The rock of Miguel Ríos enters the Instituto Cervantes: a book of memoirs, his first and last album and the lyrics of 'Vuelvo a Granada'

A new tenant has arrived at the vault of the former Banco Español del Río de la Plata, now the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute.

The fortified basement, which previously kept money, jewelry and documents that their owners hid underground just in case, now houses other types of material.

Since it was converted into a Letter Box in 2007, the space safeguards documents, books, photos and records of writers, artists and creators of all kinds.

The last to leave his legacy is Miguel Ríos (Granada, 78 years old).

With him, music reaches Cervantes that, if by chance there are ghosts in that vault and at night they gather to celebrate, they have never heard there.

With Ríos,

has reached the institution.

In these imagined nocturnal meetings there will be a lot of poetry, literature of all kinds, dance and even music, classical and popular.

Miguel Ríos is the first rocker, but not the first musician.

In the darkness of that basement, the chords of Atahualpa Yupanqui, Ana Belén and Joaquín Sabina will have already been heard, who have given their legacies to Cervantes in recent years, some with their curiosity.

Ana Belén donated, in addition to other documentary material, the earrings with which she played the role of Adela in

.

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Miguel Ríos: believe again

The transfer of this vital summary of Miguel Ríos took place on Wednesday night in Granada at the Isabel La Católica theater in Granada.

The Cervantes has held its annual meeting of directors in the city and the closing has been that act of delivery of the legacy of Ríos, which in the next few days will be deposited in box 1,274 of the Box of Letters.

The director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero, explains the reason for the arrival of rock and this particular rocker in the center.

"Miguel Ríos was the man who took rock, music in English, and he knew how to turn it into perfect music in Spanish."

From him, he added, "the Spanish language and culture entered the world of rock and today, Spanish and Hispanic music have enormous strength in the world," he concluded.

Miguel Ríos was the man who took rock, music in English, and knew how to turn it into perfect music in Spanish.

Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute

Hours before, Miguel Ríos explained to this newspaper that giving up the legacy gives him "a lot of respect."

It is, he says, a "short" legacy: his memoir, his first and last album, letters written to his brother-in-law in his first years in Madrid, when he was trying to get his career on his feet, a current handwritten version from

, the first song written by him, and some photos.

All this will be kept two boxes to the right of Ana Belén, surrounded by Nélida Piñón, the photographer Colita and the actress Ángela Molina and not far from the material of Luis Rosales from Granada and Manuel de Falla from Cádiz.

The singer from Granada has fallen into various details in these days of preparing the legacy.

The first thing is that he does not keep “anything from those years”: “I went from pension to pension, from house to house, and everything was so unstable and it was so difficult to survive with rock, a non-hegemonic music that was falling behind”.

At that time, he remembers, "that memorabilia thing was not carried" and it was not until years later, when he left the pensions and was able to go to apartments, that he began to save something.

His personal legacy already acquired a certain consistency from the 1980s and this material will soon belong to the Miguel Ríos Foundation, created a few months ago.

Miguel Ríos during the delivery ceremony of part of his legacy to the Cervantes Institute together with Luis García Montero at the Isabel la Católica Theater (Granada) on December 21, 2022. Fermin Rodriguez (Fermin Rodriguez)

Ríos left Granada for Madrid in 1961 and composed

at the end of that decade.

He always tells that it was a practically farewell song to his short life as a rocker.

“Everything was very unstable and it didn't seem like I was going to survive there,” he explains.

Fifty years later, Ríos can recall the environment in which he wrote it, but not specific details.

He does not remember in what format he wrote it, nor does he know what he wrote it with, nor if it was in a notebook, loose sheets or other material.

He doesn't know where that original is either.

He never thought about posterity then, although he does remember the environment: “I wrote it in pieces, one afternoon very discouraged and longing for what I knew I had in Granada, which, although it was not very brilliant, was safe.

But I have no idea what support I wrote it on.”

For this reason, Cervantes now keeps a version rewritten by him by hand of that song.

Another thing that has fallen into now that he has reviewed the letters he wrote in those early years of his career in Madrid for his family in Granada is how weak his writing was and "the number of spelling mistakes he made", he comments with a laugh. .

And he clarifies that he was "in school only until primary school."

“I also remember with considerable displeasure the day I took the Salesian exam to pass to the institute.

That was my last day of school because at home they needed me to work”, recalls the singer.

During the delivery of the legacy, he recalled that those letters were "full of white lies" so that his family would think that everything was going well and, on the other hand, since the priests did not encourage him much to continue studying.

On the contrary, they encouraged him to quit: “Miguel, man, you, not books, they fill your head with

”.

They were referring to

, the name given in Granada to pappuss, the fluff that comes out of plants in spring and flies en masse until it falls to the ground.

At the time, perhaps not, but over time, Miguel allowed the

to enter to the bottom and now recapitulates.

"Later, I have read and I have been trained and, without throwing rockets, I am happy with what I have achieved."

The act in Granada concluded with a concert in which Ríos was full of those

against whom the priests warned him, such as the poetry of Ángel González or Antonio Machado or works by the composer Kurt Weill, among others.

Miguel Ríos during the concert offered after the delivery of the legacy at the Isabel La Católica Theater in Granada on December 21, 2022. Fermin Rodriguez (Fermin Rodriguez)

At that concert, one thing became clear about Miguel Ríos, the man who has changed the meaning of the word retire, adding the meaning of "actually, continue."

If the audience sang, applauded and cried with him, it's because he likes and excites him as always and he maintains a magnificent state of form, voice and humor.

It will be necessary to be attentive to what happens in the darkness of the night in the Caja de las Letras of the old bank.