Letter from Francisco Rodríguez Iglesias
President of Hércules Global Group and of the Foundation that carries his name
In the late sixties, in the context of Galicia in which young people were forced into emigration for work and be independent, my great dream was to develop my career within the world of culture without leaving this country. After living in Madrid and in the Basque Country, in 1979 I got this goal: returning to Galicia with a position of some importance in a Spanish publisher.
Once in A Coruna and after the experience in the world of books, I reached a conclusion: Galicia needed a major project to gather all the most important of our culture and our identity, increasing self-esteem, ultimately, that made us feel proud of what we are: Gallegos. Its title: The Galicia Project.
But to realize this dream, it was necessary to create a publishing company, and thus was born Hercules de Ediciones. I wanted to create culture and so, seeing the need to Galicia had of books covering fundamental aspects of its reality, I decided that Hercules undertake this task, with invaluable and indispensable aid of the most qualified experts on each topic.
With the support of leading intellectuals, with the union of all co-workers, with the help of family, but especially with the ongoing encouragement of the Galician people, which resulted not only subscribing to the same fate in the push to incorporate new series that will complete the work, today I can say is I accomplished another goal: to collect in a book all the knowledge about Galicia and help her build one of the pillars of our identity.
It is indeed very encouraging that the great works constitute an essential service to society and so I wanted it to be limited exclusively to Galicia. With this idea born Hercules Astur de Ediciones, based in Oviedo, which addresses the same goals in the Principality of Asturias, Publicaciones Comunitarias, headquartered in Seville and with a similar purpose in all of Andalucia, which makes me profoundly happy to note satisfaction and the warmth with which we were received by all the Andalusians.
Each of these projects are part of my life are imbued with knowledge, total dedication and love. Under all these initiatives into reality were becoming full, it was necessary to build a house to give them shelter and thus was born the Hercules Building.
The intention is to be a permanent forum of culture, a worthy representative of civil society Galician, Spanish and universal. And the first result was Fundación Rodríguez Iglesias, which was born to carry out these ideas, whose statements reflect the creativity and love for the art of the greatest contemporary Galician artists, whom I will be forever grateful. Reaching this point is much more than you ever imagined, but I hope it is much less than what we are able to achieve.
CRONOLOGY:
• 1985: Creation of Hércules of Editions, headquartered in A Coruña, devoted to the distribution of books
• 1991: Start of the publishing activity of Hércules de Ediciones, with the publication of the History series of The Galicia Project
• 1987: Foundation of Hércules Astur de Ediciones, based in Oviedo
• 1997: Creation of Rodríguez Iglesias Foundation
• 1999: Establishment of Publicaciones Comunitarias, based in Sevilla
