Joaquín García-Plata from Cáceres dies

Joaquín García-Plata from Cáceres has died. He is a popular character in the city, known for his literary outreach, especially the figure of Gabriel and Galán. Every year he was one of the organizers of the event that is celebrated on Three Kings’ Day next to the statue of the poet in the upper part of Paseo de Cánovas.

García-Plata Quirós was the grandson of another writer, folklorist and essayist Rafael García-Plata de Osma, who has a dedicated street in the capital. It so happens that Joaquín García-Plata was going to receive a tribute last Friday the 1st. Singer-songwriter Pepe Extremadura, who has also died at the age of 66 in recent days, was scheduled to perform there. The organized tribute included various events at the Ateneo and a dinner at the El Pato restaurant, Matías Simón recalls sadly. García-Plata, Pepe Extremadira and Simón himself directed the association of friends of the statue of Gabriel and Galán, which started in 1926 and has been giving prominence to the figure of the poet for decades.

“It’s heartbreaking. Pepe has left us too soon and Joaquín, the same. We lose two referents and I two great friends, “said Matías Simón when remembering García-Plata. Not only the literary was the facet of the deceased.

«Joaquín has been and always will be one of the guardians of the poetic legacy of Gabriel y Galán. An illustrious, cultured, supportive, simple man, a poet and a good person,” Matías Simón wrote about him on Wednesday.

For years he was also linked to the world of advertising and the Club Polideportivo Cacereño. He was the voice of the club and of the team itself, the one in charge of announcing the line-ups over the loudspeaker, of narrating the incidents and notifying the spectators of any of the details of each football match that was held at the Príncipe Felipe stadium.

Victim of cancer, Joaquín García-Plata’s body will be veiled at the SerFátima funeral home and the funeral will be held in the parish of San José.