The Ministry of Culture and Sports changed its leader with the departure of the archaeologist Liwy Grazioso Sierrawho took office at the beginning of Bernardo Arévalo’s government. On April 7, the new holder of the portfolio is the writer, editor and cultural manager Luis Méndez Salinas.
The minister, in an interview with Free pressexplains that the repatriation of the remains of Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias is one of the main issues.
The official indicates that during the time he will be in charge of this portfolio he wants to disseminate more the work of the writer Miguel Ángel Asturias and work on the repatriation of his remains. “We are looking for an ambitious plan of diverse actions in which different institutions, sectors outside the Government intervene and, if everything goes on trackwe will be with the repatriation next October“says Méndez Salinas.
In June 2024 it was learned that the remains of Miguel Ángel Asturias would return to Guatemala five decades after having died in Europe. After their stay in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France, the remains of the 1967 Nobel Prize winner in Literature will be repatriated to the country, confirmed his youngest son, Miguel Ángel Asturias Amado.
“It is a decision that has a great emotional background, but that also carries a political decision that I am sure my father and my brother would agree with,” Asturias Amado said on that occasion.
According to Asturias’ youngest son, along with his older brother, Rodrigo, they had talked about the possibilities of bringing the remains to Guatemala for some time.
“Investigating his poetry, my father expressed his desire to be buried in Guatemala,” shared Asturias Amado. This decision has been verified from Government Agreement 92-2024, which considers and is based, above all, on cultural protection and dissemination. This agreement contemplated the commemorative year of Miguel Ángel Asturias 2024-2025.
Remembered for his greatest ovation December 10, 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden, where he received the Nobel Prize in LiteratureAsturias managed to extirpate, together with other Latin American authors, the fraudulent reality of the continent through works that dealt with the magical realism.
A deserted contest
As part of this activity, in November 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Sports published Agreement 1449-2024, which creates a contest to design a monument where the remains of Miguel Ángel Asturias on his possible return to Guatemala.
On Friday, May 30, the news of the selection was announced at the government press conference. of the winners that also reached the institution’s social networks. In it it was shared that The Guatemalan sculptor María Sofía Castillo Shambach was the winner of the Unique and Extraordinary Sculpture Contest Miguel Ángel Asturiaswhich seeks to pay tribute to the life and legacy of the Nobel Prize in Literature. According to the rules of the contest, the artist would have the endorsement to bring her work to life and would also receive a prize of Q250 thousand.
The second place was for Heart of the Earthby the architect, multidisciplinary artist and cultural manager Cristian Cojulún. His proposal presented the profile of Asturias fused with elements of corn, such as cobs and cob leaves, in a symbolic composition. The prize was Q125 thousand.
While the third place It was for the architect and sculptor Mauro Yojcomwith his piece Flight at dawna figurative sculpture that combines the image of a llama with book pages, engraved with fragments of texts alluding to the author, with a prize of Q75 thousand.
The call was aimed at Guatemalan artists of legal age, with the objective of selecting a sculptural proposal that reflected the life and work of the writer, as well as his connection with national identity.
The ministry reported at the time that the finalist models were evaluated under criteria of creativity, conceptual solidity and compatibility with the intended space: the Plaza Maya of the “Miguel Ángel Asturias” Cultural Center, where the monument will be built. But, on June 19, 2025, the ministry released a statement declaring the contest void.
The current minister Méndez Salinas explains that one of the tasks sought by the Vice Ministry of Culture has to do with the preparation of a suitable space for the tomb at the Miguel Ángel Asturias Cultural Center. “There are projects that explain how the construction of this funerary monument that will house the remains of the Nobel Prize winner will be carried out,” he describes.
Regarding the contest, the Culture and Sports leader explains that the contest generated discomfort until it was cancelled, and that an instruction from President Bernardo Arévalo is to enter into conversation with those selected on that occasion to carry out a redress process and for their work to be disseminated, adds Méndez Salinas.
The Ministry is working with experts, such as architects and artists, to form a specific commission and in the coming weeks have a project that allows the construction of this tomb, which is one of the keys to getting the rest of the process underway, indicates Méndez Salinas. He adds that they are in constant communication with the Asturias family.
Why did they declare the competition for the monument to Miguel Ángel Asturias void?
The Ministry of Culture formed a verification commission in charge of reviewing the qualification and ruling process of the “Miguel Ángel Asturias” Unique and Extraordinary Sculpture Contest, with the objective of establishing compliance with Ministerial Agreement 1449-2024 and the contest rules.
The published document explained that based on paragraph 16 of said bases, which refers to unforeseen events that arose during the process, this commission was created to confirm that the works selected as winners met all the established requirements.
#Release | We inform the population:#ElPuebloDignoEsFirst pic.twitter.com/xWL5LkvjML
— Ministry of Culture and Sports of Guatemala (@McdGuate) June 19, 2025
He described that it is part of the institutional obligation to ensure the quality of public spending and transparency, since the awards come from State funds. “As a result of the verification carried out, it was determined that some of the works did not comply with the measures established in the bases. In other cases, the lack of documents in the files was evident. In addition, none of the participating works—selected or not by the jury—reached the minimum of 80% of the points required to move on to the next stage of evaluation,” the document cites.
“In the review, it was established that some of the selected proposals did not comply with the provisions of said bases. Based on the above, this portfolio decided to annul the actions of the qualifying jury,” it said. On that occasion, it was estimated that in subsequent days the new date for receiving works to participate in the “Miguel Ángel Asturias” Unique and Extraordinary Sculpture Contest would be published,” the institution said, although it was never presented.