by Marvin Ramírez
Homage to the Prince of Letters L-R: Gisele Icabalzeta (FraterNica), Mike Galo ( ex boxing champion and community relationist), and Gioconda Belli (novelist and poet), during the presentation of her new book. (photo by Marvin J Ramirez)
A Sunday of book reading and poetry. It was an extravagant day of poetry declamation, something that hardly happens anymore in modern times, where one sits quietly and respectfully listens and feels for hours the drama that comes with it.
“It’s something out of series that there are people who are able to stay for two hours listening to poetry,” said Gioconda Belli, a novelist and poet, who is perhaps one of the most respected female writers by Nicaraguans in and out of the motherland, and a strong critic of the administration of President Daniel Ortega and his wife, poet Rosario Murillo, She was the special guest at the Marco Literario Dariano at the San Francisco War Memorial on Sunday 19 of April.
Poetry is a growing movement in Nicaragua, land of Rubén Darío, the greatest Latin American poet of all times, who with his unique and sophisticated style, changed the course of the Spanish language.
Darío, born in Metapa, Nicaragua Jan. 18, 1867 – died in the city of Leon Feb. 6, 1916, was the poet who initiated Spanish-American literary movement known as Modernismo (modernism), flourishing at the end of the 19th century. Darío has had the greatest and most lasting influence into 20th century Spanish literature, and journalism. He has been praised as The Prince of Castilian letters, and undisputed father of the modernismo literary movement[1]. Darío is revered as Nicaragua’s greatest diplomat and a leading voice of Central and South America.
And poetry growth is obvious in Granada, Nicaragua – which many historians believe it to be the first city founded by Spaniards in the mainland of the American continent – which is now the cradle of poetry in the world.
Rubén Darío
For five years, poets from many parts of the globe celebrate the Festival International de Poesía in Granada. This year, the event took place from the 16 to 21 of April.
And is this type of movements what astonishes Belli. “It was what I witnessed at el Festival de Poesía in Nicaragua,” so many people in attendance, what makes her believe, Belli said to the approximately 150 people at the Veteran’s auditorium, most of who were from the writer and poet’s homeland, Nicaragua.
Every year, Nicaraguans celebrate in San Francisco the glory of Darío, and this year the event brought Belli as its special feature. She is admired as the queen of letters in Nicaragua, while her writing is taking momentum internationally.
The event brought respected figures such as Luis Echegoyén, actor, and retired TV broadcaster, and a hearty poetry lover, who despite being from El Salvador, loves Darío’s poetry work. He interpreted in declamation and drama, one of Darío’s most veneered poems: Los Motivos del Lobo, which made the attendees fall from their chair.
Dr. William Icabalzeta, a Bay Area dentist and member of FraterNica, a nonprofit organization that promotes culture and events for Nicaragua in the Bay Area, caused a storm of emotions on the audience with his declamation of Darío’s La Marcha Triunfal. Some said it almost make them cry.
Belli’s poetry and fiction have been published worldwide. Her first novel, The Inhabited Woman, was an international bestseller; her collection of poems, Línea de fuego, won the esteemed Casa de las Americas Prize in 1978.
She is the author of the award-winning The Country Under My Skin and The Scroll of Seduction.
Infinity in the Palm of Her Hand, her latest literary work – which won the prestigious 2008 Biblioteca Breve Prize – was the motive of her visit in San Francisco. She presented her book and signed autographs before and after her presentation, in which she read some of her own poetry and read from the book.
Belli lives in Santa Monica, California, and Managua.
