained a master. He had a way of searching until exhaustion gave way to a childlike speed and optimism, a perpetual readiness to begin again and to explore new possibilities, no matter the field.
His interest knew no borders. The creation of Eñe, like La Fábrica, sprang from a shared passion and a belief in collaboration across hemispheres. He did not wander through talk; his speech was concise and thoughtful, yet he listened deeply. When someone spoke, he listened for the seed of an idea, and if it showed promise, he would bring it to life in partnership with that person right away, turning potential into reality with a decisive, almost lived immediacy.
Recently, he shared with his partner Luis Posada the idea that a literary supplement in Argentina might continue the conversations they started. The project named Ñ emerged as a veteran festival and as a continuing celebration of their work, already marked by a sense of heritage and future. There was no hesitation; the moment was seized, and America’s leading cultural magazines were approached with confidence, validating a shared belief in the power of ideas to cross borders. It was said, as Benedetti once told Viglieti, that Anaut carried an energy for coincidences—an energy that propelled him toward any opportunity to walk with others, to lead when needed, and to stay open to wherever collaboration might take them.
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Spain and the Spanish language felt the echo of his energy, and the United States felt it too. Anaut’s vitality mattered because it existed in a universe where ideas travel quickly and ideologies often clash. In all the years they worked side by side, even during fierce newsroom debates, there was never a trace of the vulgarity that can creep into journalism. As a cultural creator and as a person, he was consistently willing to say yes, even when a conversation ended with a firm no or a different point of view. His openness was paired with a clear commitment to the truth of a project, a rare combination of generosity and discernment.
The news of his passing comes with a strong sense of loss. Alberto Anaut will be remembered as a powerful force who treated life as fertile ground for ideas. The world of books, art, and thought has felt a tremendous absence, a quiet breaking sound as if the fertile energy that fueled so much work has shifted into memory. Yet his legacy persists, not as a static monument but as an ongoing engine that continues to push creative effort forward, inviting others to imagine, create, and connect. The energy he seeded remains alive in the conversations he sparked, the collaborations he fostered, and the countless initiatives that carry his spirit forward, keeping the flame of curiosity bright for future generations.