The poetry of the Mexican Coral Bracho has always had a strong political charge. Of political criticism. That has been one of the characteristics that the jury that awarded her the 2023 FIL Literature Prize has praised. At the opening of the fair this Saturday, the writer has given a good example of the concern that always accompanies her in the most difficult situations. dramatic events that the world is going through. “How is it possible that the human race continues to fight with all the violence imaginable against itself? How is it possible that wars continue to be accepted and encouraged? And how do governments that threaten the freedom and lives of those they govern continue to be imposed and accepted?” In the same way that a message is sensed through the verses, with these words from Bracho the collective mind of the audience traveled from Israel to Ukraine, from Africa to Latin America, visiting the terrible circumstances that are appearing in the news these days.
The author of It must be a misunderstanding has defended poetry as the always useful tool for “the development of an ethical conscience for humanity” at a time when the world needs “a new way of seeing, an analytical and critical capacity that allows us to find solutions that benefit us all.” all human beings and that puts the well-being of all and the conservation of life on the planet above the excessive economic gains that almost all governments allow, take advantage of and support.”
After almost three hours of previous speeches, the fair was already bustling outside and Bracho’s poetic and calm voice has not found the calm typical of verses. The murmurs that entered the room barely made it possible to hear his speech. The poet has also had to share the spotlight with the omnipresence of Raúl López Padilla, creator of the FIL, who died in April of this year and to whom everyone has recognized his career in interventions. Silence and a dose of spirituality have also been missing to listen to the interesting journey that the writer Verónica Murguía has traced through Bracho’s poetics. In her profile, she has highlighted that something “of a magician, of a fortune teller” that the verses of her friend have, the “complexity of her gaze that contrasts with the quality and freshness, the modesty and the simplicity.” of her personality.
It is not usual for poetry to achieve the highest recognitions that are usually granted in the world of letters, but sometimes it happens. Bracho has explained how poetry encompasses the same sociopolitical and emotional charge that we find in the rest of literature. “What are we? What space do we live in? What is time? What is fire, water like? And the air? And the stars? What are the living beings that inhabit this planet like and how do we relate to them?” Metaphysics has always been poetic material, but the author has also extended herself to more prosaic and cruel matters with which she has to live every day. And she has done it with the astonished form of questions. “How is it possible that, over the course of centuries, other human beings continue to be attacked and demeaned because of their race, because of their customs, because of their situation of poverty? How can it be that abysmal economic inequality, and persistent inequality and violence against women and diverse racial and sexual identities, persist in the world? How is it possible, in short, that violence has become a daily expression in countries like ours, where homicides are already countless? In the absence of answers, Bracho’s poetry condemns “what custom, stereotypes and prejudices prevent us from seeing and feeling.”
If the human being evolved self-awareness through feelings and sensitivity, the award-winner pointed out, “we must now turn to them to foster a true approach to the world in which we live, a vital posture that values and protects animals, that respects nature and promotes deep closeness and cohesion between human beings.” It doesn’t seem like the ball of the world is turning these days in that direction, something that makes Bracho sad. But he has not wasted the opportunity to give his own recipe for improvement, which consists, in his view, of promoting creative training for children and youth, and for society in general, training that encourages “ the reflective and purposeful capacity, which makes us freer and brings us as close as possible to the different ways of thinking and feeling of other people.” This doesn’t sound easy either, with the polarization that seems to trap a new country in its nets every day.
But the writer does not give up in her attempt and towards the end of her speech she has taken up the power of poetry as a unique way of seeing the world and “giving sensitivity an important place in life.” Bracho thanked the jury for the award “as unexpected as it was moving” and the Era publishing house, where most of her work has been published, work that she has always enjoyed. She never thought of being a poet, but rather a scientist, but the words and the peculiar way in which poetry, with all its plasticity and music, can describe the world caught her between the verses of Góngora and Quevedo, Lorca and Neruda, Baudelaire and TS Eliot, Lezama Lima and their friend David Huerta.
That language “that opens and suggests paths to know and feel the immensity of everyday space, the infinity of the smallest and the closeness of the most distant”, with that language “poetry illuminates, touches and seeks to delve into everything that “It is given to us to feel and know throughout a lifetime.”
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