Great Latin American intellectuals have participated in the Casa Prize since its creation in 1960, as judges or contestants, and have left their mark on the annual event, one of the most prestigious and largest in the continent.
Cuban poet and novelist Pablo Armando Fernández, winner of the National Prize for Literature, provided the title for this article, intended to briefly outline the Prize and the program of events: “It is a significant and moving moment, a celebration of love of culture, which it is life, which follows a path of light.”
Not only is the Casa Prize recognized by Latin American and Caribbean writers for his uninterrupted presence over 59 years, but for the conviction that the first mandate of this contest is to award the best book, without other considerations.
This explains the strong ability to convene competitors. This year, more than 200 works were received, according to Jorge Fornet, director of the Center for Literary Research.
PRESTIGIOUS INTELLECTUALS JOIN THE SIX COMPETITION JURIES
Over its numerous editions, the competition has developed and innovated. For example, the testimony genre was introduced, and throughout its history, other languages have been added to the texts in Spanish, including Portuguese, English, French, Creole and indigenous languages such as Quechua, Aymara and Mayan.
For this edition, three of the traditional genres from the first edition of the Prize in 1960 (Theater, Short Story and Essay), are included, together with Brazilian Literature, Caribbean Literature in English or Creole, and the Women’s Studies Prize.
The poet and singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez was responsible for the opening remarks of the event, invited due to the literary authority of his texts and his close relationship with the Casa de las Américas and its founder, Haydée Santamaría.
The present edition of the Prize also commemorates 50 years since the first concert by Silvio Rodríguez, Noel Nicola and Pablo Milanés in the Casa (February 18, 1968), three fundamental figures of what would later be known as the Nueva Trova Movement.
An extensive dossier on the history of the Casa Prize, prepared by the Center for Literary Research and the Casa Communications Department, notes that “Nearly 4,500 competing books make the Short Story category the most popular” (only surpassed by Poetry throughout the history of the Prize). This year the works in this category will be analyzed by Marta Aponte Alsina (Puerto Rico); Rodrigo Hasbún (Bolivia); Ariel Urquiza (Argentina, winner of the 2016 Casa Short Story Prize for Ni una sola voz en el cielo) and Daniel Díaz Mantilla (Cuba).
The contest in the Theater category has an outstanding list of competitors. The first ever Prize went to Santa Juana de América by Andrés Lizarraga. A high standard which the current jury must continue, this time including Olga Cosentino (Argentina); Charo Francés (Spain/Ecuador); Diego Sánchez (Colombia); María Teresa Zúñiga (Peru) and Alexis Díaz de Villegas (Cuba).
From its beginnings and up to 1977 – as noted in the dossier – the Essay Prize was convened in all its forms, but in order to equally evaluate the texts, it was decided to alternate between the historic-social and the artistic-literary genres, the latter of which corresponds this year. The judges in this category are: Myrna García Calderón (Puerto Rico); Saúl Sosnowski (Argentina) and Luciano Castillo (Cuba).
Brazilian Literature has always been distinguished in the Casa. The collection Clásicos de la Literatura Latinoamericana was inaugurated in 1963, with Memorias póstumas de Blas Cubas, by Machado de Asís. It first featured as an independent category in 1980, and in this edition, the works will be read by Mário Magalhaes (Brazil, 2014 Casa Prize for Marighella: o guerrilheiro que incendiou o mundo); Cristian Santos (Brazil) and Candace Slater (United States).
In 1976, a Prize was awarded for Caribbean Literature in English for the first time, in 1973 the category also opened to literature in Creole, and in 1979 to that written in French. The 59th edition has summoned writers of English or Creole whose works will be evaluated by Elizabeth Núñez (Trinidad and Tobago); Jacob Ross (Grenada) and Emilio Jorge Rodríguez (Cuba, 2017 Casa Prize for Una suave, tierna línea de montañas azules. Nicolás Guillén y Haití).
The Casa has awarded important space to gender studies, with the creation in 1994 of the Women’s Studies Program and its Prize, which on this occasion will be decided by Natalia Cisterna (Chile) and Cubans Marta Núñez Sarmiento and Roxana Pineda.
In addition, the Casa de las Américas will once again present the honorific awards, José Lezama Lima, for Poetry; José María Arguedas, for Narrative, and Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, for Essay.
THE EVENT
The core of the Casa de las Américas Prize is the competition, but the event also includes conferences and debates on topics related to the genres and categories of the year, the presentation of the winning books of 2017, and of the magazines Casa de las Américas, Conjunto and Anales del Caribe, and the innovative exhibition Pioneros del Arte Digital of the Arte de Nuestra América Collection.
Of special significance will be the formal presentation (January 24) of the UNESCO-UNAM/Jaime Torres Bodet Prize in social sciences, humanities and art, in its second edition, awarded to the Casa de las Américas in October 2017.
The Prize was inspired by eminent Mexican poet, novelist, essayist and diplomat Jaime Torres Bodet, one of the founding members of UNESCO and its director-general from 1948 to 1952. Created in 2014 by the UNESCO Executive Board, the Prize is awarded every two years and was received in its first edition in 2015 by Bernard Binlin Dadié, essayist, novelist, dramatist and poet of Côte d’Ivoire.
The literary commotion will draw to a close on January 25, when the results of the 2018 Casa Prize are announced, a contest that is by no means commercial and is highly appreciated by the writers of the continent for its sustained objectivity, rigor and fairness.
