I think the study of César Vallejo is the only real antidote to the effects of the current election. Our LASA panel on him was rejected–y eso que LASA se realiza esta vez en Lima–surely because it was too poetic and too literary. I was concerned about this possibility and thought the venue could be … More Textos resgatados de César Vallejo
A crumbling volume I am putting into recycling is Artaud, Les tarahumaras, in Gallimard/idées, 1971. I bought it used 10 years later. The text was composed between 1937 and 1948, after Artaud’s 1936 trip to Mexico. I marked some passages in it when I read it. P. 18: Westermers when asked a question react as … More Les Tarahumaras
A student gave me Adrienne Rich’s poem “Planetarium” on astronomer Caroline Hershel, because of feminist identification and because I had been an important professor. I did not know the poem and liked it because I take seriously the relationship between earth and sky. The reproductions I found were not laid out visually in the attractive … More “The skies are full of them”
There is value in his prologue to the Ayacucho edition of Vallejo. I have a photocopy of this prologue in a file that I never look at, and the Chávez government (apparently) put all the Ayacucho books online for free, but I do not trust the permanence of that. I may buy a used copy … More Enrique Ballón Aguirre
Our library actually owns a copy of this book by Guillermo de Torre, so I am recycling my xeroxed pieces of it. These sorts of items I like to keep around me, as they are mementos of my love for the field and of my innocence, in the time before I thought I must renounce … More La aventura estética de nuestra edad
It is as though we had been through a long war and it were finally over, and we had had losses but had won, were in a position to pick up our lives again. Perhaps we have been through a long war that is now over, have had losses but have won, and are in … More La fin
Quiere y no quiere su color mi pecho, por cuyas bruscas vías voy, lloro con palo, trato de ser feliz, lloro en mi mano, recuerdo, escribo y remacho una lágrima en mi pómulo. Quiere su rojo el mal, el bien su rojo enrojecido por el hacha suspensa, por el trote del ala a pie volando, … More Quiere y no quiere su color
This is the artist. This is the work. Here is an excerpt: Axé.
An elegant awning. A real neighborhood. Axé.
I have an idea for a course on Spanish literature: books that talk about the book industry. Help me make the syllabus, yes? Meanwhile, everyone should reread the Quixote, for the language. Here is a piece of it. Sucedió, pues, que yendo por una calle alzó los ojos don Quijote y vio escrito sobre una … More Don Quixote
