by the El Reportero’s news services
Ernesto CardenalMore than 130 poets from 60 countries have confirmed attendance so far, at the Ninth International Poetry Festival to be held from Feb, 17 to 24 in the southwestern city of Granada.
This is the largest festival of this kind in the world, with 91 poets from five continents and the rest coming from Nicaragua to participate, said Francisco de Asís Fernández, president of the event.
According to Asis, everything is ready for the event that will be held under the slogan of “La poesía es el cántico del cosmos” (Poetry is the song of the cosmos) and will pay tribute to the poet and former priest, Ernesto Cardenal.
In that week, he added, we will learn what France, Germany, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Spain, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Cuba, Belize, Haiti, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Nicaragua are doing in poetry.
This is one of the most important festivals in the world and it marks a milestone in the cultural history of Nicaragua, the Spanish ambassador to Nicaragua, Leon de la Torre declared in Managua.
The also honorary president of the event announced that the annual poetry celebration will be devoted, in its tenth edition, to poet Rubén Darío, one of the greatest modernist artists in Latin America.
For his part, the director of the Nicaraguan Cultural Institute, Luis Morales, explained that due to the significance of this event, the San Francisco Convent Cultural Center founded by Fray Benavente in 1529 has been dedicated to the festival.
There will be readings, recitals, book launches, and a dialogue on the life and work of Cardenal, said Bayardo Martínez, one of the festival’s founders, in remarks to the press.
According to the member of the organizing committee, another panel will be held in that patrimonial building, about Central American poetry as a source of regionalidentity, sponsored by the European Union.
The Ninth Festival will try to consolidate new ways towards regional integration in culture, so it will share space with the 17th International Book Fair in Central America (Filcen) and with the Craft Fair, said official spokesman Arnulfo Aguero.
FAO Extols Reduction of Hunger in Nicaragua Nicaragua is one of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with more advances in the reduction of hunger, assured the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO).
According to the report on the Panorama of the Feeding and Nutritional Security in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nicaragua reduced the prevalence of hunger that affected 55 percent of the population in 1990-92 to 20 percent in 2010-12.
Except for the increase of chronic malnutrition in 1998, as much the extreme poverty as hunger diminished visibly in the country, said the report.
“Nicaragua has achieved a tremendous progress, two decades ago half of its inhabitants suffered alimentary insecurity, said the general director of the FAO, José Graziano da Silva, by means of the official message.
The progress shows the possibility to eradicate the lash of hunger, “if there is a resolved action on behalf of the countries,” the official commented.
The FAO representative of the FAO had a meeting with President Ortega during the summit of the Latin American and Caribbean Community of States in Chile and he invited the Nicaraguan leader to participate in the Council of April 26, in which Nicaragua will receive the distinction.
Among the facts appreciated here by the UN entity there is the establishment in October 2011 of the Parliamentary Front against Hunger, with the purpose of impelling legislative initiatives, programs and political policies in favor of feeding the poorest people. (Reported by Prensa Latina).
