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Latin America"s literature showcased

Monday, September 30, 2013

A literary event held last week is likely to prompt a race among the Latin American embassies in Seoul to promote the work of novelists and poets from their respective nations.

Organized by the Institute of Asia and America Studies and the Daesan Foundation, the book-reading event last Tuesday in downtown Seoul featured the writings of Eduardo Galeano from Uruguay and Juan Rulfo from Mexico.

Ambassador of Mexico Jose Luis Bernal and Uruguayan Ambassador Alba Florio read excerpts from each author’s work on stage. This apparently stirred up pride and perhaps a little envy among the diplomats from other countries. They tried to make sure that they would get their chance soon.

“Galeano is one of the must-read authors within Latin American literature. For Rulfo, he influenced so many other famous Latin authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes,” said Ko Hye-sun, director of the institute, explaining why she chose them.

It was the 10th annual event, and this time, she changed the format.

“From this year, I wanted to focus on one or two authors only,” she said.

Ko is a pioneer in this endeavor. As a professor at Dankuk University, she studied in Colombia and has a Peruvian husband.

Paraguayan Ambassador Ceferino Valdez, chair of the Latin American diplomatic community, touted the event.

“This enhances understanding between different cultures,” he said in Spanish.

Born in Uruguay in 1940, Gaelano is one of the most admired and renowned living Latino authors. The “Memory of Fire Trilogy” and “Open Veins of Latin America” are his two best known works, with the latter having gained popularity in the English-speaking world since 2009 when the former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave a copy to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Rulfo’s reputation rests on two books — “Pedro Paramo” (1955) and “El Llano en Ilamas” (1953), and he is often cited as a role model by other renowned authors.

The presence of Latin authors in Korea is very weak, a mirror of trade and investment-oriented relations between the two regions.

As Ko explained, it is mainly Nobel Prize winners whose works are translated.

Pablo Neruda from Chile was the first winner from the region in 1971, followed by Marquez of Colombia in 1982, Octavio Paz of Mexico in 1990 and Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru in 2010.

Ko said she hopes to see “Open Veins of Latin America” by Galeano translated into Korean soon, because “no other book explains so precisely why Latin America’s love for the United States is uncomfortable.”

Last week’s event unfolded against the backdrop of the death of Colombian author Alvaro Mutis who passed away on Sept. 22. His best known work is “The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll.”

He received the Miguel de Cervantes Prize from Spain and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr 
(The Korea Times)

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