| Friday, April 27, 2007 11:00AM | | | | NEW YORK, HISPANIC-AMERICA (II) | Posted By: Claudio Iván Remeseira
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| Tags: Eduardo Lago, Instituto Cervantes, Salman Rushdie | Just about 3 per cent of the books published each year in the United States are translations, as Eduardo Lago, director of the Instituto Cervantes, reminded us in his welcoming speech at the Festival Reception hosted by the Cervantes on Thurdsay evening. That meager figure reflects probably better than anything else the disturbing gulf of disinformation and mistrust that exists between the US and the rest of the world. The Festival constitutes a major effort to bridge that gulf, by introducing authors from different cultures and languages to American audiences, by forging new friendships among writers from all over the world.
I was always amused by the quirky use of the word "alien" to describe both a foreigner an a being from outer space. In any case, Hispanic culture is certainly not alien to the US, specially in New York. "Right now, there are scores of Spanish-language authors living and writing in this City --said Lago--; a few years ago, when Gabriel García Márquez and Derek Walcott produced their documentary on the Caribbean diaspora, they referred to Manhattan, the crossroads of that diaspora, at the ultimate Caribbean island."
He also quoted Puerto Rican novelist Luis Rafael Sánchez: "New York is the (cultural) capital of Latin America."
Salman Rushdie echoed Lago's remarks. "Hispanic culture is today very close to center of American culture --he said--. In my own case, Cervantes and Borges were a major influence--they helped me a great deal in becoming the writer I am."
About a hundred people were listening to Rushdie and Lago at the beautiful Instituto Cervantes' garden, among them Argentine-born Carlos María Domínguez and his wife, literary critic Ana Inés Larre Borges, from Uruguay; Cuban novelist José Manuel Prieto; Russell Banks; Thomas Mermall; historian Mike Wallace and his wife, Mexican writer Carmen Boullosa, Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntau from mainland China; Janne Teller, from Denmark, and Catalonian poets David Castillo and Melcion Mateu, among many others.
In an aside, Rushdie also told me how grateful he was to former director of the Cervantes Antonio Muñoz Molina for his contributions to previous editions of the Festival, and how anxious he was to read the English translation of Lago's awarded novel, Llámame Brooklyn (Call me Brooklyn). "If it takes too long to come out, I can always try the French version".
I also chat extensively with Carlos María Domínguez, editor of the prestigious Uruguayan weekly Brecha. "This is my first time in New York, and I'm just assimilating the shock of the City. It's amazing" His lovely wife Ana Inés (not related to Jorge Luis Borges) is a great conversationalist, and we chat extensively about the Festival and the River Plate traditional rivalries (tango, soccer, writers). We laughed of the myopic idiocies of our own countries.
Commenting on Wednesday's night Town Hall meetings, Ana Inés highlited Rushdie's contribution to the panel. "He was the only one who stressed the importance of leaving one's own home," she said. "That's all pertinent. Literature is always about leaving. You have to unsettle yourself to find something valuable, to recreate yourself". Her husband, who left his native Argentina to start anew in neigbhouringh Uruguay (reversing the usual sojourn of writers and artists in that part of the world) remembered that Juan Carlos Onetti, the famous Uruguayan novelist, created in his books a fictive city, Santa María, in which we can find his ultimate identity. "Onetti left Montevideo for Buenos Aires, then left South America for Spain--his true home was literature, his true self, the powerful realm of the imagination." | | |
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