A Conversation with Award-Winning Galician Writer Xesús Fraga

A conversation with Galician writer Xesús Fraga, organised by the Department of Hispanic Studies. Born in London and raised between the UK and Galicia, award-winning writer Xesús Fraga will discuss his celebrated book Virtudes (e misterios) (Virtues and Mysteries) about his family’s migration history. In 1961, a working-class woman from the Galician town of Betanzos emigrated to London. She was forced to leave her country and her three daughters to earn the much-needed money that her husband had promised to send from his own migration to Venezuela. However, he seemed to have disappeared into the thin air: no money, and also no news. Emigration thus fractured her family, but it also gave this woman, Virtudes (virtues in English), the possibility to secure a future for them. Her daughter, Isabel, would soon follow in her footsteps to London, where she embraced education and culture and became an English teacher. Half a century later, Xesús Fraga, son of Isabel and grandson of Virtudes, has written Virtudes (e misterios), an exploration of the impact of these migrations on three generations of his family. He examines the circumstances that led his mother and grandmother to the UK, and the social, economic, and emotional implications. The book also deals with the mystery of his grandfather’s disappearance and Xesus’ upbringing as a second-generation migrant. This is a book that combines memoir, reportage, diaries, photographs, and other materials. Written in Galician, it won the Blanco Amor award for novels in 2019 and Spain’s National Book Award for Narrative in 2021. Register here for this event.