Paris (France) (AFP) – The National Library of France (BnF) will deliver to Guatemala an indigenous baton that belonged to the writer Miguel Ángel Asturias, the institution announced this Monday to AFP, days after the family of the Nobel Prize winner recovered his ashes to repatriate them to their country.

First modification: 09/11/2026 - 13:27Last modification: 09/11/2026 - 13:28

The president of the BnF, Gilles Pécout, explained that they had decided to transfer to the Ministry of Culture of the Central American country some objects "that are part of the legacy" of the writer, but that it seemed "more legitimate to return to Guatemala."

Among them, several medals stand out, as well as an "ethnic command staff", which was part of the archives bequeathed to the BnF by Asturias, which resided for long periods.

"We want to extract from this collection objects that we think make more sense in Guatemala than here," Pécout added, without specifying when exactly the donation would take place.

This contemporary indigenous command staff, almost two meters long, is made of wood and has a sculpted white bird on the handle, with a snake and two small human heads.

The author of "El Señor Presidente" and "Hombres de Corn" received this object in the 1960s in Guatemala, when the indigenous communities symbolically named him "only begotten son of Tecún Umán," as his son, Miguel Ángel Asturias Amado, explained on several occasions.

"He always placed it at the head of his bed, because it was the recognition he loved the most," he said.

The collection preserved in the BnF includes the diploma and the Nobel medal that Asturias received in 1967, as well as manuscripts, correspondence, drawings, photographs or writings about speeches.

Two years before his death in 1974, Asturias already expressed his wish that he wanted to bequeath his Parisian archive to this institution, according to correspondence from the time.

This announcement comes days after the French authorities gave the writer's family his ashes, which until now rested in the famous Parisian cemetery of Père-Lachaise.

The remains of the Guatemalan author are scheduled to arrive in his country on November 12, where two days later the funeral services will be held at the National Palace.

The next day, the remains of the "Big Tongue", as the writer is known, will be placed in a monument in the country's main cultural center that bears his name.

In this context, the BnF also committed to digitizing the archive and organizing cultural and scientific events together with the Guatemalan authorities to promote the literature of Asturias, one of the six Latin American authors crowned with the Nobel Prize.

© 2026 AFP

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