Anesco celebrated in Madrid the VII edition of the Short Story Competition on port stevedoring. The first prize awarded by the jury went to ‘El querer, mal estibado, descompensa’ by Ignacio Alcázar, the second prize went to Alfredo Moreno with ‘La mano tendida’, while the third prize awarded by the jury went to ‘El carbón y la bruma’ by Francisco Mata Hernández. “Every year we see the interest in this competition grow, and in this edition we have reached a historic number: 245 works. For us, it is a reason for enormous satisfaction, because it reflects not only the talent and creativity of the participants but also the growing commitment to bring the reality of the stevedoring sector closer to the general public,” stated the general secretary of Anesco, José Luis Romero.
‘El querer, mal estibado, descompensa’ is a port metaphor about love and emotional weight. It is the story of a stevedore who reflects on his relationship with an enigmatic woman whose presence and departure mark him like a poorly distributed load that unbalances his life. “The mental, emotional, and sentimental structure of a person, all their capacities, must be in balance for a story like the one narrated to emerge. Otherwise, the ship becomes unloaded,” acknowledged the winner of this edition, Ignacio Alcázar, who received a prize of 1,000 euros, compared to the 500 and 300 euros received by the second and third prizes.
