Recent readings: Fielding, Cela, Yourcenar

Fielding, Henry. The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling. Washington Square Press, 1964 ed. London, 1749.
Who were the real parents of the infant that Squire Alworthy finds in his bed and rears as his own son and calls "Tom Jones"? After he ruefully expels the lad from his estate, due to the treachery of the squire's nephew & Tom's rival Blifil, will Tom regain the good Squire's favor? More urgently, how will Tom consummate his love, requited, for the lovely Sophia, despite his own low and bastardly birth and the violent opposition of Sophia's father, Alworthy's crude and simple neighbor, Squire Western? Through many rollicking adventures, including bedding & nearly bedding several other women, saving the life of a very peculiar hermit, a night's entertainment with a band of gypsies, the acquisition of comical superstitious barber-surgeon-pedant as his loyal companion, a tussle with a highwayman, a masked ball, some letters gone astray, mistaken identities, a duel and a charge of murder, and the shock of hearing that he has lain with his own mother, Tom pursues his Sophia to London. Thither she has fled her father to avoid being forced to marry Blifil -- and nearly is raped by a young lord, and then caught and reconfined first by her father (who loves her but demands she marry Blifil, because it would be good to join the two estates and thus, he believes, good for her happiness), and then by her father's old maid sister. All is finally resolved in the last pages: we learn Tom's true origins, he gets the girl & they live happily ever after, reconciled to Alworthy & Squire Western, and all the many other characters get their various just desserts.
I have never enjoyed a book more. At many moments I laughed out loud at the droll adventures. I chuckled over Fielding's wicked prologues (where he expounds upon the writer's craft, the reader's likely impatience, the obtuseness and perversity of critics, the superiority of noble & energetic spirits over dour repression, and the vagaries of fame). And finally I was amazed at the ingenious turns of plot & its ultimate resolution. 2004.6.26

Cela, José Camilo. La colmena, Clásicos Castalia. Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1989.
Madrid, invierno de 1943, es una colmena donde sendos personajes siguen sus instintos y tímidos deseos, tratando de sobrevivir con algún rasgo de dignidad bajo el frío, la pobreza y la represión de los recién victoriosos franquistas. Sus vidas entrecruzan en el café "La Delicia" de la repugnante y gritona doña Rosa, el bar "Aurora" del anarquista y veterano del ejército republicano Celestino Ortiz (que puso ese nombre al bar porque es gran admirador del libro Aurora de Nietzsche, que lee como si fuera la Biblia), y la "casa de citas decente" de la Celia Vecino, viuda de Obdulio Cortés. La señorita Elvira, "buscona asidua del café de doña Rosa" (según el Índice de Personajes en esta edición) tiene un sueño/pesadilla erótica donde se masturban unos enanos mientras un terrible tigre se le lanza encima y se convierte en gato-amante). Otros momentos memorables incluyen cuando don Roque, médico, y su hija Julita se cruzan en la escalera de la casa de citas de Celia (donde a Roque los espera su querida de turno, y Julita acaba de dejar a su amante), y cada uno inventa una excusa para estar allí; la rabia y orgullo de Petrita cuando decide aceptar prostituirse para ganar dinero para curar a su novio, que está en cama con tuberculosis; la muerte de la anciana Margot, madre de el mariquita de 53 años Julián Suárez, "la fotógrafa", aparentemente estrangulada pero no se sabe por quien, y la noche que pasan "Fotógrafa" y su amante Pepe el Astilla en carcel. Entre más de cien personajes con nombre y señas, no hay uno cuya historia toma precedencia sobre las otras, pero la que se destaca un poco más (y concluye la novela) es el de Martín Marco, "un hombrecillo desmedrado, paliducho, enclenque, con lentes de pobre alambre sobre la mirada," que raras veces tiene un duro (cinco pesetas), ni tiene trabajo ni carrera, pero escribe poesías y tiene una idea vaga de ser escritor, y al final de la obra está buscado por la policía, posiblemente por haber militado en el FEU (Federación Española, o Estudiantil (?), Universitaria) durante la II República. 20040716

Yourcenar, Marguerite. Memorias de Adriano. Translated by Julio Cortázar. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta, 1999.
Viejo emperador, moribundo, cuenta su vida y filosofía a su sucesor escogido, Marco Aurelio, en esta larguísima carta. Nacido en España y criado por su abuelo cerril y medio mago, Marulino, el joven Adriano hace brillante carrera militar contra las tribus germanas y luego en Dacia. Nombrado gobernador de Palestina por el emperador Trajano, prevé el desastre cuando éste, ya viejo, emprende campaña para conquistar Asia y realizar un viejo sueño inspirado en las historias sobre Alejandro Magno. En su lecho de muerte Trajano finalmente adopta a Adriano como hijo y sucesor cuando éste ya tiene 42 años. A diferencia de Trajano, el nuevo emperador negocia la paz cuando puede con las naciones vecinas y pretende extender la justicia y el orden a través del imperio para que Roma dure aún cuando en un future dejase de basarse en Roma (la ciudad); en sus últimos años (se enferma antes de llegar a 60) desgraciadamente no puede evitar una guerra terrible contra los celotes judíos que termina con la casi total destrucción de Jerusalén. Adriano también cuenta de sus amores, especialmente con el griego Antinóo, una suerte de joven fauno rústico, que se suicida a los 20 años en un acto de sacrificio por amor al emperador Adriano. La guerra en Palestina y la muerte de Antinóo, a quien Adriano convierte en dios y en cuyo nombre funda una ciudad, son las grandes tragedias en un gobierno mayormente de paz y fortalecimiento del orden y economía imperiales que ha durado 18 años. Hay pasajes descriptivos lindísimos (de España, Alejandría, Roma), observaciones filosóficas intrigantes, y episodios dramáticos, pero el interés del libro en total reside en su retrato de la vida de élites en este período; Adriano mismo no llega a ser un personaje tan cautivante como el Claudio de "Yo Claudius" de Robert Graves. 2004/08/06

Delibes, Miguel. La hoja roja, Biblioteca Básica Salvat de Libros RTV. ?: Salvat Editores, S.A. con la colaboración de Alianza Editorial, S.A., 19??
Un anciano que sólo espera la terminación de su vida encuentra una jóven que no sabe cómo empezar la suya. La Desi es más bruta que la pila de un pozo (como le dice una amiga) cuando llega de su pueblo y empieza a trabajar como criada del viejo Eloy, que repite continuamente que le "ha salido la hoja roja" (del librito de papel de fumar, que advierte que sólo quedan cinco hojas), y el decir de un amigo de juventud de que la jubilación es la antesala de la muerte (y que ese amigo se había ido hace más de 20 años sin guardar antesala). El viejo, tímido toda su vida de 70 años, hace esfuerzos por reconectarse con antiguos compañeros de trabajo (53 años en aseo urbano), del club de fotografía, y cuando éstos lo rechazan, finalmente con su hijo en Madrid, donde ve que es un estorbo. La Desi, que se considera vieja porque solera a los 20 años, hace todo lo posible por comprometer a casarse un chico de su pueblo an bruto y hasta más cerril que ella, cuando éste llega a la ciudad para la mili (servicio militar); pero el chico ("el Picaza") sólo quiere aprovechar de ella (para que el lavado de ropa y las relaciones sexuales, que ella no concede) y finalmente comete una locura tan grave (degüella a una mujer en la calle porque le mentaba la madre porque él le había tirado una rata muerta a la cara) que termina en un calabozo militar, haciendo añicos las ilusiones de la chica. Al final el viejo Eloy y la Desi aceptan que se necesitan mutuamente, y él le propone el matrimonio.
Escenas memorables: nochebuena, cuando el viejo le manda a la chica a comprar una botella de clarete, se emborrachan (con muy poco) y empiezan a cantar y hasta bailar (torpemente) las canciones de boda que la Desi recuerda de su pueblo; Eloy en el cementerio, después del entierro de su último amigo de juventud, Isaías, lee las lápidas de otros y recuerda las muchas historias de esas personas que las lápidas no cuentan; el bochorno del viejo cuando visita al hijo en Madrid y no puede hacer ni que el hijo se sonría ni que la nuera le diga "padre"; Eloy llevando a la chica al cine por primera vez en la vida de la joven. Todo ocurre en 1955 en un Valladolid donde nada cambia, salvo que en lugar de un rey (Desi ni siquiera sabe que significa "rey") hay un Franco en los titulares que Desi, bajo la tutela paciente de Eloy, se esfuerza por leer. Libro muy sentimental, con un conmovedor retrato de la vejez y otro de la bruteza obstinada de la vida de pueblo, que hace más comprensible los delirios de los analfabetos aferrados a sus creencias ya sea en el Talibán o en otras partes. 2004.08.09

Wind and towers

Have you ever wondered why farmers and herders along the Mediterranean coast never built their homes on the highest points with the greatest views? The wind. It blows with gale force here in Meseta Alta, where some good friends from the States have lent us their house this August. It rattles the doors and wooden shutters, but if we close everything we asphyxiate. It is a sere wind, pulling the water out of the air and out of your mouth and body. It drives the flies to seek refuge in the house, and they buzz around berserkly, seeking what moisture they can get from your lips or the sweat on your arms. This morning when I wanted to hang up some laundry, I had to struggle to get the sheets on the line at all, pinning them in 6 or 8 places in close series. Still they flew and flapped and wrapped around themselves on the line, one of them catching on a cactus several feet away until I moved it just out of reach. It took me several minutes to hang up everything, and by the time I had the last T-shirt up, the sheets were sucked dry by the wind.

Foreigners who expect the elements to obey them do build on the high points for the views. The foreigners who built half a cooperative on this mesa, and half in the village of Agua Amarga down below, in 1968 were American pacifists who wanted quiet retirement homes, and their leader built this house on the highest point on this, the highest mesa around except for the one holding up the lighthouse just behind us, and oriented the house to catch the breezes from both sides, poniente (from the west) and levante (from the east). Some breezes. Either he had picked an exceptionally meteorologically quiet year, or else he had never been here in mid August before he made his plans.

In olden times, only the lords who built stone castles and look-out towers would perch them on the high points, and mostly the castles have resisted the centuries of wind. Or at least, their stone parts have, or in the worst of cases, impressive chunks of their ramparts. On Sunday we drove into the interior, through the mountains past mountain town of Níjar, famous for its ceramics from the local clayey soil, and on to the higher more precariously perched village of Lucainena de las Torres, where until the Civil War they mined the iron that traveled down a narrow gauge railroad all the long way to an embarcadero – a loading dock – next to Agua Amarga. After a stop in the tiny plaza, which was more like a shelf carved out of the mountain, we went on and from the road could see one of the old towers, looming above on the mountain ridge, that gave the village its name.

Our real destination was Tabernas, more mountains of other stone – here shiny black, there rust brown or even red, glistening white silicate, cut dramatically by ancient rivers that once must have been torrents but now are deep, dry scars filled with yellow brush, green foliage and a newcomer, cactus originally from Mexico. The nopal has done especially well in the dry deserts of Almería, where it has been renamed “chumbera” and the people no doubt imagine it is a native plant. They don’t seem to be aware that the bright yellow and red fruit, chumbos to them, nopales to Mexicans, prickly pear to us, are edible.

Tabernas is best known for its fake “Hollywood” villages, where hundreds of westerns have been filmed, included dozens by Sergio Leone. One of them is featured in the hilarious movie “800 Balas” that we saw last year – when a group of players who stage Wild West shoot-outs for tourists are threatened with eviction, their leader, an old actor who claims to have worked with the great Clint Eastwood, gets them to load their old six-shooters and Winchesters with real bullets (they have enough cash on hand for 800), and they fight off the police, the army and Guardia Civil while a little boy joins the troupe and gets a lesson in sex from the cast’s bar girl. Great fun, but after that, we thought we’d seen enough of the fake Wild West. We were more attracted by the “Arab castle” (as it is labeled) up on the highest point above the real (not the Wild West smulacra) town of Tabernas. It’s very impressive from below. You would think the Moors might still be up there, ready to hurl rocks and buckets of flaming oil from trébuchets and fire arrows against their attackers. But after a long dusty climb, we found there was nothing there but the shell of its ancient walls. Splendid views, though. And plenty of wind.

Writers against the silence

The challenge to the Bush/Ashcroft Kulturkampf by 15 of our best known writers at Cooper Union got big play in EL PAIS on Sunday. Meanwhile, I share this, from Sophia Niarchos, who writes that it was "My favorite reading at the PEN event last night" -- yet another sign of the vigor of writerly protest. Sophia adds, "we should read poetry every day!" And "Though seeing it in writing is better than not experiencing it at all, the reading of it (staccato, fast-paced, out of breath!) made it extraordinary!"

I Am Waiting

By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waitingfor a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waitingfor the discovery
Of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waitingfor the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waitingfor the war to be fought
which will make the world safe for anarchy
and I am waiting for the final withering awayof all governments
and I am perpetually awaitinga rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the second coming
And I am waiting
For a religious revival
To sweep thru the state of Arizona
And I am waiting
For the grapes of wrath to be stored
And I am waiting
For them to prove
That God is really American
And I am waiting
To see God on television
Piped into church altars
If they can find
The right channel
To tune it in on
And I am waiting for the last supper to be served again
and a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaitinga rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waitingfor the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waitingfor a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the great divide to be crossed
and I am anxiously waitingFor the secret of eternal life to be discovered
By an obscure practitioner
and I am waitingfor the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and TV rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waitingfor the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am waiting for retribution
for what America did to Tom Sawyer
and I am waitingfor the American Boy
to take off Beauty's clothes
and get on top of her
and I am waitingfor Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waitingfor Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting for Aphrodite to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder
I am waitingto get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waitingfor the last long rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeting lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

Sophia A. Niarchos

Event in New York

Susana & I will still be in Spain, but if you're in New York, you may want to catch this:

STATE OF EMERGENCY: Unconventional Readings:
On Wednesday, August 4, between the two major party conventions, PEN American Center presents a special evening of readings in support of free expression and America's core freedoms. A distinguished lineup of writers - including Laurie Anderson ,Paul Auster, Russell Banks, Don DeLillo, Ariel Dorfman, Eve Ensler, Jonathan Safran Foer, Barbara Goldsmith, A. M. Homes, Margo Jefferson, Edward P. Jones, Walter Dean Myers, Francine Prose, Salman Rushdie, Monique Truong, Kurt Vonnegut, and others- will come together to read and raise awareness about gravethreats to essential freedoms in the United States. We hope you will be there to support free expression. Help us spread the word and encourage friends and associates to attend this important evening. Please forward this announcement on to relevant email lists and circulate as widely as possible. This event is free and open to the public. Seating is by generaladmission and on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Please call PEN at 212/334-1660, ext. 107 or visit http://www.pen.org/ for more information. This program is cosponsored by Cooper Union

Socialism in Spain

“Voting, I’ve only slipped once: last March, but it was to get rid of that guy once and for all. He reminded me too much of Franco.” Concha Pérez, 89 year old anarchist in Barcelona, interviewed in today’s El País.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, leader of the Partido Socialista Obrero de España, has just celebrated his first 100 days in office, with approval ratings higher than ever.

A big part of the popularity of ZP (“Zapatero Presidente,” a slogan invented during the electoral campaign) is that he is not José María Aznar, who as head of the rightwing Partido Popular and the government for the past 8 years turned a blind eye to ecological disasters (e.g., the ‘Prestige’ oil spill), sent Spanish troops into an unpopular war, encouraged the Church to burrow more deeply into the public schools, and reacted to feminist, regionalist and cultural concerns with sarcasm.

There is a sizable group of people in Spain who like those sorts of policies, but they are probably outnumbered by the Spaniards who consider themselves leftists (Socialists, Communists, anarchists, et al.). The right-wing Partido Popular (“People’s Party,” or PP) evolved from an ad-hoc coalition of monarchist, fascist and “National Catholic” organizations, dominated by remnants of Franco’s falangistas, but in order to win elections, it has to appear moderate. That trick worked in 1996, when voters wanted an alternative to Felipe González’s 14-year old PSOE government, which had become enmeshed in financial and police-abuse scandals. After 8 years of Aznar & co., PP support had seriously eroded, but the PSOE was still having trouble arousing enough support to beat the incumbents. But then the government’s attempts to manipulate information about the March 11 bombing in Madrid – the PP wanted it to appear that ETA, the Basque separatist killers, had done it, rather than Al-Qaeda – even anarchists like Concha Pérez (who don’t vote on principle) went to the polls to throw the bums out. (See my article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Bombs and Ballots in Spain.)

Zapatero in 2004 is, like Felipe González in 1982, youthful, energetic, and attractive– approachable, smart, and even courteous to his opponents (even when the PP chieftains reply with sarcasm). The PSOE today is not talking about nationalizing industry, but about protecting natural resources (water, forests, coasts), grossly neglected by the previous government. It promises not to send soldiers to die in foreign wars without popular consent. It has already moved much more aggressively than the PP to advance the rights of women, pushing a law (still being debated) that would apply especially severe punishment to men found guilt of “domestic violence” (reports of murders of women by their husbands or ex-husbands or boyfriends are distressingly frequent in the papers), and naming as many women as men to the national government cabinet (including the first vice prime minister). And it, or ZP personally, has broken with the Aznar principle of tight central control to open up a “plural Spain,” where the governments elected in each “autonomous region” (Cataluña, País Vasco, Galicia, Navarra, Valencia, Murcia, Andalucía, etc.) have a greater say in the distribution of the national budget and decisions affecting their respective regions.

So far those regional leaders are eating it up, even those who are in the PP (Murcia & Valencia, for example, who have a beef with the new government’s water policy). Cataluña’s president Pasqual Maragall, has declared that “Cataluña is a state of Spain,” which is a big move away from the separatism that Catalans sought when Aznar was governing. With luck and cajolery and some long-range statesmanship from the president of the Basque region, el lehendekari Juan José Ibarretxe, ZP may even bring him around to a similar position. Giving the Basques more attention and resources is a gamble, given the strong nationalist secessionist current and, of course, but the prize would be very great, the recognition that their best bet is with Spain, not against it. Such a policy may be the most effective way to undercut the violent potential of ETA.

Letter from Boston

My old college classmates have been very busy this summer! You've already heard from multi-talented media activist Daniel del Solar, organizing film festivals in Managua, and Renato Rosaldo, previously famous as an anthropologist, triumphing in a new career as a poet. Here's Ivan Light, well-known UCLA sociologist and my old college roommate, working to make the world a better place through practical politics. I assume he won't mind my sharing this letter. 

7-28-04

Dear Claremont/Pomona Democrats

I am in Boston, attending the Democratic National Convention as a John Kerry delegate. If you are reading the newspapers, you are getting the basic story. What you may not have acquired from the newsmedia is the unity, the optimism, and the determination that animates and pervades thisconvention.

There is no controversy about the platform under debate, and no one seems to care about the platform. (I have copies).   This is quite unusual as platforms matter. The reason, I suppose, is the unanimous determination of the 5000 delegates to dump Bush. Complete focus on this issue, a negative pole, has eclipsed interest in exactly what the Democrats areoffering as an alternative. We may be sorry later.

Terry McAuliffe, DNC Chair, reported some very encouraging news. The Democratic  Party has raised more money than the Republicans for the first time ever! The Gore campaign raised $40 million by November; as of now the Kerry campaign has raised $60million, and there are three months left! The DNC has paid off its debt, and is awash with money. This is the best financial condition the DNC has ever enjoyed. It shows the extent of public interest in andawareness of this election. It also shows the effectiveness of the inter-net as a fund-raising tool. We can thank Howard Dean for this too.

Incumbent Presidents are hard to beat. Nonetheless, polls show Kerry leading Bush by 5% in the country. No previous Democratic candidate has ever led an incumbent President by this much in July. Implication: we can win it.

All the speakers say, and everyone listening agrees, that this is the most important presidential campaign in three generations. The stakes are high, and the Democrats know it.

It's very easy to tell the professional politicians from the delegates as only the former wear suits and ties.

Barack Obama made an electrifying speech yesterday Tuesday. This is an orator to watch. The lady next to me, watching him in awe said, "a star is born." I agreed. Our first mixed-race President? Diane Feinstein will nominate John Kerry tonight at 5:45pm Eastern time. Feinstein was the first Senator or, at least, one of the first to back Kerry; I sense that this is pay-back.

There are 97 days left to work for victory. Let's make every one count. See you all July 30.

Ivan Light, Program Vice-President Claremont Democratic Club

Why Spain matters

Apologies for not updating this blog more frequently. Susana & I have had to delay our return to New York from Spain, due to unforeseen complications in the work we're doing in Spain, and these have taken up most of our time. Fortunately, Spain is a wonderful place to be stuck, and great things are happening here now that most Americans may not be aware of. I hope to write in the next few days notes on each of the following themes, three ways in which Spain matters to all of us:

I. Spain in the world balance of power: This country has finally recovered from the gross underdevelopment fostered by the Franco regime and is now the 3rd or 4th power in Europe, after Germany, France and (if it considers itself part of Europe) the UK. Since the elections of March 14, its shift from the pro-Bush side of the scale to the Franco-German side strengthens Europe as a potential counterpower to the world's only superpower. This I regard as a very good thing. Under Aznar, as an unconditional ally of the US, Spain had no independent voice and was simply begging for crumbs, because Spain's power is negligible as seen from Washington. In Europe Spain is more nearly equal to its allies and will have a real voice.

II. Spain as a linchpin in the Hispanic world, and that world's main link to Europe: For practical as well as sentimental reasons, Spain is connected to all those countries where colonists, conquistadores and frailes have carried her language. Now, with the Spanish economy stable and growing, and its rule of law more firmly established than anywhere in the Americas (especially the U.S., currently the great international scofflaw), Spain plays an important role in the consolidation of the entire tricontinental Spanish'speaking world, economically, juricially and culturally. I hope to tell you more about this relationship, which is growing and strengthening all of Hispanolandia.

III. Spain as a laboratory for remaking a democracy for the 21st century: This is really the most fascinating new phenomenon. The PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español) under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and the men and women he's brought into the central government (for the first time ever, Spain has as many women as men among government ministers) is seriously rethinking and remaking what "socialism" means today. Zapatero is particularly taken with the theories of Philip Pettit, the Irish political theorist of "republicanism" (which is not at all what U.S. Republicans stand for), ideas of liberty that are also congruent with the economics of liberation of Amartya Sen. More on this soon.

I hope to hear from some of you about these (or other) issues. Let me know your doubts, questions, quibbles or tirades. Just punch the contact link at left.

Renato Rosaldo wins Before Columbus Book Award

This just in about another old friend. Renato Rosaldo and Daniel del Solar (see note below) were both college classmates of mine, so we go WAY back. This is great news about Renato, forwarded from the good folks at the bilingual literary journal, Terra Incognita.

Dear amigos/amigas,

Please join us in congratulating Renato Rosaldo for being selected as a winner of
the twenty-fifth annual Before Columbus Foundation American Book Awards for 2004 for his book of poetry Prayer to Spider Woman / Rezo a la mujer araña. Other recent winners have included Sherman Alexie, Miguel Algarin, Don DeLillo, Martín Espada, William Gass, Sandra M. Gilbert, Kimiko Hahn, Bob Holman, Li-Young Lee, Luis Alberto Urrea and Al Young.

If you happened to catch Renato during our spring reading series at Cornelia Street
Cafe, you'll remember his beautiful and powerful work from the book, as well as
other oringal poems and his exceptional translation of San Juan de la Cruz's "Dark
night of the soul."

And, of course... his amazing jacket!

If you weren't able to hear Renato that night, he will be reading again on Friday,
September 23 at Patrias, Paulina Pérez Bemporad's wonderful Latin American Folk Art
shop in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The event is part of Hispanic Heritage Month and will
probably start around 7. We'll give you all the info as the time draws near.

You can read Juan Felipe Herrera's review of Prayer to Spider Woman / Rezo a la
mujer araña.

If you would like to purchase a copy of the book - and we definitely recommend doing
so! - please let me know. I don't think it's available online yet. We may try to
offer it through the Terra Incognita web site, using Pay Pal. But for now, we'll
take orders for Renato and pass them along to him.

Congratulations again to Renato.

Un abrazo fuerte,

William y Alexandra

LETTER FROM MANAGUA

My good friend Daniel del Solar writes:
First Ever Retrospective of Film and Video Opens in Managua
By Daniel del Solar

The opening of "Ten Years that Changed the World," a film festival lasting a week in four different venues around Managua and featuring films by and about Nicaragua, opened last night at Managua´s, and Nicaragua´s, most modern commercial film venue, the Alhambra. Largely composed of films and video´s that were made in the ten years following the demise of Nicaraguas Somoza dictatorship that had lasted 45 years, even the aisles were filled by those wishing to attend the Latin American premiere of Canadian filmmaker Peter Raymont´s film "The World Stopped Watching."

More detail of the Raymont film can be found at his website.

The standing room only audience on opening night consisted of a Nicaraguan film makers, representatives of the Spanish and Italian embassies, and regular Managua film buffs both young and old.

The opening night featured a second film produced by xyz describing the literacy campaign initiated in the early 1980´s by the new revolutionary government that had dedicated considerable portion of its meager post-revolutionary resources to counter the more than 50% illiteracy rate tolerated by the previous government. The campaign had literate people from the cities traveling to rural areas to teach people how to read.

Shot in Nicaragua in late 2002 and early 2003, THE WORLD STOPPED WATCHING is a sequel to the award winning documentary film "The World Is Watching" (1987) - a cinema verité examination of foreign news coverage of a climactic moment in the US-financed Contra war against Nicaragua’s revolutionary government

Afterwards, at a modest reception following the film showins, I ran into Susan Meiselas, Kay Stubbs, a hollywood actress who was in town visiting Giaconda Belli, and many other individuals. A good time was had by all. I will catch up with Kay, who had married Enoc, a Nicaraguan who had lived in exile in Washington DC. Enoc was killed on the last day of the conflict and I wrote a poem for him, and her, which Kay still has. I also was introduced to a number of nicaraguan film makers. I will be at the movie theater tomorrow mornng for the early showing at 10•30 am. and for the rest
of this week through next Thursday.

The exhibition of films is composed of works that will help the Nicaraguan people recover their history as many of the films have not been shown in NICARAGUA. 70% of the nicaraguans are younger than 30 years of age and so many do not have any clear idea of what happened in Nicaragua during or after the dictatorship.

More than 50 films will be shown in four different locations in the coming week and there will also be discussions about the role of film in the development and maintainace of Nicaraguan film industry.

Fundacion Lucierniga, the organizer of this major international film and video retrospective, was organized ten years ago. See cinenica.net >for all of the information about the film festival, including brief descriptions of the films and videos that will be shown.

Nicaragua, in addition to being a nation of young people, is also extremely poor so that of the one million children of school age in Nicaragua, only half can attend schools as there are no schools for them to attend. The current government that is ruling Nicaragua in a coalition with the Sandinistas, have no current viable plans to remedy this situation. As a result, illiteracy in Nicaragua, which had fallen to 25 percent in the years following the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship, is currently above 50%.

A week from this coming Sunday is the big party for Managua, the fiesta of San Antonio, Saint Anthony, where there will be a number of home-made floats, the appearance of many mounted Nicaraguan cowboys on horses decorated with fine saddles, and much music and carrying on.

Water has been missing for five days from one of Nicaraguas principal cities, Granada situated at shoreline of Nicaragua´s largest lake, lake Nicaragua. The reason most of the city has had to make do with no water from the city supplies is that a pump has broken and it technicians have thus far been unable to repair it.

In other news of Nicaragua, the government has announced the planned
destruction of 333 SAM-7 anti-aircraft missiles as part of its aim to maintain good relations with Washington. The missiles have been assigned a cost of $20,000 each while informed sources say that such missiles can bring more than $200,000 each on the world market.

A previous consignment of SAM-7´s were also destroyed within the past year as part of a deal to sell several thousand AK-47´s to an arms dealer in Panama. The ship onto which these weapons had been loaded never landed in Panama but was found to have delivered the shipment of AK-47´s to a United Fruit Company dock in Colombia and the weapons were delivered to para-military forces in that country. These same forces have been accused of serious human rights violations, and the news of the final landing of the Nicaraguan arms in Colombia has not been explained by the Nicaraguans.

Considerable money exchanged hands, but the exact identity of the parties involved, other than the Nicaraguan military, has not been clarified.

Managua, Nicaragua, remains a key element of United States Government interest.

Daniel del Solar,Solarmedia
solarmedia@hotmail.com
IF you WANT PEACE work for JUSTICE

Rhetoricians (gabologists) in Spain

This blog is now on summer schedule, as our editorial team-members are on their separate vacations. Bear has gone back to the woods, Lion is back on the African veldt, and Fox is in Spain, which, as you may have read earlier, he regards as his “patria tía abuela”. Glib has also decided to visit Spain for the annual convention of the International Guild of Articulate Blabbers (IGAB), this year held in Boca Corrida, Andamaslúcida, Spain. Today’s blog is in the form of an interview by editorial team associate Hyacinth Glib of newly elected IGAB president, Agustín Labia Locuaz of Spain.

HG: One of the great differences between Spain and the United States is that, whereas in the US a growing minority of voters is beginning to suspect that Bush is a dangerous imbecile…

ALL: … and here in Spain everyone knows it.

HG: Everyone, that is, except José María Aznar, the former president, who has been making such wild pronouncements that even his own party is trying to disown him. He is still insisting that Spain was right to send troops to Iraq and calling the defeat of his party by the socialists a coup d’état. And he lashed out at the new European Constitution, which the new leader of his party is pledged to support. Agustín, from the perspective of a professional gabologist, what do you make of these latest statements?

ALL: I think the Guiñol CNN+ has it just right, when they portray him as a doom-breathing Darth Vader.

HG: For our non-Spanish readers, we should explain that the “Guiñol” is a satirical news review puppet show that comes on right after the nightly newscast.

ALL: Yes, and that its name is a juego de palabras – a play on words. “Guiñol” sounds like “guignol,” as in “Grand Guignol,” but it is also a “guiño,” a wink of the eye.

HG: So the puppets can say whatever nasty things they want about the politicians and still expect them to laugh. Does Aznar, the real Aznar, know how to laugh, by the way?

ALL: Oh, yes! But lately it comes out mostly as a – what’s that word in English? A “snicker.” Rather loud, like a donkey’s braying. But, coming back to our professional specialty as gabologists, what is especially interesting is how his rhetoric has been infected by listening too much to Richard Perle and Dick Cheney. There is a peculiar Anglo-Saxon, if I may use that term, accent to his snarl. He can’t really manage the true imperious disdain of, say, his historical hero Generalísimo Francisco Franco, the Caudillo.

HG: Maybe that’s because he’s too short to look down on people?

ALL: Why do you think the Caudillo always like to be portrayed on horseback?

HG: Ah, that would do it. So, blog readers, here is our professonal gabologists’ tip for you today: If you really want to express disdain for your opponent’s opinions, instead of spending valuable mental energy trying to think of a logical rebuttal, get a horse!