Cultural activities

Elvira Lindo through her writing

Elvira Lindo through her writing Instituto Cervantes

Instituto Cervantes is pleased to present an exceptional conversation with writer, journalist, and screenwriter Elvira Lindo, one of the most distinctive and recognisable voices in contemporary Spanish literature. In this dialogue with Professor Maite Usoz de la Fuente, Lindo will revisit her personal and creative trajectory, from her early beginnings in radio to the consolidation of a literary career marked by sensitivity, humour, and a profound observation of everyday life. Throughout the event, the author will reflect on the origins of some of her most emblematic characters—such as the unforgettable Manolito Gafotas—and on the way her personal experience, the cities she has lived in, and her lifelong reading have shaped her writing. She will also discuss her work in other creative fields, such as screenwriting, literary journalism, and the chronicle, genres in which she has cultivated an intimate, lucid, and deeply human voice. This conversation will also invite audiences to explore the themes that run through her work: memory as refuge, the gaze toward childhood, the complexity of family relationships, urban life, and an engagement with social reality. With her direct and evocative style, Elvira Lindo will share her understanding of the craft of writing and what it means to narrate the world with closeness and honesty. It will be an essential dialogue for readers, literature students, lovers of contemporary narrative, and anyone interested in gaining insight into the creative process of an author who has masterfully woven humour, emotion, and critical thought into stories that have become part of the Spanish cultural imagination. 


Elvira Lindo Garrido is a prominent Spanish writer and journalist, born on 23 January 1962 in Cádiz. She is best known for creating the character Manolito Gafotas, a boy from the Madrid neighbourhood of Carabanchel who has become a landmark figure in Spanish children’s literature. Her work spans several genres, including children’s literature and screenwriting for film and television. Lindo has received numerous awards, among them the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts in 2024, and she has been widely recognised for her contribution to children’s literature through her celebrated Manolito Gafotas series. 

Maite Usoz de la Fuente was born in Spain and moved to the United Kingdom to pursue postgraduate studies, where she has lived most of her adult life. Her research specialisation lies in contemporary Spanish literature and culture, and her research interests include the work of current Spanish women writers (particularly Belén Gopegui and Marta Sanz), urban studies and spatial theory, as well as literary and cultural representations of recent phenomena and their responses, such as the 2008 global financial crisis. She is the author of the study Gendered Genres: Autofictional versus Autobiographical Readings of Elvira Lindo’s Lo que me queda por vivir (2010), in Feminine Singular: Growing Up Through Life-Writing in the Luso-Hispanic World, ed. Maria José Blanco and Claire Williams (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2017), pp. 229–241.

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