In the 80s, historian Pierre Nora coined the term "place of memory" and creates a new way of writing history. Chronological order disappears to make way for objects, men, facts, and places of the present. In reality, Nora would surely agree that a story is a great place of memory, as it gathers the experiences of an era on a simple piece of paper. The Short Story Contest written by seniors, organized by "la Caixa" Social Project and Radio Nacional de España (RNE), is celebrating no less than 10 years of turning experiences into part of our collective memory.
A Andrew Stanton we owe him the emotions generated in movies like Toy Story, Finding Nemo or WALL-E. The filmmaker states that the first lesson he learned from stories is that we must create them with what we know, "to capture a truth of our experience and express the values one feels in their innermost fiber." And the older one gets, the more truths one has to capture and make their story heard. Elderly people show us year after year in the Short Story Contest written by seniors, which this year has as its motto "If you have an experience, you have a story." Letting us read part of what they have learned from life not only makes us feel closer to them, but also they feel more capable of removing us from within, as explained by Ignacio Elguero, RNE program director and competition judge, who says he has observed in many of the participants the talent of "moving without fireworks." Elguero agrees with Stanton that every story starts from an experience, but points out that not all stories submitted to the contest necessarily have to be based on one's own history or on the impulses of the passage of time. Lola Sanabria, winner of the 2013 edition with her story The Journey, adds that when she writes it seems more interesting to capture "what is brewing in society". The contest is not only an exhibition of talent, but also a learning method, both for the participants and for the members of the jury and readers in general. And it is that, as Elguero explains, teaches us to erase clichés, as if possible difficulties in accessing education in his youth could lead to low literary quality. Quite the opposite, he assures that the level is incredible, and relates this fact to the attendance of many of the participants to the writing workshops for seniors offered at EspacioCaixa. Although for some, the passion for the pen comes from afar. Aurora del Amo, winner of the 2017 edition with White, she started playing with words at the age of 10, "encouraged by a school teacher, who praised my writing exercise." The memory of a teacher was also the spark that motivated Lola, although her literary career began 18 years ago, a time that has served her to to define herself as a writer and find in writing her own "space of freedom". The contest shows seniors how far their words can go. According to Elguero, they see that "what they do works, it is seen, it is read and can even be heard", since one of the prizes is the radio broadcast of the winning story. This recognition also encourages them to continue. To this day, Aurora continues with a series of stories about her childhood divided by colors —after White arrive Green and Red—, and Lola is still active in the blog that made her start writing short stories. The writings of these authors and other participants in the contest are now part of the places of memory that draw our history. A history that manages to touch that "intimate fiber" that Stanton spoke of and, as happens to Elguero, to get excited seeing them excited while collecting the award or they see that their effort has been worthwhile, at least, so that other people can learn in one reading what was learned in a lifetime.You can read more stories like these in ALMA, the social social network, a digital space dedicated to the social sphere that offers a new perspective on the present and future of society, from an optimistic and diverse voice, and all the initiatives promoted by the "la Caixa" Social Project.