Assembled together in Oviedo, the 1997 Prince of Asturias Award Jury for Letters, comprised of Rafael Alvarado Ballester, Andrés Amorós, Luis María Anson, Felipe Benítez Reyes, Pedro Casals, Juan Luis Cebrián, Antonio Colinas, Víctor García de la Concha, Alfonso de la Serna, presided over by Fernando Lázaro Carreter and with José María Martínez Cachero acting as secretary, has decided, by a majority, to grant the 1997 Prince of Asturias Award for Letters to the Colombian writer Álvaro Mutis for the originality and intellectual commitment of his poetic and narrative work in which the personage of Maqroll el Gaviero figures prominently throughout the greater part of its pages.

His literary creation, unanimously recognized as one of the Spanish-speaking world´s highest achievements, links the tenets of Magic Realism with the concerns of modern man.

Oviedo, 25 April 1997