Having grown up under a Franco dictatorship that lasted for almost 40 years, Montero assured that democracy not only has to do with being able to vote every 4 years but also with “what we say when we say I love you,” something that, according to , is what he has dedicated himself to in life through poetry.
“A historical commitment is also asking ourselves about feelings,” he insisted after explaining that, for him, that is the meaning of poetry and literature.
At the same time, and after recalling that man “is the only animal in a hurry”, the poet criticized the “commodification of time”, recalling the importance of learning from literature to vindicate slowness as a “human space against at the time of using and throwing away”.
This, as he explained, not only helps to “understand the other” but also to distinguish between what is “fiction” and what is “lie” to the extent that, while the former helps to “imagine life inside human beings”, the second “is that hoax that today dominates so many places in the press” and for which, over time, “nobody asks for responsibilities”.
“To poets, in that sense, time becomes a responsibility,” he declared from the auditorium of the Gimnasio Moderno de Bogotá school where, minutes later, the audience broke into applause with his words.