The award of the Cervantes prize to Elena Poniatowska  does justice to a writer of enormous importance to the letters in Spanish. Maybe it was the Biblioteca Breve Prize, awarded by Seix Barral in 2011 for her novel  Leonora barely fictionalized biography of the artist Leonora Carrington, a personal friend of Poniatowska, which brought to the fore again her figure.

She is the fourth woman that gets this distinction created by Spanish Culture Ministery in 1979. The ceremony will take place on April 23, 2014, at the University of Alcalá de Henares, city in which Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra himself was borned,with the presence of their Majesties the King and Queen of Spain.

Many recalled then that this aristocratic lady had been the author of The Night of Tatlelolco a novel that caused a stir because he kept on track the student massacre that took place in the Mexican square El Zócalo in 1968 and it made eminent intellectuals like Octavio Paz, give up their office.

This award not only supports the importance of his work, but the exercise of a curious profession about to disappear, the journalist reporter investigating a topic for years and, turning history a novel, leaving a testimonial about that time doing an excellent literature. This was the ground on which Poniatowska, moved like fish in water, and it can be say that his books are a faithful chronicle of what happened in Mexico in the last fifty years.

Poniatowska was born in Paris, daughter of a direct descendant of the last king of Poland and an exiled Mexican. Her complete name is Hélène Elizabeth Louise Amélie Paula Dolores Poniatowska Amor. Her parents took her to Mexico when he was 10, escaping from World War II. And there, in his adopted homeland, this woman of aristocratic birth gave herself to journalism and eventually became one of the most engaged voices of the Mexican left. His paternal family christened  her as the " Red Princess ".

In the early 70 she wrote his most famous work, The Night of Tlatelolco, a story about the killing of college students that took place in Mexico City in 1968. He has also written essays, volumes of short stories and novels, among which stand out At night come ( 1979 ), La piel del cielo ( 2001 Abundant Award ), The train goes first ( 2007, Rómulo Gallegos Prize ) and Leonora ( 2011, Biblioteca Breve Prize ) .

Among his best writings are: Octavio Paz, the words of the tree; Juan Soriano, child of a thousand years; Dawn in the Zocalo: The fifty days that confronted Mexico; and Ay,life do not deserve me, a happy chronic of writers like Carlos Fuentes, Juan Rulfo, Rosario Castellanos and others.

She was always considered as an committed author, she has said that " the first commitment is to write well."