The poet and writer Elikura Chihuailaf, 2020 National Literature Prize, will participate in the Gabriela Mistral 2024 Literature Festival, which will take place this Saturday in Valparaíso.
The cultural event, which is organized by the Citizen Mayor’s Office of Valparaíso and is free, will take place inside the Buenos Aires town hall located at 1490 Condell Street, with more than 30 simultaneous activities between 10:00 in the morning and 7:00 p.m.
One of these workshops, called the Poetry and Nature Workshop, will be taught by Chihuailaf, one of the most important names that the literary event will have, in which the musician from the Congreso group and part of the Vaguada municipal publishing house, Pancho Sazo, will also participate. feminist writer Daniela Catrileo, singer Evelyn Cornejo, storyteller Carlos Genovese, Sandra Trafilaf, Cristóbal Gaete, Bárbara Olave, Jaime Navarrete, among others; There will also be a fair of editorials and plays for the children who attend.
“I go with great expectations, because I know that it is intended as a conversation in the diversity of thinking, its perspectives from orality, writing and doing around the book, that is, a festival of participation and memory ”says the poet.
In addition to the Poetry and Nature Workshop, Chihuailaf will share with her colleague Daniela Catrileo in an extended 80-minute conversation in which they will discuss topics associated with Mapuche literature and poetry.
“I maintain the hope – which, as we know, is not a panacea – that these activities contribute to raising awareness in the community that every person breathes a conversation that is also a book, a memory, that we all have the unavoidable writing task. It seems to me that then it is a beautiful invitation to learn to listen, the art of conversation, and to read,” says the author.
When asked about what responsibility he feels in Chilean literature as a National Literature Award winner, he responds that “the responsibility of going through this territory talking with students at all levels – basic, middle school, university – and all social realities.” .
“And when the authorities allow me to remind the political class that it is urgent that they return to the territory that corresponds to them: the cultural territory. Remind them that politics is only a fragment – very important, of course – of the cultural territory; and tell them that it is urgent that they stop looking at their navels. That when they assume their natural territory they will naturally respond to the needs of deep Chile, which is – it seems to me – the vast majority in this country,” he states.
Finally, regarding whether public policies are needed to de-selitist literature in the country and make it more accessible, he assures that “without a doubt.”
“Those of us who had the possibility of living and dreaming during the Popular Unity government period know this well. It is enough to remember the collection of mini-books with the best of Chilean and universal literature, truly within reach of all budgets. And the Culture Train traveling through the territory in its various latitudes… But deselitizing is democratizing, so I also have to assume that I am a skeptic-optimist,” he concludes.