Jorge F. Hernández: "I did not say or imply what they now want to put in my mouth"

The writer Jorge F. Hernández, at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, in 2019.Natalia Fregoso / FIL

The Mexican writer and columnist for EL PAÍS, Jorge F. Hernández, has defended himself after being dismissed as Mexican cultural attaché in Spain: "I did not say or imply what they now want to put in my mouth."

The first communiqué from the Ministry of Foreign Relations, released on Saturday, justified the dismissal by saying that the writer had had "serious and unworthy behavior."

A later one was more precise: Hernández had allegedly made "very offensive and misogynistic" comments against the Mexican ambassador in Madrid, María Carmen Oñate.

In a text published this Monday, the author denies the accusations and claims to have supporting evidence.

More information

• 'Word defense', by Jorge F. Hernández

• 'When it rains in CDMX', by Jorge F. Hernández

Hernández says that when the director of Mexico's cultural diplomacy, Enrique Márquez, informed him of his dismissal by phone on Saturday, he was meeting with Ambassador Oñate.

"We both could not believe the abuse and injustice," says the writer, who as a cultural attaché has been responsible, among others, for the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Spain and the Octavio Paz Library in Madrid since 2019. According to the latter A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it was during a meeting in Mexico City that Hernández made the comments attributed to him, which were "documented."

Yesterday I was dismissed as Minister for Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Mexico in Spain.

My applause and gratitude to the exemplary team of the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Spain and the Octavio Paz Library.

pic.twitter.com/iDbbm4YgNV

- Jorge F Hernández (@FJorgeFHdz) August 7, 2021

"It refers to a private conversation, over the table with three of my best friends and our wives, where what is 'documented' are other matters, very foreign to the ambassador, women, gender equality and myself" , affirms the author and continues: "I have written evidence stating that I did not say or imply what they now want to put in my mouth."

Hernández writes that at that meeting there was “an uncomfortable upstart” who later “harassed, intimidated and threatened” him with alleged recordings.

"I tried," says Hernández, "to inform my superiors of the threats and insults that flooded my phone."

"Apparently, wanting to better cut my losses, Dr. Enrique Márquez unilaterally made the decision to dismiss me," he adds.

The communication of the dismissal took place two days after Hernández published an opinion piece entitled

Por pleasure

, in which he defends reading "simply" for the enjoyment of doing so.

The article does not mention the director of Educational Materials of the Ministry of Public Education, Marx Arriaga, but it was published after several media attributed a statement to the official that went viral, "Reading for enjoyment is an act of capitalist consumption", and that Arriaga denied on Twitter saying.

Information related to the Culture Attaché Office of @EmbaMexEsp.

pic.twitter.com/QE3bdcLkzF

- Foreign Relations (@SRE_mx) August 8, 2021

Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured in a statement that the dismissal "is in no way an act of censorship," Hernández insists that the reason behind his dismissal is "the discomfort generated" by what he writes and publishes, that " it could have seriously affected one or more public officials ”.

"The high honor of representing Mexico abroad does not diminish or close personal opinion, the capacity for reasoning or the search for common sense", defends the author, who has assured that he has not yet received "any official document" that they do. effective and specify the reason for the termination of your contract.

“I have been repeating for years that the only thing that saves us as people, country and planet is in the books (…) I have been repeating it for so long that today I feel that I am getting rid of the official stupidity, the government mud, the nonsense of believing that the State is something foreign to the Government ”, ditch.

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