Our friend Carmen RodrÃguez, who was writer in residence at the Department of French, Hispanic, and Italian Studies a couple of years ago, is in the news.
She tells us that her novel Retribution, which we helped to launch back in November, won Second Place (among six finalists) in the Best Popular Novel category of the International Latino Book Awards.
She adds that the only thing she regrets about not having placed First is that I didn’t have the opportunity to give the little acceptance speech she had prepared “just in case”… So, here it is now!
This award is for the people of Chile and Latin America. For all those who resisted the violence of military dictatorships and continue to resist the daily violence of a system designed to benefit the money makers and keep most people in poverty and despair.
This award is for the Latin American disapora, for Latinos in Canada, here and everywhere.
This award is for the desaparecidos, the disappeared of Latin America and the world. They are not gone. They are here, with us, in these words: words that denounce, struggle, sing to our visions of a just world. Worlds that celebrate the triumph of beauty and dignity over darkness and horror. Muchas gracias.
Over fifty categories were recognized at the ceremony: history in English, history in Spanish, politics in English, politics in Spanish, children’s books of all kinds, sociology, anthropology, business, ecology, and so on.
The event was held in the auditorium of Instituto Cervantes in Midtown Manhattan, NYC. It was a packed house — authors from fourteen countries were there, in addition to many of Carmen’s family members and friends, plus representatives from several publishing houses.
Carmen tells us that it was very exciting to meet and talk to some of the authors, to feel the collective pride of the entire group and to hear about the many contributions that Latinos are making everywhere.
She reports that she and Alan stayed on in New York City for a whole week and got to take in the amazing beauty, grandness, effervescence and in-your-face contradictions of this enormous creature. “Who knows, maybe some of these experiences will make it into my writing in the weeks/months/years to come.”