Sergio Ramírez takes seat L at Spain's Royal Academy with tribute to Vargas Llosa

Admission to the Royal Academy

Sergio Ramírez, the Nicaraguan writer and 2017 Cervantes Prize winner, was admitted as a member of the Real Academia Española on 15 November 2026. He took seat L, which became vacant after the death of Mario Vargas Llosa on 13 April 2025. The academy's plenary had elected him at its session on Thursday, 21 May 2026, on a candidacy presented by Santiago Muñoz Machado, the academy's director, Víctor García de la Concha and Luis Mateo Díez. Díez, who won the Cervantes Prize in 2023, welcomed him on behalf of the institution. Javier Cercas and Cristina Sánchez escorted Ramírez to the lectern, and El País reports that the hall was full of guests, including academy authorities and representatives of other academies. Ramírez is 84 years old and has lived in exile in Spain since 2021.

A speech on two homelands

The speech, titled "Un novelista ecuménico", set a homeland he won in Spain against the one he lost in Nicaragua. Ramírez fled Nicaragua in July 2021 under the authoritarian rule of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. El País reports that the regime stripped him of his nationality in 2023, while ABC adds that the regime had issued an arrest order against him and declared him a traitor to the homeland. He told the audience that when the doors of Nicaragua closed on him, he chose Spain as a place of asylum and settlement. He said Nicaragua remained under a tyranny he called cruel, and he noted that Pope Francis had used the word "guaranga" to describe the regime.

“Never have I been a foreigner in Spain.”

He went on to describe Spain as a place that had welcomed and consoled him.

“This has been my homeland since then, taken into its lap, consoled and honoured in many different ways.”

Tribute to Vargas Llosa

Ramírez called taking over Vargas Llosa's seat a heavy burden. Europa Press quotes him praising the Peruvian's work in direct terms.

“Vargas Llosa is an ecumenical novelist in every sense.”

According to ABC, he credited The City and the Dogs with introducing a new participatory way of reading that made the reader an accomplice to the literary act. He portrayed Vargas Llosa as a disciple of Flaubert, a writer disciplined in research, revision and planning. La Vanguardia reports that he placed the Peruvian within the Latin American boom, citing Julio Cortázar, Gabriel García Márquez, Carlos Fuentes and Juan Rulfo as comparisons.

Timeline of milestones

The milestones below are drawn from the four reports and trace his path from the Cervantes Prize to the academy. Ramírez received the Cervantes Prize in 2017, before going into exile. He left Nicaragua in July 2021, and El País reports that his nationality was revoked in 2023. The academy elected him in May 2026, and he took his seat on 15 November 2026.