Interview to Roberto Fernández Retamar: Poetry, the Compassionate, Gave Me a Reason to Live

The Cuban poet and essayist states that poetry gave him a reason to live and that it continues to be his greatest love. Though difficult to define, he suggests that it is impossible for human beings to survive without it: in any crisis (sickness, death or war), people resort to poetry. His literary influences came from German, French and Latin American writers (above all, Jorge Luis Borges, José Lezama Lima, Octavio Paz and Alfonso Reyes). The Cuban author highlights the merits of different Latin American and Ecuadorian poets. Of Lezama Lima, who “lived for poetry and spirit with only a few pesos”, highlighting his sense of culture as chorus (as a collective construction) and of literature. Regarding the Revolution, though recognizing its errors, he is convinced it was the best thing that could have happened to Cuba, not only since it was consistently sought after by luminaries from Martí to Lezama, but also because it triumphed and pushed forward; despite a half-century of blockade by the world’s most powerful nation, as well as all the other difficulties.

• Päätekijä: Quevedo Rojas, Aleyda (author)
• Aineistotyyppi: article
• Kieli: spa
• Julkaistu: 2010
• Aiheet: Roberto Fernández Retamar; Revolución cubana; poesía latinoamericana; poesía cubana; Cuban Revolution; Latin American poetry; Cuban poetry
• Linkit: https://revistas.uasb.edu.ec/index.php/kipus/article/view/944