Lina Meruane (Santiago, Chile, 1970) begins the conversation by telling how much she enjoyed signing books at the Madrid Book Fair, which took place last month. There, she had the opportunity to chat calmly with the readers who came to the booth, with packages of her books for her to sign. “It gives me hope in literature,” she says. Recognized as one of the most prestigious contemporary Chilean writers, last year she won the José Donoso Ibero-American Literature Prize, which in previous years went to authors such as Cristina Rivera Garza, Raúl Zurita and Samanta Schweblin. She currently lives between Madrid, Santiago de Chile and New York, where she works as Distinguished Writer in Residence in the Creative Writing Program in Spanish at New York University.
Ask. Professor, writer, essayist, playwright… Society promotes specialization. Is its plurality a form of rebellion?
Answer. I am a multi-headed monster. Since I was a child, I have had very varied interests; I was the student who was interested in all subjects. Editorial categories can indeed be limiting and frustrating, but the way I write is not about fighting against this, it is a way of being. It responds to my own interests. I have written a lot about illness, but also about political and identity conflict, about feminism… Because I have a personal need to discuss contemporary issues (regardless of whether they fit with an editorial line or not).
P. It is not common for an author to present several books at the same time. At the Bogotá Book Fair he spoke about three very different works.
R. These are themes that I still have very present, about which I continue to ask myself questions. The stories that make up Avidity I wrote them over thirty years, so they are part of me. And the book Palestine in piecesfor example, is very much alive. It is made up of parts that have been published separately throughout my life.
P. It was published before the war in Gaza broke out, on October 7.
R. Yes, it cannot be said that the outbreak of war was a surprise. There was constant, low-intensity latent violence in the region. The relationship between the West and Israel was already established, the power mechanics were there. Now it is the same in a version that is not only intensified, but extreme. The international masks have fallen and the complex plot is clearly visible. That is why it is so difficult for Israel to stop the bombings and have fair negotiations. It is not proposing peace agreements, but occupation agreements.
P. Are you considering writing another book about Palestine now?
R. No, for now. I feel that my observation has already been made. Besides, Palestinian intellectuals who have a very good grasp of the intricacies of war are already writing brilliantly. I am more concerned with other aspects; with the symbolic, with the linguistic.
P. The migrant experience is also very present in his books.
R. I wrote that those of us who come from other places have “the vice” of migration. I move a lot. My parents were great travelers and I have a framed outlook, influenced by the displacement of genealogy, the nuclear family… My first job as a journalist was for a travel magazine. I am very interested in looking at other places that are not my own and that challenge me. In addition, there is the body as an identity document. One carries one’s face, one’s body, one’s identity, one’s privilege. And traveling is not the same as traveling as a man or a woman, alone with someone, being white or black…
P. You arrived in New York a month before the twin towers fell, what was your experience like?
R. In New York, there are people from all over the world, and the environment I move in seems to me to be a friendlier context than others. But I have been told a lot about how I speak, sometimes in a negative way, other times in a positive way (“oh, you speak English very well!”) which are racialized ways of saying “you are not from here” or “anyway, it is a bit obvious that you are from outside.”
P. You spent two years in Spain in 2021, how was your experience in Madrid?
R. Excellent, I found that the people of Madrid had changed a lot. When I lived there in 1998, the Spanish people were constantly correcting my way of speaking. It wasn’t malicious, I guess they thought it was a way to help me adapt better, but in my own language. That irritated me. Now I notice more interest in the difference, I think there has been a change for the better.
P. Will he return to Chile?
R. I feel like I have never left completely, my family is still there. Emotionally, I am very connected to Chile and I go there frequently. I spent half of the pandemic in Santiago. On the other hand, I read the newspapers, I listen to the radio… My references are still very Chilean.
P. What is your relationship with mortality?
R. Since I was little, I had a medical condition that made me more aware of the possibility of death and it is something that I have already integrated very well. I try to make my life as intense, as full of joy and as grateful as possible, because living is rare. I am already doing everything I want to do before I die, which is mainly writing.
P. What is your next project?
R. I have just finished an intellectual biography of my own, on the occasion of the José Donoso Ibero-American Literature Prize, talking about the themes that have always accompanied me. Illness, feminism, and the social. It is called So many fronts and will be published this September by the publishing house of the University of Talca, which is organizing the award.
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