'At the end is the beginning' book by oncologist Miguel Mestre presented at Casa Saturninita

 

The Uruguayan oncologist Miguel Mestre Déniz, resident in Maspalomas since 2006, presented his second book, 'At the end is the beginning' (Editorial Vecindario, 2023), this Monday in the exhibition hall of the Casa de Saturninita Art Center, before numerous followers who filled the exhibition hall.

 

 

 

 

Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez thanked the attendees for accompanying the writer. “It is fortunate that we can still count on extraordinary people like Miguel, capable of writing a book before artificial intelligence replaces their work,” he said.  

 

The presentation of Mestre Déniz, born in Montevideo (Uruguay) 77 years ago, was given by his friend and president of the Maspalomas Chess Club, Agustín Marrero, and the second deputy mayor and councilor responsible for the municipal area of ​​Culture, Equality, Youth and Education, Elena Álamo Vega.

 

 

 

 

 

Marrero highlighted the writer's complete integration into the society of San Bartolomé de Tirajana; his ability to join the international ranking as a chess player in just a year and a half when it usually takes more than three years, and “his exquisite education, entrepreneurial spirit and clear travel tendency.”

 

For her part, Elena Álamo referred to the writer's practice as an oncologist for 45 years, and also his political exile when the coup d'état occurred on June 27, 1973, which established the civil-military dictatorship in Uruguay. “He traveled first to Denmark, a country that welcomed him and where he spent his career as a doctor, and then to Sweden, where he specialized in oncology. At the end of the dictatorship he returned to his country, excited about the project of creating a center of oncology specialties and research, which he developed and presented in coordination with professionals from Canada and Scandinavia, but unfortunately it never materialized. “It would have been a cutting-edge project for the US and all of South America,” he stated.

 

The second deputy mayor noted that Miguel Mestre came to Gran Canaria in love with the climate, its landscapes and his second wife, Neggi, to whom he dedicates his book. She also alluded to his love for chess, “a sport that the writer has practiced since he was a child,” she said, “and that for him has a value of utmost importance for personal development at different stages of life. In addition to entertainment, she conceives it as a tool that prevents senile dementia. In the book he reminds his grandchildren that life is like a game of chess, in which you have to learn to look for solutions and strategies in the face of any difficulty.

 

Álamo Vega highlighted 'At the end is the beginning' as an autobiographical view in which the author emphasizes the essential role that the family has in human development as it is the first pillar of support, and where values ​​such as respect, generosity, love, effort, responsibility, gratitude and patience are the basic ingredients to face any life difficulty. “On a sunny morning, with a spring-like temperature, even though it was the month of January, Federico was walking along the Meloneras promenade in the south of Gran Canaria,” begins to read in this story, which underlies a reflection on Islamic fundamentalism in Europe.

 

Miguel Mestre warned in his presentation that each reader will appreciate the book “from their particular sensitivity and interests. There will be those who put the emphasis on the text's treatment of family relationships, there will be those who will not be able to stop reading it until they finish it, those who will appreciate its chapters as a simultaneous chess game, or even compare it to a Russian Ninoska doll, with different stories inside.” He also recommended that “although at the end is the beginning, do not start reading it at the end.”

 

Mestre revealed that, being an only child, his inspiration for writing this book came from his “imagination about what his life would have been like if he had had siblings.” Hence, the book is about the story of two families of brothers in which - in the parenthesis of the Uruguayan dictatorship - the importance of the fragility of democracy and the need to take care of it is raised, and what the word truly means. freedom from terrorist threats.

 

'At the end is the beginning' (Editorial Vecindario, 2023) is his second title. His first published work was 'One life is many fictions' (Editorial CanariaseBook, 2019).