Nancy Morejón is an internationally renowned writer, scholar, and poet. She has published over 20 volumes of poetry, as well as numerous essays and translations. She is the first black woman to receive Cuba’s National Prize for Literature, holding prominent posts at the cultural institutions Casa de Las Americas and the Cuban National Union of Artists and Writers (UNEAC). Morejón is collaborating with Sara E. Cooper, senior editor of Cubanabooks Press in Chico, Calif., to publish a collection of her poetry next year, translated by Kathleen Weaver.
Welcome, Nancy. This is one of your many visits to the Bay Area, right?
I am very happy because I’ve had the opportunity to come back to the Bay Area. It’s a place that has an audience for poetry. Poetry is present here, an established everyday practice. It’s always a pleasure to read for a knowledgeable audience.
As a well-known artist, you’ve had the privilege of traveling across different parts of the world to share your work. Due to new migration reforms (an exit visa is no longer required), now many Cubans can do the same. What’s your opinion about this new measure?
Yes, I think migration is here to stay. We are already in the first quarter of the 21st century and there is a lot to change based on the fact that we have made a major contribution to social justice. During this era, it’s important to recognize what is called “the right of locomotion.” It’s important that people know how to move themselves, look for possibilities, go from here to there, and go everywhere. I think it’s a very important moment that we should be applauding.
The Cuban revolution has to change and has to move forward. We must change, move and transform with our identity and the times. We must keep up with the modernity that surrounds us. It’s no longer the same—a revolution that was born at a time where there were no electronics, Internet, or email. Those of us who were born during this time of computers and rapid communication have to recognize that there are things that cannot be avoided, and that this mobility and advancements in communication present us with challenges.
What is the importance of having your work translated to English, and being able to share your work with an English-speaking audience?
This is a very Hispanic area, and Hispanics are a fundamental part of California and the West Coast. So, it is very important that there be a presence of Latino authors, from both Latin America and the United States. This is very important because they are part of this new world where you express yourself in Spanish, that is generally bilingual, but that is expressed in Spanish with complete legitimacy. And, they express themselves in English too. Everything that promotes and spreads that Hispanic nature here is a moral obligation.
Last month, the U.S. government put Assata Shakur, who has been living in Cuba under political asylum since 1984, on the ‘Most Wanted Terrorists’ list. What do you think about this?
They have even put us, the Cubans from Cuba, on their list of terrorist countries—can you believe this? This is yet another way to disown us, and who we are. I think that they have taken a meager and cowardly approach to the case of Assata Shakur, I can’t help but react with energy and strength against this maneuver to take it so dramatically—making her something of a military icon. We have to fight for her.
We have also organized a big campaign to try and free the five Cuban heroes. The five compatriots who are incarcerated in this country should be released because in reality, they fought and risked their lives to fight against terrorism.
Do you have a message for Latino artists?
I think that they have paved paths here, and moved mountains. They have created spaces. What we have to do is continue down that road, work, and get to know each other better, and exchange amongst ourselves.
Tania Triana, Ph.D. is a writer and educator living in the Bay Area.
—Translation Gabriela Sierra Alonso