The Argentinean poet Jorge Boccanera inaugurated the 62nd edition of the Casa de las Americas Literary Award 2022 and reminded the utility of the poetry when ¨looking for the sense of existence itself¨.

What is the poetry for?  inquired during his speech the intellectual, ¨the question belongs to a world that disqualifies everything that departs from financial speculation, the logic of quick profit, profit which is the soul of the market¨, he pointed out.

In consequence, he stood out, we are living in times of ¨a blackout of the sensitivity¨ according to the Italian philosopher Franco Berardi, and there is where the poetry plays a fundamental role.

In his opinion, this literary genre has a high standard quality tradition in Latin America and provided examples with the José Marti and the Nicaraguan Ruben Dario´s work and empowered women protagonist, capable to tear down stereotypes and shine in and out of the literary framework where they were put aside during the last decades by the force of patriarchy. 

Boccanera included in his opening speech an homage to the founding labor of Haydee Santamaría and Roberto Fernández Retamar, two fundamental figures for Casa de las Americas and its Literary Award.

The intellectual qualified the award as a trigger that activated ¨a universe of creative projects, etic proposals, formal openings and new topics, the search for diverse proposals through the ways of reflection and intuition¨.

He evoked the universal character of Casa de las Americas, its symbolic value as cultural ambassador of the Cuban Revolution, process that crossed the island´s borders and became the institution in the home of all the intellectuals of the continent.

In this context, the Argentinean intellectual evaluated the economic, commercial and finance blockade as ¨obscene and brutal¨ and highlighted that, despite the negative impact of this policy, Cuba has displayed solidarity samples all over the world.

Prior Boccanera´s speech, the juries of the Award were presented, integrated by a dozen intellectuals and responsible for the selection of the best works among the 140 chosen ones in the categories of Novel, Poetry, historical-social Essays.

The juries are made up specialists from Latin America. The Poetry-section jury is integrated by Boccanera, Rosa Chávez(Guatemala) and Basilia Papastamatiu(Cuba-Argentina).

In the category of Novel, Claudia Apablaza(Chile), Mayra Montero (Puerto Rico), Santiago Vizcaino(Ecuador) and Dazra Novak (Cuba) are part of the jury while Carlos Aguirre (Peru), Mario Santucho(Argentina) and Yoel Cordoví (Cuba) represents the jury in the Essays section.

The winners of this prestigious contest will be known on January 28th in an official ceremony hosted by the institution at the Che Guevara Hall.